Malcolm Turnbull isn't fooling anyone Roqayah Chamseddine, 05/03, The Age, 12:00am.
"Among the hundreds of thousands attending the late night Mardi Gras festivities along Oxford Street on Saturday evening was one Malcolm Turnbull, who shared a photograph of the raucous festivities where he stood alongside Cher, and his wife Lucy, a smirk across his face. In an interview with SBS News, Turnbull drew attention to the 40th anniversary of Mardi Gras, saying “It's 40 years old and 40 years ago Lucy and I had our first date so our love affair is a result of Mardi Gras.” This is coming from the same Malcolm Turnbull who put gay marriage up for debate—traumatising countless members of Australia's LGBTQI community in the process—and held a nationwide postal-vote that ran up an estimated $100 million.
Those lining up now, be they politicians or corporations, in order to take credit for a fight that's long been waged and hard fought by the LGBTQI community should understand their opportunism isn't lost on everyone. After an overwhelming number of Australians voted in favour of equal marriage, Malcolm Turnbull announced that he would support amendments to the same-sex marriage bill including “provisions that would ensure that marriage celebrants are able to decline to solemnise marriages which they do not wish to solemnise”, according to a Turnbull spokesperson. These concessions were defended under the guise of protecting the freedoms of those intent on using religious doctrine so as to justify their discrimination. The same-sex marriage “debate”, as it's been described, has long been used as evidence of imposition on the part of the LGBTQ community. The plebiscite, along with Turnbull’s public reinforcement of compromises for those who refuse to solemnise a marriage on the grounds of religious belief, was evidence of a nation's civility, and when the final bill was passed it was expected that the LGBTQ would take their “gay marriage”, have their Mardi Gras, and end their complaints. You got what you asked for, now be quiet. But the material reality for Australians who've long been characterised and scorned as profane interlopers is far from being this simple. Safe School programs that opened a much needed lifeline for those made victims of anti-LGBTQ bullying across Australia were maligned as a leftist plot, and in New South Wales the program was axed. Malcolm Turnbull, who killed funding for the Safe School program, was recently caught talking out of the side of his mouth, urging school officials to do more to combat bullying.
In the wake of an agonising plebiscite vote, counseling services providing support for LGBTQ Australians witnessed a dramatic surge in phone calls. According to ABC News, ReachOut, which provides online mental health support for LGBTQ youth and their families, saw a 20 per cent increase in those attempting to access their services. There is more to the impact of discrimination and abuse facing young and old LGBTQ Australians than schoolyard taunts. The trauma of having your humanity left up to a postal survey, and the mindless punditry which attempts to categorise your sexual orientation or gender identity as an affliction; a left-wing construction intended to destroy Western civilisation, is torturous, especially for young people.
Members of the LGBTQ community aren't your props, and their fight for true equality is one that demands support, and a true reckoning in Australian society. The time for those forced out into the margins to make concessions should have ended long ago. Evie Santos, a queer IT professional in Melbourne, tells Fairfax Media that she can't think of a single person who identifies as LGBTQ who watched Turnbull and Shorten attempting to claim the victory of marriage equality for themselves “with anything other than contempt”.
“After everything that the present (and previous) Federal governments, of both stripes, have put the queer community through over the years since John Howard spitefully changed the Marriage Act, the absolute nerve of Malcolm Turnbull—an extremely straight, white, wealthy man who has likely never known any hardship born of political persecution—to turn around and take credit for the final victory on a day that belongs to the queer community is nothing short of an outrage," says Santos. "Mardi Gras is a celebration of the personal and the political, our survival and our thriving, and the radical activists that made the world safer and more welcoming for us.
"Few politicians have ever taken action that put them at physical and emotional risk in the first place, and Turnbull's total cowardice in allowing a plebiscite won't ever be forgotten every time he tries to pander to us.”
While posing alongside Cher makes for a great photo opportunity, Malcolm Turnbull should do more than put his face on a movement he had no hand in building. It's time for Turnbull to put federal funding where his mouth is when it comes to needed LGBTQ support." ... See more
Posing with Cher makes for a great photo opportunity, but the Prime Minister should do more than put his face on a movement he had no hand in building.
