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If Portugal can allow same-sex marriage, why not Australia?

By Rodney Croome - posted Thursday, 8 July 2010


The pragmatic, non-ideological conservatism that can be found in patches of heartland America like Iowa has moved on from demonising homosexuality and fossilising marriage.

It appreciates that when marriage embraces same-sex couples, traditional family values like love, fidelity and mutuality are strengthened not weakened.

Bush-appointed former US Solicitor-General, Ted Olson, believes same-sex marriage is about “the values conservatives prize” because:

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Marriage requires thinking beyond one's own needs. It transforms two individuals into a union based on shared aspirations, and in doing so establishes a formal investment in the well-being of society. The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance.

Marriage equality in Australia depends in part on our centre right also throwing off the shackles of neo-con orthodoxy and articulating the link between marriage equality and true conservative values.

The lesson for Australia’s centre left is from South Africa. In that country a raw and painful history of racism, including strict bans on interracial marriage, put same-sex marriages clearly in the context of ending discrimination and inequality.

Australia has a parallel history. For a hundred years many Aboriginal people were denied the right to marry the partner of their choice causing immense pain to many people, not least those mixed race couples who fled across state borders to remain together. This injustice was so emblematic of Aboriginal second-class status that marriage equality became one of foremost demands of Indigenous advocates in the lead up to the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal rights - above equal pay and access to traditional lands.

But most figures on the centre left are oblivious to the crucial role marriage equality has previously played in shaping a more egalitarian and just Australia. This makes it easier for them to ignore or trivialise the issue today, to declare the fight for equality substantially complete with the Rudd government’s recognition of financial entitlements for same-sex partners.

Clearly, achieving marriage equality will depend on convincing the centre left that gay and lesbian people cannot live on bread alone.

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When either major party finally decides to move away from its current opposition to marriage equality, the danger is it may settle on a substitute for marriage equality such as a UK-style civil partnership scheme.

Reports from the UK and US show that civil partnerships cannot replace equality in marriage.

Civil partners are too often denied legal entitlements, even when the law says they should have these entitlements, because of widespread misunderstanding of what civil partnerships are.

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Rodney Croome will make the case for same-sex marriage at Lunchbox/Soapbox at the Wheeler Centre on July 8 (today) at 12.45pm, further information is available at wheelercentre.com.



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About the Author

Rodney Croome is a spokesperson for Equality Tasmania and national advocacy group, just.equal. He who was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 for his LGBTI advocacy.

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All articles by Rodney Croome

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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