Australia’s National Day of Action 2009

Activists in Australia are holding this year’s National Day of Action for marriage equality in that country on Saturday, 1 August, in order to coincide with the triennial national conference of the Australian Labor Party, the current party of government in that country. Activists say that the Labor Government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is unlikely to adopt marriage equality as long as his party’s platform rejects it.

The current ban on same sex marriage harkens back to a cynical political move by the former rightwing prime minister, John Howard. Howard noticed how Karl Rove’s anti-gay election crusades in the US worked well for Bush/Cheney and the Republicans (up until 2006), and copied him. Labor Prime Minister Rudd, who soundly defeated Howard and the rightwing in the last election, opposes marriage equality for religious reasons. The Day of Action is part of a larger campaign to force politicians to back the majority of Australians who now support marriage equality.

The situation in Australia is quite different from New Zealand, where Civil Unions are equivalent to marriage. Australia’s situation is closer to that of the US: Australians who get a partnership recognition of some sort in one state or territory would have to register all over again should they move to another state—and possibly have fewer rights and privileges. Civil Unions as we know them in New Zealand don’t exist in Australia, and what’s been proposed so far fall far short of equality with marriage.

Even before the Civil Union Act was adopted in New Zealand, many laws had been changed to equalise the way same-sex couples were treated. But there’s also long been a more relaxed attitude toward couples—married or unmarried—than seems to be the case in Australia. Here, there’s clearly less importance for formal relationship recognition of any kind than activists suggest is true in Australia.

In any case, I certainly wish them well with their campaign. As I say frequently, there’s no rational reason to oppose full marriage equality. I hope that the Australian activists are successful in helping their politicians realise that fact.

The video below if from Equal Love, the leaders of this campaign. They have a YouTube Channel where you can see all their videos, though I’ll be posting more on this blog, too. It’s funny, but not surprising in this globally interconnected age, that I found out about all this through gay American überblogger, Joe.My.God.