With the proposed bill for marriage equality seemingly dead in the water, the debate has now shifted to whether Australians will get to vote on the issue at the next election. Attorney-General George Brandis has indicated he believed a plebiscite on the issue should happen as soon as possible. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison wants a constitutional referendum on the issue (even though no such constitutional change is necessary). Tony Abbott – having back flipped himself on whether the matter should be decided by the Parliament or the public – wants to push the issue off the agenda for as long as possible, but acknowledge a plebiscite could happen after the next election (but thankfully if his dismal polling is any indication that decision won’t be his to make). Meanwhile, Senator Eric Abetz thinks gay men “didn’t want to get married anyway” because Dolce & Gabbana didn’t marry.
In the end, the Coalition may spend $100 million sending Australians to the polls three times in the next 12 months, for an election, a referendum on constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians and finally for a meaningless plebiscite on an issue that every poll already tells us Australians overwhelmingly support.
With Australian audiences soon to see Holding The Man, after sell-out festival screenings in Sydney and Melbourne, it seems trans and queer films may well dominate the Oscars this year. The first teaser trailer for the movie Carol came out last week, after the film premiered to rave reviews at Cannes. The film – by director Todd Haynes – is set in the glamorous, smoky era of the 1950s and based on a pot boiler novel called The Price of Salt, which Patricia Highsmith published under a pseudonym back in the 1950s (because the subject matter was at the time too scandalous to put her name too). The film tells the story of a shop assistant (played by Girl With A Dragon Tattoo’s Rooney Mara) who has a lesbian affair with a Manhattan housewife, played by a sultry looking Cate Blanchett.
Along with trailers for Stonewall (which has led to trans and gay rights activists calling for a somewhat premature boycotting of the film which releases in America this month), the first trailer for the tear-jerking true story Freeheld has also come out last month. Freeheld, which was originally an Academy Award-winning documentary, is the story of a veteran New Jersey police detective Laurel Hester (played by Julianne Moore) who was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live. When she discovered her long-time same-sex partner Stacie Andree (played by Ellen Page) would not inherit her police pension (which would have happened automatically if the couple had been heterosexual), the couple fought a battle to challenge the decision of New Jersey’s local officials. The film is also produced by Ellen Page, who championed the film as a passion project and it is her first role as an openly gay woman since coming out herself.
Finally, in September we will get to see About Ray, a film about a transitioning female-to-male transgender teenager played by Ellen Fanning who discovers he cannot legally begin taking hormone therapy without the approval of his estranged father. The film also stars Naomi Watts, as Ray’s mother and Susan Sarandon as his grandmother.
The patron saint of gay men everywhere, Madonna declared in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that she would not tour Moscow or St Petersberg anymore as she prepares for her world tour, because of Russia’s extreme “gay propaganda” laws. Thankfully Madge will be touring Australia for the first time in 23 years.
Transgender actress Laverne Cox meanwhile appeared on Good Morning America and declared that the disturbing spate of murders of transwomen in America – particularly trans women of colour – was a “state of emergency”, and that more needed to be done to address discrimination in housing, employment and health care faced by the trans community. So far in 2015, there have been 17 reported hate killings of transwomen, including eight women of colour. A petition currently before the White House demands inquiries into the deaths, which have been describes as an epidemic of transphobic violence.
The next issue of Wonder Woman features Wonder Woman marrying a lesbian couple, and telling Superman that “it’s not gay marriage. It’s just marriage.” The comic was drawn by an LA-based Australian illustrator Jason Badowerhe who was inspired by the US Supreme Court victory in legalising same sex marriage, and the debate still raging here. As he said: “Sometimes pop culture reflects us and sometimes it leads us, and this is the next step.”
