GenQ - For the not so straight individual

I was reading an article the other night that said up to 10% of the population is either gay, have gay tendencies or in the closet or what not, and I thought to myself "that is a staggering figure!". With an Australian population of 20 million people and rising, that makes around 2 million people. So why is it, that gay people in Australia are less politically motivated about their rights?

In the last general election, the total number of votes for Pauline Hanson's One Nation, was 1.15% of the vote (around 110,000 people). The Greens and Nationals were between 5 and 7% of the vote (accounting for about 1.2 million people). Yet there is not one gay party. There is even a Christian party that managed 0.6% of the vote (60,000 people), yet still not one voice for us. To take it to the extreme, there is also a "Lower Excise on Fuel and Beer" party. No Pink Pride party though.

As a minority, subjectively speaking, we need to band together to try to stop headlines like "PM Banning Gay Marriage" and "Gay Rights Ignored" when we have the potential gay-power to stop these atrocities through our very own political party. With only 0.6% of the vote the Christian party manages to get a lot of support yet here we are with a potential voter turnout of 2,000,000 people and we let it slide. It's just not on darling!

What the hell are we doing with ourselves? No wonder our community is criticized, mocked and totally ignored by the general populace, when we continually sit back and say "well someone should do something, just not me".

Perhaps we need to start looking at some charismatic individuals to lead our party. Let's face it, someone with the slightest talent and charisma could easily beat John Howard who has the charisma of a spotted owl, or Kevin Rudd, who seems to believe that he will win because he has more hair than the PM.

We need someone with a Hollywood smile, someone with hair that any Ashley and Martin commercial would beg for, someone who has a sense of humour two steps left of Rove McManus and doesn't laugh at their own jokes because no one else is, someone with the body of an adonis, whilst not being so muscular as to leave the rest of us feeling emasculated, someone who is in touch with their feminie side yet not weepy over dead puppies. What we need is a SUPER GAY BOY.

Or some guy with a cute arse. But the point is, we as a community, need representation. Year after year, politicians ask for our vote to help our community, then put the vote in their back pocket and say "thanks but it's too early to fight for your rights just yet".

No one is expecting miracles, just a person who does have our rights at heart and wants us to be happy and feel counted. It's the democratic Australian way of life, or at least it's supposed to be. Think back in History, I'm sure a lot of people thought that Abraham Lincoln was a bit weird when he wanted to abolish slavery, yet now 150 years later we would not have considered slavery acceptable, so why should we think in 150 years or even 15 years from now that people would think that gay rights were unacceptable?

So I am officially setting forth the call. Unfurl the pride banner. Commence the tallying. Sound the trumpets and their note of discord. The PINK PRIDE PARTY IS HERE. Let us sally forth and retake that which is ours. Our hopes. Our Dreams. OUR DIGNITY.

Pledges of money and support can be sent to stewieg@bigpond.com for the Pride party.