Loading ...- Category:
- Soap Box
- Author:
- Hayley Conway and Stephen Jones
- Posted:
- Wednesday, 3 February 2010
What do we want? Marriage! When do we want it? Now! The war cry of the same-sex marriage movement is even older than most of the people pushing the barrow, but is it important how we achieve our aims?
Reflecting on some of the greatest rights movements of all time, including the civil rights movement in the USA, women’s suffrage, Indigenous suffrage, or the end of apartheid in South Africa, I’m drawn to what it is that we, as a society, remember from those times.
What are the central arguments we recall? Who are the heroes for the next generation? Which slogans, propaganda, or images invoke this collective memory?
When a war of words is being waged, guns cannot stop it and money has no impact. Martin Luther King Jnr was gunned down, but the civil rights movement did not end with him. We have achieved financial equality in Australia, but it is no defence against homophobia.
We should consider the recent win of the Gunns 20, those hippies who successfully blocked the logging of old-growth forest in Tasmania and were then subjected to years of court cases, personal financial ruin, and much public contempt. Who would be prepared to go that far for what they believe in?
To face a bulldozer designed for trees a hundred metres tall, or preach from a pulpit having already received a bullet with your name on it, to mount your argument even though it is so far from the mood of the country as a whole.
When we talk about same-sex marriage, it is our failure if we say we just want to be like everyone else. It is our failure if we allow the economic argument to trumpet above all else. The legacy of change now lies with the GLBTIQ community, and we are displaying symptoms of those who will take the road most easily travelled.
But isn’t it all just about the outcome anyway, does the road we travel actually matter?
Diplomacy doesn’t change the status quo. And each time we want to change the world a little bit more, we start from scratch again. If we force the debate to take place on our terms, that same-sex marriage is what’s next in a world of constantly improving human-rights standards, then marriage becomes a building block for a better world, not just another certificate.
info: Hayley Conway is VGLRL co-convenor.
Tags: Speaking Out
