"Does gender decide our Australian identity?"

Dear Gai,

You have been a help to me with my friend in prison. Thank you for this.

I write this letter because I feel, as a gay man, that marriage equality is important. My brother was able to marry the woman he loved, but I have not been able to do the same with the man I love here. This makes me feel that I am less an Australian than he is. Does gender decide our Australian identity? Does it confer special legal benefits?

I hope that if the issue comes before you, you will help those of us who want equality and breadth of human life.

Many thanks,


James Loftus

Walk the walk of democracy, please.

Dear Dr. Leigh,

I am a straight male living in the ACT with a bisexual partner. Coming to terms with her sexuality was a source of a lot of pain and confusion for her, especially in her earlier years, and knowing about these experiences through her and others is the thing that informs my feelings most on the issue of equal marriage.

Whilst I have my own struggles, the sort of persistent injustices perpetuated by homophobia and intolerance are of a different order entirely, and the fact that these phenomena are complemented by legal discrimination in the Marriage Act is one of just a handful of areas in which I feel my country is facing utterly and completely backwards on such a relatively morally straightforward issue.

Historically the Labor Party has claimed to be a party of substantive progress towards social and legal equality. All eyes, mine included, are waiting to see if the party, from the branches up to the parliamentary party, has the mettle to be able to live up to these claims. I know from following your academic and blogging exploits that you are more than equipped to be able to cast a incisive and critical eye on your party's current policy on the Marriage Act. Please take the time to weigh up your priorites on this and other issues -the ones which are *begging* for some kind of respite from the malaise of confected bipartisanship which currently dominates the country's political agenda. You and your colleagues have the ability to make a difference by being honest about your own beliefs, and by paying due deference to the will of the public (I'm certain you know that more Australians are in favour of marriage equality than not) rather than an unhealthy deference to the policy status quo.

Please see this (and other issues) as more than a opportunity for realpolitic, and please have the strength of character to show us that we live in a democracy, or at the very least that there are still those in the Labor party who value democracy still.

Thanks for taking the time.

Your truly,

Colin Aslin

How then can you allow such discrimination to also extend to gay and lesbian couples ?

Dear Gai,

Marriage rights for homosexual couples is an issue that concerns everyone not just the gay and lesbian community. Because, rights for gay and lesbian couples are human rights. Hence, I am deeply concerned that my government could so blatantly undermine the rights of my fellow man.

We live in a country that calls itself ‘multicultural’, a term that stems from our belief that we are among some of the most tolerant people on earth. Whilst as Australians we have reached a point where we believe that it is wrong to discriminate against others based on their race, religion, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, it seems our laws do not reflect such values. Why should so many suffer under such a contradiction?

As a woman, and particularly in politics, I am sure you will understand equality is not something that has been wholly extended to our sex. I am sure that you personally understand the discrimination many women experience today by virtue of being born a woman. How then can you allow such discrimination to also extend to gay and lesbian couples who have no control over who they fall in love with, just as you have no control over your gender?

Therefore, I urge you and others to see this issue for what it really is, something that concerns the entire community, an issue concerned with the rights and freedoms of every single person. There is a very real danger in not speaking out against such injustice in the community. The following poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller is a painful reminder of this fact,

First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Gai Brodtmann, please speak out for the rights of the gay and lesbian community.

Regards,

Emma Lindfield

Love shouldn't be judged.

 Dear Gai,

 I've been putting of writing this letter for a few days now, and I wasn't
 sure why. It isn't that I lack passion on the gay marriage issue, I just
 couldn't seem to find my words. Today, it hit me. The reason I've been
 putting it off is that the right for everyone (regardless of gender or
 sexual orientation) to marry just seems so basic and natural to me I can't
 imagine why anyone would think otherwise.
 I know that's not a really good reason for asking you to vote yes to gay
 marriage, but it is the right thing to do.

 I don't think it's fair to imply that one group of people is inferior to
 another. I think that by having seperate names and kinds of ceremonies for
 people based on who someone wants to marry it cultivates an attitude of
difference. It says that a consenting, adult in a heterosexual relationship
 is different from one in a homosexual relationship. Love shouldn't be
judged, it should be able to be celebrated with marriage by consenting
 couples regardless of how they identify.

