Hi! It’s nice to be back in the pages of OUTinPerth after a long relaxing holiday…I was hoping I might get to write about something juicy, like gossip, but politics? The editor is braver than I thought!
If you’re anything like me you probably equate politics (at least the ins and outs of party politics) with boredom, and to borrow a hackneyed phrase you may have ‘switched off at this stage of the election cycle’ – if you ever got switched on! (Of course the blood-bath of election night coverage is another matter entirely…). However, after endless months of pre-election campaigning the end is finally in sight with Election ‘07 on Saturday November 24.
But does it really matter who gets elected anyway, when it comes to our rights and issues?
Liberal or Labor, members of one or other of these major parties will form the federal government in our ‘lower’ House of Representatives and while both appear willing (begrudgingly) to enact certain measures to rectify discrimination against people in same-sex relationships neither fully supports equality for glbtiq people – or at least is willing to appear to have a pro-gay rights platform, for fear of backlash from the conservative fundamentalist lobby.
The simple answer is yes, because apart from a range of other policy (and values) differences each party has particular attitudes to sexuality and gender issues.
This applies equally to the minor parties who may have little chance of gaining seats and power in the lower house but who can influence legislation and potentially hold the balance of power in the ‘upper’ Senate ‘house’. Both The Greens and Democrats have consistently supported full equality for glbtiq people while parties such Family First, One Nation and others are rabidly anti-gay and homophobic.
If you’re one of the you’re one of the swingers of the voting world you may also like to check out Moving Forward, a great website which rates all of the major and many of the key minor parties on a range of issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians, courtesy of the Australian Coalition for Equality.
Also on the web, grass roots political organization Hear Our Voice launched an online petition in support of GLBT rights in response to other petitions presented to the Prime Minster that condemn same-sex relationships. The petition can be signed online at www.hearourvoice.org.au.
OUTinPerth’s own website will feature ongoing news stories, commentary, information and links from now until the election, including an article on voting pro-GLBTI in the Senate by Gay and Lesbian Equality’s Rod Swift.
