The Adventures of QueerPenguin

Love and (State) Marriage Showdown

Last night I went along to the state same-sex marriage forum held at the Newtown Hotel. To say there were "fireworks" is like saying there was a minor ruckus on the Titanic.

For clarity, I will identify and (attempt to) summarise the opposing positions of both teams (and if you think likening the opposing camps to sports teams is tacky, you really should have been there last night. It was like I was an 8-year-old in the middle of a footy crowd all over again).

Team 1: Rodney Croome (very red-eyed from his 3:30am start), Luke Gahan from Australian Marriage Equality, Nick McKim, the Tasmanian Green MP who introduced the same-sex marriage Bill(s) into the state's parliament last week (and further to the Green people, NSW LC Lee Rhiannon and Ray Goodlass moderating) and Farida Iqbal from Community Action Against Homophobia.

Team 2: David Scamell from the GLRL, Stevie Clayton from ACON plus various board members of ACON and Rainbow Labor/ALP members.


Team 1 - the bulk of the forum panel speakers - were arguing in favour of state same-sex marriage to be pushed in NSW as it is in Tasmania, pursuant to the advice of Sydney Uni constitutional law expert Prof George Williams, who believes that since the Coalition's amendment to the federal Marriage Act in 2004 defined marriage as solely between a man and a woman, state laws for same-sex marriage could operate parallel to the federal laws without conflict.

Team 1 argues that state s-s marriage is a viable strategy as, federally, neither the Coalition or ALP are seriously listening to lobby or community groups and federal queer law reform is likely to remain stagnant for years to come.

Team 1 highlights the nature of a "positive" versus "negative" debate relating to same-sex marriage. When Rodney Croome went onto Stan Zemanek's radio show last year to oppose the Coalition's gay marriage ban, Zemanek went on the offensive and verbally assaulted him. This time, when Croome came on to support the Greens state gay marriage Bill, Zemanek was more receptive and interested in finding out about the Bill rather than automatically condemning it. This Bill keeps debate on gay marriage alive - the debate Howard effectively quashed last year - and is part of a longer-term strategy to keep people thinking and talking about this issue, ideally until everyone is so bored and over it they allow passage of the Bill just to shut the silly queers up.


Team 2 opposes state same-sex marriage. They argue that, were a state law to be in operation in NSW/Tasmania/wherever, but then overturned by the federal government, our movement as a whole would actually be more damaged in the long term than if state s-s marriage had never been introduced to begin with. Team 2 also argues that such a law confuses existing legislative reform lobbying that the GLRL is currently focused on, such as parenting. Connecting parenting rights to marriage rights could potentially alienate queer couples who wish to adopt/raise their children without wanting to be married.

At last night's forum T2 also raised difficulties with the wording of the Tasmanian legislation and questioned Prof Williams' assertion that the state law could operate without threat from the federal government. The bulk of their ire was saved for the fact, however, that only that afternoon had a press conference had been held at which several of this forum's speakers outlined plans to introduce into NSW parliament a s-s marriage Bill, following in Tasmania's footsteps. Team 2 concluded that the entire evening's forum was pointless as no debate was going to occur on whether or not the Greens' strategy should be adopted in NSW. Lots of cries of "Green grandstanding" and "waste of time" were heard.

This is when the evening got unpleasant. Good points from both teams were drowned out by the shouting, sledging and vitriol spat across from both sides of the room. I was, unfortunately, positioned quite unintentionally in the middle of T2. The fact that I wasn't cheering along with Clayton, Scott Carn or any of Team 2's other speakers earned me more than one death glare from my neighbours.

So what is the Queer Penguin take on this debate?

I do appreciate the frustration of T2. They presumably came along with a view to debate whether or not we as a community should proceed with state same-sex marriage and were effectively usurped by that afternoon's press conference. The point they raised about the potential for the law to be overturned by a federal government is a valid one. They did it in Tasmania back in 1994 to decriminalise homosexuality (a good thing) and they also did it in 1997 to overturn the Northern Territory's euthanasia laws (a bad thing).

I don't profess to be a legal expert, but it seems to me that a constitutional law expert is unlikely to get it so wrong here. The federal government could introduce law to make same-sex marriages illegal, but would that be constituional? If not, would the Australian people have to go to a referendum on it? If so, I think spending millions for a referendum on this relatively insignificant issue (compared to, say, Australia becoming a republic) would be quite unpopular with the general voters, even those opposed to gay marriage.

