True queer liberation needs equal marriage

Resistance supports the fight for equal marriage rights for Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) people.

Resistance believes that the capitalist system has a vested interest in preventing people from uniting, and in continuing to repress queers. This oppression takes many forms, and includes laws that discriminate against LGBTIQ people.

It is incredible that queer people in Australia still do not have the right to get married. This injustice has broad consequences for the whole LGBTIQ community.

Historically, discrimination against queers has suited the needs of the capitalist system.

The traditional family structure of a father, a mother and their children — with the father at the head of the family — has been a key way of reinforcing class divisions.

It encourages the rich to pass their wealth on to their children, while the poor and their descendants tend to remain poor.

The conventional nuclear family model, which assumes that domestic work is a woman’s responsibility, also entrenches women’s oppression.

Women’s unpaid labour in the home is a very important part of the capitalist economy.

In 1990, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that women’s unpaid work in the home was equivalent to 83% of gross domestic product.

Queers, by their very existence, represent a challenge to the traditional family structure.

For this reason, the ruling classes developed laws that targeted LGBTIQ people. In the past, laws against “buggery” and other “indecent acts” criminalised queer relationships.

The past struggles of queer rights campaigners have meant many of these laws have been removed.

But current laws, such as Australia’s queer marriage ban, still discriminate against queers and add to the social stigma against them.

Not only is this incredibly unfair to queers who want to marry but it also reinforces homophobia, which has some other very serious implications.

Young queers are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers.

Forty one percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual adults have been victims of hate crimes.

Forty two percent of homeless youth are gay, lesbian or bisexual.



By creating laws that discriminate against queers, the Australian government sends a message to everyone that queers are second-class citizens.

Queer couples need to be able to legally and, in turn, socially validate their relationships.

Some heterosexuals, LGBTIQ people and even some of those on the left have questioned why LGBTIQ people need the right to get married.

The argument is often made that marriage is archaic and conservative institution — so why should LGTBIQ people campaign for it?

But Resistance believes that people who argue this are missing the point of the fight for equal marriage.

Support for equal marriage rights is not the same as saying marriage is a superior kind of relationship.

Instead, it is simply the belief that LGBTIQ people should have the same rights as heterosexuals do. They should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to get married, rather than having the government decide for them.

The government’s ban on equal marriage sends a message to queers that they are somehow wrong and fundamentally different to heterosexuals.

Not having the right to marry reinforces homophobia in society.

Another argument made against the campaign for equal marriage is that marriage is a religious institution. This is an outdated view and is not true.

Although many people marry for religious reasons, marriage is actually a civil and secular institution, covered in the Australian constitution.

Atheists can marry, become celebrants and preside over marriage ceremonies. So why not queers?

Some religious groups, like the Quakers, want to carry out queer marriages. Australia’s laws do not give their ceremonies legal recognition.

Resistance believes that uniting people in a struggle to build a democratic socialist society is the only way to bring about true justice and equality for all. It is fully supportive of, and involved with, the campaign for equal rights for LGBTIQ people.