‘Salami equality not the answer’
GLBTI groups have praised Liberal Warren Entsch for his support for reform on issues effecting the intersex and transgender communities and older GLBTI people, but rejected the idea these were higher priorities than marriage equality.
During debate on Adam Bandt’s same-sex marriage motion, Entsch told the parliament, “While I support gays and lesbians in having their relationships recognised, I think there are much bigger issues at play that need to be dealt with as a matter of priority.”
Entsch then cited areas of Federal law which discriminated against transgender and intersex people, and discrimination against GLBTIs in aged care. Liberal MP for Brisbane Terresa Gambaro cited the same issues but stated they were “equally important” as marriage to the GLBTI community.
Sex And Gender Education (SAGE) spokeswoman Tracie O’Keefe welcomed Entsch’s support on the issues but said it should not be an either/or proposition.
“Everyone deserves equal rights and I don’t think we can trade off one set of equal rights against the other,” O’Keefe said.
“Politicians should not be saying that one set of equal rights is more important. All these people need equal rights now- not in several years time.”
Gina Wilson of Organisation Intersex International (OII) Australia said she was unsure of the motive behind Entsch’s comments and would prefer to see MPs move to fix all remaining areas of discrimination against GLBTI Australians once and for all as opposed to playing “salami tactics … giving us our rights one slice at a time”.
“Tackling LGBTIQ aging as a single thing is no different to tackling marriage as a single thing, or wanting to tackle intersex needs as a single thing,” Wilson told the Star Observer.
“I’d be happy if these people could get together and give us the whole lot on a plate.
“If they were prepared to pass a comprehensive anti-discrimination and vilification act and incorporate us into human rights protections there are a whole lot of things we wouldn’t have to fight for.”
Australian Marriage Equality (AME) national convenor Alex Greenwich said Entsch was a passionate advocate for GLBTI rights, but believed other reforms would be easier to get through the Parliament than same-sex marriage
“He is very supportive of marriage equality, but I think he’s focusing on the things that he believes he can get done in the short term and that marriage equality is a longer term fight,” he said.
“We disagree with the notion that you can only do one or the other — there are a lot of issues that effect the GLBTI community and there is no reason why the parliament can’t deal with them all.”
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If GLBTI elders get one slice of the salami it will be a hell of a lot more than they have been offered to date.
They will continue to be invisible to the aged care system, which continues to happily discriminate against them, and they will continue to be afraid and suffer abuse long after any wedding bells have rung out across the land.
They are the most neglected, ostracised, isolated and unresourced part of the GLBTI community and are mostly not seen as part of our community at all. Ageing itself is seen as something to be loathed and avoided. Everything young is seen as good.
Where is the anti-ageism training being run within our organisations and where are the independent advocacy services that will be needed for all those same sex married couples and where are the Federal policies to protect them, no national GLBTI ageing strategy, no policies – shameful.
If marriage is for life, it will include ’till death do us part’ and that includes the horrendous search for an aged care service or facility that doesn’t hate us. Without anti discrimination policies in aged care services, no marital certificate will change a thing.
We are all ageing, but some of us just want to pretend we are not.
Of course it’s not an either/or issue and of course we should all have full equality and of course marriage equality is an important issue but of course the mutilation of Intersex kids, the far greater number of transgender suicides, the greater rate of assaults and discriminations faced by Transgender people should be a higher priority for everyones efforts.
Let any who disagree with me look at the stats here http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/04/2918401.htm MtF Transgender people are 3-6 times more likely to be attacked with a weapon.. 38% of those in the study have been attacked with a knife bottle stone or other weapon. The Transgender attempted suicide rate is 37.7% Marriage cannot compare to that rate of assault as an imediate human rights issue.
And the mutilation of babies genitals? What compares in importance to stopping that?
This is not an either/or issue. All these problems need fixing. And Entsch and Turnbull can’t use the greater importance of the other things to avoid voting on whats on the table in front of them right now – marriage.
But everyone who has put money and effort into marriage before saving babies from genital mutilation? Saving more than 1 in every 3 Transwomen from a stabbing or similar? Clearly big parts of our community have indeed had their priorities totally backwards!