Well, there’s no denying that the news from Australia last week was sad: individual territories can’t pass marriage equality bills on their own, so everyone who got married in the ACT is now effectively unmarried. It’s similar to the nullification of marriages that happened in San Francisco in 2004, after the state Supreme Court nullified the marriages kicked off by Gavin Newsom.
But there’s also some good news: the court ruled that the federal government is the only entity that can pass marriage legislation, so that turns up the pressure on Parliament and the Prime Minister to act in 2014.
Next year’s likely to be just as busy as 2013, if not busier. In addition to the ongoing Australian work, marriage will start in England and Wales in March.
And in America, we’ll see tons of activity around a variety of lawsuits. We just had a hearing in Arkansas, and we’re moving toward a hearing in Texas. Rulings are also pending in a variety of states.
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And Oregon has made it official: they’ve collected enough signatures to put marriage equality on the ballot next year. Just 11 months remain to move public opinion.
DarkZephyr
I can’t wait until Homophobia is largely dead. I am sure there will always be some anti-gays out there, but a day will come when its largely a thing of the past and I can’t wait to see it. I think its so ridiculous that we have to fight and fight and fight for equality and respect because so many homophobic straight people truly think that they are better than us. I feel so sorry for those couples in Australia that got married and have since found out that they are no longer married.
marc sfe
@DarkZephyr: I fear we may have a few generations before homophobia is gone. Racism is a live and well in the United States as well as Australia and no end in sight; though it’s not quite as pronounced as it once was. In my lifetime though, homophobia will be quite rampant and ugly; given that I’m in the boomer generation.
jimbryant
Australia’s gays spend too much time organizing dance parties than they do fighting for marriage rights.
2eo
@jimbryant: If I can get you the address of a lithium party will you promise to drink as much as possible?
Tyler100
@2eo:
Man I hope he agrees. He’s a sorry excuse for a human being and we’d all be much better off without him.
jimbryant
Oxford St in Sydney is a joke. All that you see is drug-fu@ked queens with bleary eyes at 7 in the morning loitering on the footpath for that last desperate pick-up attempt.
The Mardi Gras is a fake gay rights event that has been taken over by the corporates. It shimmers with the Spandex of chicken-legged white boys marching to the beat of a Kylie song. Disturbed men dressed as women do their best to mimic Divine with a case of slack jaw.
Tyler100
@jimbryant:
Let me guess: you don’t know this from first hand experience. You’re just coming to this conclusion because you hate open homosexuality, outward pride and effeminacy, all this in conjunction with your dislike of foreign culture. You’re a vile creature, Rick. You must be lovely to be around. I’m sure company would be welcome, seeing his cold it gets in your mom’s basement this time of year. Though I hear it’s doing wonders to preserve her corpse.
jimbryant
Tyler,
Maybe crabs have eaten through your scrotum and formed a nest just behind your prostate.
tjr101
@DarkZephyr: Homophobia much like racism will always be around. It may become inconspicuous but unfortunately it will always be there.
guest4ever
@DarkZephyr:
“Homophobia”
“Anti-gays”
Yeah… as long as there is one person left on the planet with a conscience… there will continue to be opposition to homosexuality, a suicidal lifestyle if ever there was one.
73% of all new cases of AIDS in 2012 per the CDC contracted by homosexuals and you open any issue of the Advocate, the largest homosexual periodical in the world, and you see one HIV medication ad after another from cover to cover.
How dare anyone oppose homosexuality, you say?
Yeah… how dare they. And the band played on.
Harley
@guest4ever: you mean, kinda like when heterosexual Europeans Christians wiped out Native Americans with syphillis and small pox infected blankets? Gotcha.
stadacona
Australians are very anti-gay, and if you’ve ever been to Sydney, you’ll understand why. Sydney queers are a disgusting bunch.
Degas
@guest4ever: World Health Organization (WHO) Report:
Sub-Saharan Africa still bears an inordinate share of the global HIV burden. Although the rate of new HIV infections has decreased, the total number of people living with HIV continues to rise. In 2011, that number reached 23.5 million [22.1 million–24.8 million], 69% of the global total.
I print this information at the risk of your small, ugly mind blaming a different people.
jimbryant
stadacona,
Sydney has such a drug- and party-oriented social scene. There is virtually no gay activism. It’s drugs, drugs, drugs, party, party, party. It’s so sad to see the gay social movement deteriorate to this level of hedonism and depravity.
I would compare it somewhat to San Francisco. Today in San Francisco there is virtually no gay activism. It’s all about porn, drugs and parties. Gay social activism is but a distant memory.
Can I just say to all gay men who indulge in hedonism at the expense of activism: YOU are the enemy. Yes, you.
AuntieChrist
I was wondering where our two most vocal cray crays had set up shop…jb and g4e were strangely absent from the comment sections of other articles here…Silly of me to think christmas had come early and they had moved on to richer pastures…On topic…It is very sad that Australia back peddled on marriage equality…Could this too be a remnant of British imperialism, or are they just being dicks…?
Rob91316
Scratch the Down Under off the list of destinations that will be getting my tourism dollars until they change their bigoted ways.