 Regards,

 Marion Kruger

So how about it?

This letter is amazing. 

Australia is, in general, pretty proud of its diversity

Dear Dr. Andrew Leigh,

I've never really been the type of person to write letters. I moved here from Melbourne from a blue ribbon Liberal seat with one of the few Liberal members who I felt had something valuable to say and practically no chance of ever being a swinging seat judging by the entirely Liberal history of the seat. Coming from an area where there's no chance of a political change, I'd never really gotten into politics. There wasn't much of a reason; I wasn't eighteen yet, my seat never had any chance of changing and my friends weren't that interested in it.

Coming to university though was one of those thoroughly eye-opening experiences. I've seen people from all ends of the political spectrum, political opinions I never even thought that people would hold and people whose political views I broadly agree with, but just find incredibly irritating. In the highly political environment that is university, it's pretty much mandatory to form at least some political views. These political views do come from somewhere and a significant portion of mine come from the fact I'm gay. Yes, it's another letter about gay marriage.

It's tiring to hear the feeble arguments against gay marriage trotted out by the government and far too many community groups. At the end of the day, people should be able to choose who they marry, whether it be a heterosexual couple or a homosexual couple. Although I don't want to get married at the moment, I certainly want to have the option of marriage and the legal recognition of my relationship. Love is love, no matter whether it be of a straight couple or a same-sex couple. 

Australia is, in general, pretty proud of its diversity. Sure there are instances of racism and homophobia and other forms of discrimination, but it's definitely better than many other places. It seems pretty clear to me that there's no real reason to forbid gay marriage. We pride ourselves on equality, a fair go, and gay marriage is one of the barriers to this egalitarian society we pride ourselves on.

Thank you for your time,

Stuart Ferrie

“We are here, we are together, and we are proud”.

Dear Dr Andrew Leigh,

I am writing to you in support of equal marriage for all, regardless of gender. As a bisexual woman I feel very strongly about this issue – marriage is the greatest declaration of love our society has, and one day I may want to make that declaration and find myself legally unable. Australia is supposed to be a land of acceptance and equality, but this is not reflected by our laws, and so it is not reflected in our society.

I was not out in high school. The only crushes I talked about were on boys, so people assumed they were the only ones I had. I was not scared of the reaction of bullies; as an intelligent girl who not only didn’t fit others standards, but had no desire to, I am used to bullies. It was the reaction of my friends that I was scared of.

There was one girl in my year that did come out as a lesbian, and it made her so happy to not need to hide. She had no fears about talking about relationship problems with her straight friends. I thought she was amazing. Her friends, however, did not seem as impressed as I was. Although they never said anything to her, I heard them talking about how she shouldn’t talk about being gay so much, because they knew that one day she’d want a boyfriend again. As they saw it, if she didn’t stop talking about her girlfriend, no boy would ever want her. Never mind that she had declared herself to have no interest in boys- this was less valid, less legitimate than the fact of her previous heterosexual experience. 

Reactions like this are why I stayed mostly in the closet until I got to university, where I am surrounded by supportive, like-minded people. This idea that her sexuality was not as valid as heterosexuality was and still is chilling. If I had come out as bisexual then, how would my friends have reacted? Would they have declared it something I’d get over, or insisted I had to choose? Bisexuality is discriminated against by both heterosexuals and homosexuals – by one for being queer, by the other for not being queer enough.

 I don’t believe that only some of my relationships should be considered valid. One day I might want to marry a man, and that would be lovely. But one day I might want to marry a woman, and because society and the laws that uphold it see this relationship as less legitimate, I would not be able to. When you get married, you are saying to the world “We are here, we are together, and we are proud”. It is tragic that so many happy, dedicated couples are unable to make this declaration. If our laws acknowledged these couples to be just as legitimate as their heterosexual counterparts, I think society would follow suit, over time. And then young people would not need to fear the scorn of their friends when they declared themselves different.

I implore you to support and advocate for equal marriage, so that Australia can work towards being the land of acceptance and equality we all dream of.

Regards,

Kira Scaife