On Sunday night, as federal politicians prepared to fly into Canberra airport from around the country for the beginning of the Parliamentary sitting weeks, they were to be greeted by a rainbow coloured message.
Canberra Airport was lit up by a brightly coloured sign in support of marriage equality emblazoned with the words #WeCanDoThis and the airport was flooded with rainbow lights, a symbolic gesture in our nation’s capital that dovetailed with a national campaign by Australians for Marriage Equality who launched a series of high-profile television commercials featuring prominent Australians from Hugo Weaving to Chris Bath to sports stars.
Canberra Airport’s managing director Stephen Byron decided to join more than 500 other Australian companies and organisations in expressing their support for reform, after he attended his brother Tom Snow’s wedding in New Zealand last year.
“It struck me at this time how ridiculous it is that my relationship, and my wife and children, are afforded the protection and support of our government, yet Tom and his family are forced to travel overseas to get married,” Byron reflected.
The giant message was clearly aimed at federal MPs in the Liberal Party who will have to decide in the coming fortnight whether or not to allow a conscience vote on the issue of same sex marriage, as a cross-bench rainbow coalition prepares to table a bi-partisan bill to legalise same sex marriage which has been put forward by Liberal backbencher MP Warren Entsch, an unlikely champion of LBGT rights.
Around the country, over the weekend, crowds turned out in record numbers at rallies in support of marriage equality. Five thousand people took to the streets in Brisbane, the largest ever turnout for such an event. In Hobart, nearly 2,000 people marched in support.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, a shady new anti-same sex marriage organisation called the Marriage Alliance has begun airing fear-mongering ads that portray same sex marriage the tip of an iceberg of moral depravity, that presumably hides the gay agenda (which of course includes allowing people to marry multiple partners, children and eventually their do). Thankfully, several commercial networks Channel 10 and 7 have taken a stand of their own by refusing to air the controversial TV spots.
Across the world, an upcoming film about the Stonewall riots called Stonewall – directed by openly gay German filmmaker Roland Emmerich – has already copped flack from many in the LGBTIQ community after the trailer was released, seeming to depict a fictional mid-western white gay man named Danny as being the hero of the movement, and essentially whitewashing the early activists – particularly transwomen and black lesbians – who are widely credited as having started the historic riots in Greenwich Village in 1969. Some were so enraged by the trailer they began online petitions calling for a boycott of the film that they have not yet seen.
Emmerich, better known for his disaster movie credentials, was quick to defend the film on his Facebook page asserting that he and the film’s screenwriter have in fact painstakingly researched and acknowledged the role of the real activists – including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Ray Castro including– who started the movement. While I sympathise with those who fear their history is in danger of being erased by a cisgendered, white man in Hollywood, I also hope we reserve judgement until we’ve seen the movie, which to his credit Emmerich has financed himself when no studio in Hollywood thought the film was worth making.
This Saturday August15, Melbourne will follow cities around the country in holding our own Marriage Equality Rally, organised by Equal Love. The rally begins at the State Library Victoria at 1pm. Help put the hard word on our nation’s politicians as the Liberal Party ponders whether to allow a conscience vote. For details, visit equallove.info.
POOF DOOF is putting on its hard hat and steel capped boots this Saturday to throw a tradie-themed CONSTRUCTION DOOF. Chasers Nightclub, 386 Chapel Street ,South Yarra. 10pm until very late. Guest list prices are available for anyone dressed up in tradie attire. $20 on the door. For details visit poofdoof.com.
On Sunday August 16, Fanny’s at Franny’s is celebrating the first birthday of their monthly Northcote Sunday session for queers in Far North. Free entry is available from 5pm-6pm. DJs and drink specials are TBC, but it’s bound to be, as one of my Thornbury-dwelling lesbian friends put it, “les central”.
