GenQ

So much has been happening in the world, especially since the election has been called. Increasingly it is becoming apparent that there is no real alternative. That Howard is horrible, a bigot and completely homophobic seems to be eclipsed by the fact Rudd isn’t much better. Yes, Rudd is going to “fix” the discrimination in the legislation but he isn’t going to put through a marriage bill and really he is just another politician with no understanding. I find it so depressing that there is no real alternative; that in this two party preferred system there is no choice. Essentially I am using my vote to keep out the party I don’t like but not getting anything in return.

However, there is another bee in my bonnet, so to speak. I have been thinking more and more about this push for equality and marriage and I think maybe the queer community is going about this the wrong way. Although I have been with my girlfriend for the last four years and we are officially engaged and I want to be legally recognised in my relationship with her, I think that maybe we should be fighting for de facto status. Feminism and women in general fought so hard against the institution of marriage and all the connotations, why are we fighting for it? I know, its about the right to choose, that even if we could all get married, not everyone would, but perhaps we should choose to reject it all together, come up with a new solution, a new way of thinking outside the structures that are so inbuilt and hard to destroy.

Heterosexual couples do not have to prove or register their de facto relationships. So why should a homosexual couple have to register their relationship? Shouldn’t we be fighting for equality along these lines? Rather than expecting the institution of marriage to change or for the Christian right of the country to accept something that they don’t believe, can’t we fight for acceptance as just acceptance? So maybe Rudd does have it right, rather than pushing through a marriage bill and therefore making homosexual couples singled out, maybe there should just be a change in legislation that means that there is no differentiation of hetero and homosexual couples, apart from marriage. I know plenty of heterosexual couples who are in de facto relationships without any worry because the legislation supports that, so if that legislation changes, would the same not apply to homosexual couples?

I still think we still need to stand and fight for what we believe in but nothing changes overnight. It was only 30 years ago that homosexuality was taken out of the diagnostic manual for mental disorders, some countries in the world have come a long way from that. As much as I don’t want to use my vote to keep a party out, at least I get to vote and at least I live in a country where I can walk down the street holding my girlfriends hand without too much worry, without being illegal. I don’t really have the answers and I am not sure what to think about the election but I really do want to have the person I choose to spend the rest of my life recognised as my legal partner by whichever means possible.

Tags: opinion, politics