As a gay Australian, I couldn’t be more grateful for the rights and freedoms our soldiers have won for us, while LGBTQIA people are tortured, killed and ostracised in nations around the world simply because of their sexuality.
At the 2017 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the Australian Defence Force marched proudly in support of the community. Seeing them marching in their uniforms up close, in perfect formation, with serious intent, was an inspiring moment for me and many other members of the LGBTI community.
Yet the next morning, Miranda Devine wrote in The Sunday Telegraph that the ADF should not have marched because they are meant to be “non-political”. Her point was that the ADF should not have worn their Rising Sun badge wrapped in the rainbow colours of the marriage equality campaign, because the military isn’t meant to be political.
Devine argues that their message was a “party political message” because of the Coalition’s plebiscite position, while the Labor and Greens want a parliamentary vote. Instead, she sees the Army’s involvement as a “radical social engineering experiment, rejecting what it regards as outdated male Anglo culture and segregating its troops according to ethnic, religious, sexual and gender identities which are accorded special privileges as victim groups, in the name of diversity”.
Let’s get this straight: Victim groups like the LGBTI community are afforded privileges, in Devine’s words.
You know, privileges like being unable to marry, having to constantly prove relationships to medical and financial institutions, jumping through a million hoops to have children, experiencing a higher rate of bullying, verbal and physical abuse than the wider population, and dealing with employment discrimination (especially for trans people – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg).
Top Comments
More rubbish that comes out of Devine's mouth, the more I am convinced that her job description is simply to verbalise as much inflammatory rhetoric as possible and to create controversy. I wonder if she truly believes the cr*p she goes on with when she's at home having a wine with her besties.
I don't see how it is political. If it was political, that means it is party partisan. It isn't. It crosses party lines. There are a few gay Liberal MPs and a Senator serving in Federal parliament, alone. Oh, and who can forget Abbott's own sister Christine Forster who is a Sydney City Liberal Councillor and lesbian. There are those in Labor who are opposed to gay marriage. This is a civil rights issue. Not a political issue.
Once it became de rigeur for politicians to be seen at the Mardi Gras, it became political.
How so? Are politicians not allowed to be seen at the Mardi Gras? Must they avoid everything, as human beings and citizens? Your post makes no sense at all.