Queenslanders form new lobby group for equality
Brisbane’s New Farm Park became a national focus for equal rights on the weekend as a new group was launched to counter what is seen as growing conservatism in Queensland.
Queenslanders for Equality will combine the forces of various community groups and people of all political persuasions “to take on the Newman Government's focus on taking rights away from gay and lesbian Queenslanders”.
Among those gathered at the park on Sunday were Labor Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk, Labor MP Jackie Trad, PFLAG’s Shelley Argent, farmer and lobbyist David Graham, psychologist Paul Martin, family lawyer Stephen Page and Rev. Ray Richmond from the West End Uniting Church.
They were were joined by Australian Marriage Equality convenor Alex Greenwich, who called on sympathetic federal LNP members to show their support for marriage equality in Canberra.
“The eyes of the nation are on Queensland,” Greenwich said. “Australians from coast to coast are concerned that rights are being repealed from a contributing part of the Queensland community."
Greenwich said shock at the unequal treatment of LGBTI Queenslanders would be turned into action by the new lobby group.
“The challenge for the Newman Government is to treat gay and lesbian Queenslanders as equal citizens. They pay taxes, they contribute to the community and they shouldn’t have to face the prospect of having further rights taken away from them.”
Farmer and lobbyist Dave Graham said he believes the government is running counter to its core values by withholding rights associated with family life.
“All of these laws seem to be out there to socially engineer what it is we have built in this great state,” Graham said. “Why would this government, which believes in families, take away the rights that have been given to families?
“Legislation empowers us to be who we really are. To be able to tell my husband he’s my husband, to walk in my own community as a married couple, is essential for us."
Reverend Ray Richmond described the state-sanctioned discrimination against LGBTI people as “a strange and unexpected backward step" by "a very small, conservative section of the Queensland community”.
“It is fundamentally opposed to what we understand is the message of Jesus, which has to do with equality and acceptance,” Richmond said.
In particular, Queenslanders for Equality will campaign for the protection of current surrogacy laws and draw attention to an official petition calling on these laws to be protected.
Flagged changes to the surrogacy laws were addressed by lawyer Stephen Page, who said the Newman Government was proposing that in Queensland gay and lesbian people, single women and single men should no longer be entitled to be parents. “This is an example of the government playing God,” Page said.
“This is a case where the government is proposing that lesbian co-mothers should no longer be recognised on the birth certificate. Queensland in this case is moving backwards. Out of our eight states and territories in the Commonwealth [they] all recognise lesbian co-parents, but for some reason Queensland lesbians are different.”
Find out more about the new group here: queenslandersforequality.com
About the Author
Andrew Shaw
Andrew Shaw worked in Melbourne's media scene for 12 years as a news journalist, arts writer and editor, before making a sea change to Brisbane to become editor of Queensland Pride in 2012. He was editor of Melbourne Community Voice for six years, worked in the Media Unit at Monash University and was assistant editor/editor of statewide magazines for secondary school students and teachers respectively.
Comments (12)
Stuart I don't mind being a minority, but if these rednecks from the Flat Earth Gang wan't to destroy my rights.... Then they had better watch out.
Good luck!
Oh Fiddle-dee-dee Melony!
What did they do at New Farm Park, swing their handbags again?
This new organization will become a lame duck just like Queensland Association For Gay Law Reform. They desperately need a couple of daring anachists to get anything done.
It took just one activist from Isisford. Western Queensland to attract the attention of the media who said, "QAGLR in Brisbane was boring". they were more interested in this "poofta" standing up to those rough shearers and roo shooters".
Stuff committee fest talks and limp wristed academics.
Other organizations should not waste their time with these "leaders", it will all end up with a select two or three giving orders, marginalizing would be achievers, stuffing up accounts, redirecting other activists funds, and telling everyone else to shut up.
Another piece of Queensland Gay history.
Well put Peter! The only other standing logic we're to ask ourselves is, "where's the equality in being a 'minority'"?
Again, Dave, we've only got ourselves to blame for covering up the true extent of homosexuality and casting ourselves as a minority.
Stuart I hardly think being out and proud is a crime....
Dave, are we really "out and proud" when some of those relationships are being swept under the mat?
Stuart the group is out. They are hardly sweeping it under the mat. Equality does not come from those in the closet, it comes from people making a lot of noise, like those braves shouting in the streets at the first Mardi Gras. It is the collective echos of our story that bears the universal truth. It is people blogging here and on facebook, people forming groups, people calling radior or doing letter drops, and people not paying taxes until they are treated equally. I long for the good old days of Act UP also. Here we are again looking down the barrel of homophobes. Homosexuality would still be illegal if it were not for the collective of those out and proud.
Dave, a lot of homosexuality is not "out", else why the alarming rates of depression and self harm in our community? Could it be because people are lacking relationships? They are without love? That's what we should be "shouting in the streets" about!
The attack by the LNP on children of same-sex couples is revolting. They attack the creation of life itself as morally wrong. They make out God to be a racist, sexist, homophobic little Hitler. If you look back at footage towards the end of the White Australia Policy, you see the same Hate Thy Neighbour Brigade trying to get people killed in the name of their God. Last I checked, Jesus not did not shout hate they centurion neighbour who is gay. The majority of people in Queensland support equality, as the polls show, and they voted for a change of government, not a return to an error that belongs in a museum. The LNP told blatant lies to get votes, and is now calling on “Whores of Babylon” to write their wicked policy of Hate They Neighbours and their Children.
Well then, what do we have to lose Dave?
Yes Stuart I have seen some lucky bitch walking in the supermarket with her unhappy looking honey besider her. But who knows if he is gay or not? The Kinsey Report told us a lot about his sexual experiements as a teenager and the chances are even with that, he knows he loves the lucky bitch beside him, not the guy trying to check him out We also know from the Willy Nelson song some cowboys are secretly fond of each other, and the ones who shout loudest are most likely queer.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4CXlIYjyE