Monday, 15 April 2013

I’ll vote for you, but I’ll resent it


My blog posts are usually shameless self-promotion for my theatre shows, same with Facebook. Instagram is for my baking pics and Twitter is usually a way to praise my favourite TV shows. But today I feel the need to write something quite political. It’s been eating away at me for months and I need to get it off my chest.

I have been a Labor voter for as long as I could be. As soon as I turned 18 and could vote, I did, for Labor. Federal, state and even local if there was a candidate. I remember getting very upset when Paul Keating was defeated. I remember celebrating loudly with an entire pub in Newtown, Sydney, when Kevin Rudd won. I even handed out pamphlets in John Howard’s electorate, hoping he’d be ousted. I liked the party, and I thought they liked me. I don’t think that anymore.

Earlier in the year there was a conscience vote for legalising gay marriage. It was defeated, embarrassingly. I had never felt like such a minority in my own country. There was a knot in my stomach that didn’t go away for ages, I felt like upset and angry. Then I hear of all these other countries legalising gay marriage, or marriage equality, and I am disgusted that my own country will not be allowing it anytime soon. Am I second class citizen?

My own local member, Labor’s Michael Danby, abstained from voting. It was just like voting no. I wanted answers, so I sent Facebook posts and emails asking for a reason. I received no correspondence back. So I went with a friend to his office. He wasn’t there, or if he was, he wasn’t going to speak to someone from his electorate about an issue. I proceeded to tell the man behind the counter why I was there. He seemed quite dismissive. When I told him for the first time I was considering not voting Labor, he literally laughed in my face, and said, “What are you gonna do, vote Liberal?” No, I wouldn’t do that, but I’m sure the Greens are more a threat in the seat of Port Melbourne than Liberal.

I left that office feeling angry and unsatisfied. A few days later I received an impersonal letter detailing Mr Danby’s public support for marriage equality. Apparently just not enough support to vote for it. Many people hide behind religious views for their discrimination. This includes my parent’s local member, Labor’s Ed Husic, who has flat out refused to ever vote for marriage equality. However I was taught by mother, a former Sunday School teacher, that people shouldn’t judge others and that God loves all his people. This was reinforced by my own Sunday School education. (Remarkably I was constantly a prize winner in my time at Sunday School, how the mighty have fallen.)

Here’s the religious kicker, our prime minister, who I’ve always been a big supporter of, is an atheist. So why won’t she support marriage equality? Apparently 64% of Australians support marriage equality. If the Labor party brought in marriage equality today there would 64% of the country who would say, “Well down”. That’s practically double their current approval rating. Seems strange to me.

I’m not looking for a lot, I just want what everyone else has. I want the opportunity to marry the person I choose. I am a proud gay man and if someday my boyfriend and I decide to get married, then we bloody well should be allowed to. Is it really too much to ask for?

So as September rolls around I will vote Labor. I am scared of the country we will become if Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister. I look what Campbell Newman has done to Queensland, the slashing of funding to things I hold dear, and I worry what Abbott will do with the same power. So Mr Danby and Ms Gillard, I’ll vote for you, but I’ll resent it. And I am certainly not going to keep quiet anymore. Not until I can marry like everyone else.
                                                            My boyfriend Nick and I
                                                       Photo by Deborah Dorman-Halls

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