Friday the 13th - what went wrong?

GAY AND LESBIAN RIGHTS LOBBY CO-CONVENORS ROB MCGRORY AND SOMALI CERISE DISCUSS WHAT HAPPENED TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE.

Friday 13 August was a dark day for equality. John Howard used our lives as a grubby political tactic and Labor was his partner in crime.

Friday’s marriage ban means lawful overseas same-sex marriages will not be recognised in Australia. It prevents the meaning of marriage, as determined by the courts, from evolving over time. It entrenches discrimination in the law.

This is the culmination of a very successful eight-year campaign by Howard. He had previously declared his disappointment if his child was gay, tried to ban IVF for lesbians, stood silent while Justice Michael Kirby was falsely accused, shamefully attacked our families on Play School, and introduced the gay marriage ban three times.

He has been relentless.

In early 2003, the GLRL identified the risk of Howard using gay marriage as an electioneering stunt. Our concern was that a marriage war waged by Howard on his terms before an election risked damaging our cause.

When Howard announced his intentions, the GLRL swung into action in the media, across the country and around the world, publicly condemning his homophobic actions as a cynical attempt to win votes.

When the Bill was introduced, intensive lobbying of Labor was our only hope to defeat it. When we realised Labor lacked the courage to oppose the Bill outright, we negotiated a compromise, forcing Labor to send the Bill to a Senate inquiry.

Let’s be honest. The passage of the Bill was probably inevitable if it came to a vote. The inquiry was only ever a delay tactic. We hoped the election would be called before the inquiry reported back, taking the Bill off the agenda.

But our opposition - the fundamentalist Christian right - was also mobilising, with the endorsement and encouragement of our Prime Minister. It’s been reported the inquiry received 12,000 submissions supporting the Bill. Despite the issue’s high profile, numerous calls to action by the GLRL, and the first GLRL rally in six years with 1,000 people attending, only 100 submissions opposed the Bill.

Our delay tactic failed miserably when Labor got scared. Labor betrayed our community by breaking their promise to await the outcome of the inquiry. Labor decided they had votes to lose. Our opponents won the numbers game.

The GLRL called again for urgent community action aiming for Latham and Roxon to receive 13,000 emails by Friday, 13 August expressing outrage at Labor’s backflip. Even though the deal was done, Labor needed to know that our votes count.

Despite every effort made to oppose the marriage ban, it has now become law.

It is timely for us to reflect on what we did and what we could have done differently.

Gay marriage is the issue that galvanises the Christian right like no other. Unlike other gay and lesbian issues, in their view, gay marriage goes to the very heart of their religious beliefs and the sanctity of heterosexual families - the last moral battle against the tide of gay and lesbian equality. As we have seen, it unites them as a powerful force.

In 2004, both major parties see gay marriage as controversial and not a vote winner in marginal seats, which is where the election will be won or lost. The mobilisation of the Christian right supported that view.

Could we have done more? Maybe more community members could’ve written to the inquiry, maybe the GLRL could’ve met with Roxon one more time, and maybe, with millions of dollars, we could’ve run a campaign in the Herald. The answer is yes: you can always do more. But the real question is whether any of that would have made a difference.

The lesson we have learnt from other campaigns is that change only occurs when we’ve built momentum and support for the issue - in our community, the broader community and within party caucus rooms. That takes time. It took 20 years to get an equal age of consent. It has taken us a decade to drag Labor, kicking and screaming, to give commitments on comprehensive de facto recognition. Instrumental in these campaigns was changing mainstream attitudes and gaining a broad support base. Given Howard’s timeframe and his gagging of debate, that simply wasn’t possible.

Lesson learnt? As feared, a battle on gay marriage in the lead up to the 2004 election was one that we were always going to lose.

This is not to say that we weren’t prepared to fight. Or that we gave up. Or that we did less than we realistically could have at the time. But it means we need to view this loss in context.

This battle has demonstrated that in the current political environment our rights are vulnerable. After an eight-year Howard campaign, we can’t afford another three years of this government. Labor’s backflip has shown us that it can’t just be trusted to deliver - we have to hound them to make sure they do.

In the face of this loss, we must continue campaigning for those rights we have the opportunity to achieve in this election. We must hold Labor to their promise on comprehensive de facto recognition. We must ensure this includes federal recognition of our families and anti-discrimination legislation without cop-outs for the Churches. We must continue working with minor parties and supportive MPs from all sides.

The GLRL will continue to be strategic and pragmatic in its tireless pursuit of full legal equality for gays and lesbians, including marriage. On Friday the 13th, our community suffered a set back, but as Justice Kirby has said, “the movement for equality is unstoppable”.

What you can do..

• ( click here ) to become a member of the Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby, or to make a donation.
• ( click here ) to volunteer your time and skills.