Greenwich Alex - Yes Yes Yes: Australias Journey to Marriage Equality

YES YES YES

ALEX GREENWICH led Australias marriage equality movement for over a decade. He served as co-chair of both Australian Marriage Equality and the YES campaign that successfully delivered marriage equality in 2017. In addition to being the Independent Member for Sydney in the New South Wales Parliament, he is internationally respected as a leader in LGBTIQ rights, having addressed legislatures and global conferences in Europe, Asia and North America.

SHIRLEENE ROBINSON has volunteered with Australian Marriage Equality since 2012. During this time, she served as New South Wales co-convenor, national spokesperson and board director. She is a historian with a PhD from the University of Queensland and the author and co-author of many books, including Serving in Silence: Australian LGBT Servicemen and Women (2018). She has been a Rydon Fellow at Kings College London, has taught Australian Studies in China and has been an Associate Professor at Macquarie University. In 2017, the Conversation named Shirleene as one of Australias top fifty Australian thinkers.

YES
YES
YES

Australias Journey to Marriage Equality

Alex Greenwich and Shirleene Robinson

A NewSouth book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

newsouthpublishing.com

Alex Greenwich and Shirleene Robinson 2018

First published 2018

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

ISBN 9781742235998 (paperback)

9781742244402 (ebook)

9781742248844 (ePDF)

Design Avril Makula

Cover design Sandy Cull, gogoGingko

Cover image Australians gather to hear result of marriage equality survey, photograph by Scott Barbour. Getty Images

Printer Griffin Press

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The authors welcome information in this regard.

This book is printed on paper using fibre supplied from plantation or sustainably managed forests.

Contents

For Victor Hoeld, Alexs husband
and Sarah Midgley, Shirleenes wife.

Introduction

A ustralias path to marriage equality was never perfect or smooth. Most countries with marriage equality achieved it through parliament, the courts or a public vote. We had all three. Thanks to the incredible efforts of determined supporters, on 7 December 2017 marriage equality became the law of the land. There had been 22 unsuccessful parliamentary attempts to pass marriage equality before 7 December. The journey had been long but it was finally done. We were both lucky enough to be there watching Parliament make history after so many of us had fought such a long campaign. People unfurled rainbow flags and the crowd of spectators who had been waiting in the galleries all day burst into non-stop applause, then broke into song. Politicians from all sides reached across the aisles, hugging and shaking hands. More than anything the mood inside that building, the mood we felt, reflected the sentiment of people watching across the country. It was a mix of euphoria, relief, exhaustion and pure happiness that senseless discrimination against a section of the Australian community had finally ended.

Less than a month earlier, on 15 November, the results of an unprecedented postal survey on the question of same-sex marriage had been announced. On an extraordinary Wednesday morning that few will ever forget, the nation stopped to hear that Australia had returned an emphatic YES. Every single state and territory had shown majority support for marriage equality. While the survey process was a gruelling experience for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) community and their supporters, the nations tremendous and widespread support for equality was a message that could no longer be ignored in the halls of parliament. Advocates had always maintained that the question of marriage equality should not be put to a public vote. In 2013, the High Court of Australia had very clearly said this was an issue that could be resolved through a vote in Federal Parliament. Our own research suggested that the Parliamentary numbers to pass legislation were there in 2015. That year, to avoid a conscience vote that opponents of marriage equality would lose, Prime Minister Tony Abbott proposed a compulsory plebiscite. The LGBTIQ community and allies so effectively fought against this, by pointing out the damaging impact a vote could have on people, that it was blocked by the Senate.

In 2017, though, the Turnbull Government put forward a new means of circumventing parliament by polling the Australian public directly on the issue of marriage equality. The Australian Bureau of Statistics would administer a national survey through postal ballots. In an unprecedented step, every single Australian voter would be asked their opinion on whether the law should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry. The process was to be not only anonymous but also non-compulsory, and the results would not be legally binding on the parliament. This subjected same sex couples to intense public scrutiny while betting that public apathy would result in a negative vote. Two High Court challenges failed to stop this postal survey and advocates had less than three months to convince Australians to show their support for equality and post their YES.

The roots of the marriage equality movement were built on the efforts of brave pioneers from the LGBTIQ community who had been working for equality since the 1970s and earlier. When the Netherlands became the first country in the world to introduce marriage equality in 2000, there was little sense that such change would be replicated in Australia at any time in the near future. Indeed, in 2004, then Prime Minister John Howard introduced legislation to amend the Marriage Act of 1961 to prevent same-sex marriages from being recognised in this country. It was quickly passed by the Federal Parliament with scant opposition.

Even before the 2004 amendments were passed, courageous individuals stood up publicly to point out the great injustice looming. We both have had the privilege of working alongside some of them and getting to know many others. Over time, the marriage equality movement evolved from something driven by a small group of committed individuals into something that depended on the efforts of hundreds of thousands of people from all across the continent. The great majority of these volunteers and advocates were everyday Australians determined to rectify a significant wrong and change the course of history. They were joined along the way by champions from many other spheres, including the political, celebrity and corporate worlds. All were united in their resolve to make marriage equality a reality. They wanted to send a powerful message about who Australians were as people and how LGBTIQ people should be treated.