I also appreciate the perspective that the Tasmanian and NSW Bills are little more than Green legislative grandstanding. The Greens would know the Bill has little chance of success (although Tasmanian A.G. Judy Jackson has at least hinted at a parliamentary inquiry), particularly in NSW where our beloved El Premiero has made crystal clear he would not support state s-s marriage legislation.

And here is where the fundamental problem lies: the belligerence and intransigence of both Labor and Liberal, state and federal, towards gay marriage. Rainbow Labor may like to market its party as that which offers "real", pragmatic reforms rather than impractical dreams like gay marriage, but really, what is federal Labor doing that could potentially be threatened by agitation at a state level? Anthony Albanese keeps trying to introduce a private member's Bill that would give superannuation equality to same-sex couples, but the last time he did so was to highlight the hypocrisy of the Coalition who were claiming to soften the blow of the gay marriage ban by offering super reform as a consolation prize (the Coalition voted against even debating his Bill). This to me also smacks of grandstanding - Albanese would have known his Bill had no chance of success and was introducing the Bill not as part of a positive Labor reform but to score points with his electorate by showing how full of shit is the Coalition (which, PS, most of us already realised). Otherwise, apart from Tanya Plibersek's failed amendment attempts to the Marriage Legislation Amendment Act last year to enshrine equal same-sex de facto rights, I'm not entirely sure what federal Labor is doing for same-sex couples right now (the previous achievements of the Hawke/Keating governments notwithstanding) that would be put in jeopardy by the actions of the NSW Greens.

The reality is that federal Labor and Liberal are listening to the rising RRR, not us. Our lobby groups are so fragmented and oppositional - and our community on the whole so apathetic to legislative reform - that there's little political mileage (ie votes) to be won by Labor being actively pro-queer. Maybe if Labor were in power and had the numbers, they would carry out their promised audit of discriminatory legislation, reform everything except (I would imagine) parenting and adoption laws and even - very optimistic - introduce a federal civil union scheme similar to those in the UK and New Zealand. But until such time as they're in a position to even consider such reforms - and I'm doubtful they would happen immediately anyway - why is Labor so threatened by the Greens trying their luck with state law reform instead? As Croome said quite simply, "federal Labor and Liberal aren't listening". We can either keep yelling and screaming at a brick wall, or we can try a different approach.

Returning from the forum slightly shaken, I tuned into Compass, which was documenting the rise of Family First at the 2004 election. With the voices of abuse still ringing in my ear and images of people giving each other the finger still on my mind, I began to wonder if such abuse and contempt goes on at Family First meetings. Do they argue so strongly and aggressively among themselves when plotting how best to sneak Jesus into parliament? Would they have berated an ally trying to help their cause the way Stevie Clayton did with Nick McKim (who, yes, perhaps could have chosen his words better when speaking of "gay" rather than same-sex marriage, but he's obviously learning as he goes)? I wouldn't blame him if he concluded from last night's circus show that queer people were a bunch of whinging, unappreciative ingrates who aren't worth helping out. And then we'd have one less MP on our side. Is that what we need right now?

The Compass documentary reminded me that the enemy was not within the walls of the Newtown Hotel last night. The enemy is Family First, Steve Fielding, Assemblies of God, John Howard, Tony Abbott, the National Party, Nicola Roxon, the ALP Catholic Right, George Pell and Philip Jensen, Catch the Fire ministries, Salt Shakers, the Australian Christian Lobby, Fred Nile and the Christian Democrats, Hillsong...I could go on, but the point is if any one of these groups had seen queer people implode as we did last night, they would be praising the Lord and grinning with sanctimonious glee. I'm sure they have their disagreements, but their unity when it matters cannot be faulted. Last year all of them assembled at the "National Marriage Forum" to discuss "Why Marriage Matters", and their clear, single agenda - to deny queer people the choice of marriage - was uncompromising. I realise queer lobbying is different - we will never be able to pin-point one single issue on which all queer people agree and offer their support. But it does us no favours to beat up on people who only want to help and contribute as best they can, especially when we consider how many other people and groups outside our community are just waiting to beat us up (literally and figuratively).

If the Greens' Bill does nothing else than re-ignite debate in Australia on same-sex marriage, then it has achieved a positive goal. We should save our aggression for more worthy targets.

posted by Sam @ Monday, May 02, 2005