If we needed any more proof that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's plebiscite on equal marriage is a spurious delaying tactic we got it on August 21 when the media reported that the vote will now be pushed back to February 2017, some 18 months after it was first proposed.
Marriage equality
Australia's peak trade union body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), has finally adopted a position of supporting marriage equality. The decision follows a recent move by one of its largest affiliates, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees鈥 Association, to drop its militant opposition to marriage equality.
When I first came out as a lesbian in high school, I was scared. Hanging over my envisioned future were a lot of question marks, a familiar feeling for a lot of LGBTI youth. Heightened rates of mental illness, suicide, homelessness and assault frame the vision of our聽adulthood with very real uncertainty. This uncertainty is mirrored by the media. The distinct lack of representation in media robs same-sex attracted youth of healthy role models.
On Tuesday August 16, the University of Sydney will experience the most exquisite celebration of love as the Rainbow Campus campaign unites rainbow couples to show Australia what it is missing.
The powerful conservative Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees鈥 Association (SDA) 鈥 the biggest right-wing union affiliated to the Labor Party 鈥 has passed a resolution declaring it will adopt a neutral stand on equal marriage.
Veteran gay rights campaigner Rodney Croome has quit as national director of Australian Marriage Equality (AME), which he founded in 2004, to lobby MPs to block the equal marriage plebiscite.
Croome said those who believe a plebiscite is inevitable are 鈥渓acking political imagination鈥 and declared blocking it could force a free vote in parliament on the issue. He said there was 鈥渘o split in the movement鈥 but rather 鈥渁 spectrum of different approaches to a very difficult situation鈥.
On July 2 Australian voters head to the polls 鈥 although by that date will have voted at early polling centres across the country.
Despite a number of minor parties and progressive independents running in lower house seats and the Senate, we know that come July 3 we will be looking at three more years of evil bastards or the lesser of two evils.
The Victorian branch of the Country Women's Association (CWA) has voted in support of marriage equality at their latest conference.
The CWA's decision contrasts with its conservative image and defies stereotypes of rural communities as being less accepting of LGBTIQ people.
The motion was titled "That the CWA of Victoria Inc advocates for equality for all Australians under the Commonwealth Marriage Act".
The federal government continues to drag its feet on marriage equality. It is now clear that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will not initiate a marriage equality plebiscite before the end of the year, as promised.
LGBTI community organisations are increasingly losing patience with delays and broken promises. Australian Marriage Equality national director Rodney Croome described a plebiscite as 鈥渁n incredibly costly and harmful opinion poll鈥, after PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimated it would cost $525 million.
A recent cartoon by Bill Leake in The Australian gave me a good chuckle, although not for the reason you might expect.
Captioned 鈥淭he Road to Ruin鈥 and featuring references to the recently published book of the same name, there was Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at his local newsagent picking up 鈥渉is鈥 morning papers, sighing while saying 鈥渏ust the papers thanks鈥. The papers were the Sydney Star Observer with the headline 鈥淢arriage Equality special edition鈥 and tucked in behind it was a copy of 麻豆传媒 Weekly.
The recent knifing of Tony Abbott by Malcolm Turnbull held a brief glimpse of hope for marriage equality in Australia. Unfortunately, the change of PM did not bring any change of policy, and the Liberal Party鈥檚 homophobic agenda has remained the same.
Turnbull professes to personally support marriage equality, but has asked the rainbow community to wait for a plebiscite until after the federal elections. This amounts to a position worse than Abbott who was dragged kicking and screaming to agree to a plebiscite together with the elections.
Norrie has spent a lot of time in the offices of the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM). When Norrie went on October 28, it was for love and equality.
Norrie is sex non-specific 鈥 neither man nor woman. Five years ago, Norrie went to the office to get them to change zie's (the pronoun for a person of non-specific sex) birth certificate to read 鈥渟ex: non-specific鈥.
BDM complied, but the New South Wales state government appealed. It took four years and an April 2014 High Court ruling for Norrie to be formally recognised as sex non-specific.
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