Did the election of a new government in Australia last November mean that gays and lesbians living in Australia might one day soon look forward to the introduction of gay civil unions? Or is gay equality in Australia likely to get swamped by politics? Again.Want to receive Gay Market News by email? It's easy--click here.
Ian Johnson, Out NowMarch 14, 2008
TOPICS: Gay and lesbian civil unions. Australia. Gay marriage. Kevin Rudd. Australian Labor Party. Bob Brown. Greens Party. ALP gay rights. LGBT equality. Australian gays and lesbians and civil unions. UK Civil Partnerships.Gay Market News has been reporting for several years now on the slow but inexorable growth of equality for the world's lesbian and gay citizens.From the advent of full gay marriage in places as diverse as Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, South Africa and even the US State of Massachusetts -- to other jurusdictions where gay men and lesbians can enter into so-called 'civil unions' or as they are known in the UK Civil Partnerships.
The name of civil unions, or civil partnerships or gay marriage is important, but not as much as is the legal status afforded by such arrangements, and the public statement such unions can make.
What is paramount in each case is that the State is respecting the integrity, equality and validity of gay and lesbian relationships in addition to providing legal rights and sanctions that then attach to such lesbian and gay partnerships.
It seems increasingly likely that as more places such as Spain, Ireland and even Italy -- countries with strong Catholic heritages -- also join the list of countries and provinces allowing for some form of gay weddings, more countries will naturally follow suit.
One such country is Australia.Following a change of government in 2007, Australia is now led by a left of centre Labor Party. That party looks very different in government than did its predecessor led by the strongly conservative John Howard.
John Howard had intervened in the past to overturn attempts by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) provincial government to introduce a form of civil unions to the Australian mainland for the first time.
Kevin Rudd has said he will not do this, and there are moves in the ACT to push ahead with a
civil partnerships scheme.
Politics though, as with much in life, is rarely simple.It now seems that the federal Australian Labor government of Kevin Rudd will allow gay civil partnerships but
not if there is a ceremony attached to the process of
registering such gay civil partnerships.
In pandering to right wing opinion on the issue of celebrating one's own nuptials publicly, Kevin Rudd risks seeing his own political honeymoon drawn short by those to whom he wishes to deny their pre-honeymoon right to publicly celebrate their gay civil unions with family and friends. To do that seems nothing but mean-spirited and nasty in the extreme.
Sorry Mr Rudd, but you are running on an issue here where you are highly likely to lose my re-election vote.
Forgive me for being less than whelmed by this, but if the point of civil unions is reduced only to the taxation and legal implications then politicians have largely missed the point of marriage, of whatever name or hue.
When people take the step to marry they are making a life-affecting decision which is for them a major event. Sure, it comes with legal and financial implications attached, but the process of formalising a relationship is not primarily to do with tax or legal matters.
It is all about love.The alternative currently proposed by the Australian government seems to be akin to being asked to fill in a form to file for a permit or a licence with the local council.
Frankly, it feels to me like being asked to apply for a licence to register a pet -- and that is not only an offensive analogy I draw, it also bears no link whatsoever with the emotions involved within a loving long-term relationship between two people. Whether gay or not.
Having civil unions without a ceremony is for many people just what they would like in any case, but, based on the gay wedding my partner and I attended as guests in 2006 in Germany, the ceremony for many gays and lesbians can be a vital moment in their own lives, and a highly emotional component of the whole process of choosing to enter into a civil union with their partner.
The only political leader in Australia that I have heard use terms like 'love' to describe gay relationships has been Bob Brown, that country's Greens leader and senator.
Imagine the outcry were heterosexuals who chose to use a registry office for their marriage rather than a church to be told
by their government they could file their marriage papers, but were expressly
forbidden from making any formal commitment in public at the same time, with witnesses and their friends in attendance.
Gays and lesbians have been meeting and falling in love for centuries, and to say to them now that it is okay to get hitched, but not in public, feels very much like building an officially state sanctioned closet for gays and lesbians to crawl back into.
Rudd Labor needs to think carefully on this if it wants to avoid being seen internationally as a conservative government like its predecessor.
I for one think that this does not look like equality, it looks like politics -- and hope that the Rudd Labor government will realise that a
majority of Australians think so too.
Penny Wong -- Australia's first openly gay government minister -- might hopefully have different views to her ALP leader on this?
Time will tell.-------------------
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TOPICS: Gay sports. Ben Cohen and his gay fans. Gay sports stars. Sports celebrities. Gay fans. English rugby. Ben Cohen and his Benediction night GT Gay Times UK. Ben Cohen's Benediction testimonial night at The Dorchester Hotel to thank cohen's gay sports fans.
Cohen has also not been shy to be quoted in gay media and mainstream media acknowledging that this night is one designed especially for his gay fans.
