Mardi Gras a spectacle but no marriage equality

Sydney’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community lit up Oxford Street on Saturday with the annual Mardi Gras parade.

Now in its 33rd year, the event featured plenty of costumes, generous splashes of colour and just a hint of cheekiness while celebrating its theme of “History of the World.”

But the festivities were preceded by a sobering reminder of the parade’s equal rights protest origins, when the Senate on Thursday voted down the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill.

Openly gay Greens candidates for Sydney and Wentworth respectively, Tony Hickey and Matthew Robertson, said they were disappointed though not surprised by the Senate outcome.

“We are disappointed that Senators from the major parties have continued to deny the opportunity for reform,” said Mr Robertson.

“Additionally I think it’s very disappointing that the major parties disenfranchised their Senators from a conscience vote … and in so doing trapped those Senators in the 1950s view of marriage.”

Mr Robertson said the major parties were ignoring public opinion.

“I think had a conscience vote been allowed we would have seen a different result,” he said.

“There is widespread support for marriage equality reform in the mainstream population, a recent Galaxy Poll recorded 60 percent are in favour of this kind of reform.

“The denial of a conscience vote really traps the major parties into a position of preserving the status quo, which is implicitly discriminatory.”

Both candidates took a little encouragement from the fact that around a third of the Senators remained absent from the chamber during the vote.

“I think the number of Senators who were absent from the vote shows that there are a lot of Senators who would have appreciated a conscience vote,” said Mr Hickey.

“But if you’re a Senator I think you should be voting … and if you don’t have the guts to stand up to your party then you probably don’t have the right to be elected.”

Mr Robertson also criticised the NSW Government’s proposed relationships register, announced last Tuesday, which would allow all couples, including same-sex to prove their relationship status when accessing legal entitlements.

“It’s providing some sort of equality because it’s not making a distinction between heterosexual or homosexual couples, but in the scheme of things this is no more than a token gesture,” he said.

“Until we see reform to the [Federal] marriage act … which does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, then we won’t [have] remove[d] all aspects of discrimination.”

NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon labelled the relationship register “Labor’s second rate option.”

“Kristina Keneally has failed to break with the discriminatory policies of the past,” she said.

“The Premier has demonstrated that she is out of step with community support for marriage laws to be modernised.”

Peter Furness, National Secretary of Australian Marriage Equality said the relationship register would be ideal for couples who were seeking access to entitlements but did not desire to marry.

“But we would stress that such schemes are in no way a substitute for full marriage equality,” he said.

City of Sydney Liberal Councillor Shayne Mallard, himself openly gay, agreed that the relationship register seemed to be “a bit of a hollow gesture.”

But Cr Mallard said he preferred to see a more gradual build up of momentum towards same-sex marriage, with the next step being civil unions.

He criticised the Greens for being out of step with the rest of the parliament.

“When the Greens take on the debate it polarises it even more … I don’t think the Greens are being helpful trying to drive a wedge in this issue,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Hickey noted the timeliness of the issue and agreed that Mardi Gras provided a window for the gay community to be heard.

“That’s when the wider community is paying attention to the queer community,” he said.

“It’s a great opportunity to take advantage of that attention … during the Mardi Gras time there is a wider acceptance of issues – it’s just the perfect time to raise awareness of what our concerns are.”