The largest demonstrations for same-sex marriage in Australia's history took place on August 1. A 3000-strong rally marched on the national ALP conference in Sydney. Four thousand took to the streets in Melbourne. Record crowds mobilised in other cities.
The movement is increasing pressure on the ALP government to end its homophobic ban on same-sex marriage.
Green Left Weekly's Stu Harrison spoke with marriage equality activists about the future of the campaign.
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How successful do you believe the August 1 National Day of Action was?
Emilia Lawonski (Community Action Against Homophobia, Sydney): It was very successful in terms of the turnout and the support we got from the community. It was an amazing day and really great to see so many couples getting married.
It made a really big statement and got an amazing amount of media. It was also very successful in launching a very strong campaign for same-sex marriage in Australia. But unfortunately, while there was some support, there wasn't the government. The Labor Party didn't really come up with the resolution we wanted.
Rodney Croome (Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group): It was not only the biggest National Day of Action yet, but the most passionate and the most visible.
This year's NDA showed there is a national movement for marriage equality that goes beyond personalities, groups, parties and sexuality to encompass a wide diversity of people.
Matthew Loader (Rainbow Labor): It was very successful in making the issues known, increasing consciousness and sending a signal to the government that this is an issue that they need to take seriously.
Tony Pitman (Melbourne spokesperson for Equal Love): In terms of getting the Labor party to change its policy it was unsuccessful. But in terms of getting a lot of support, we had the largest ever public demonstration in support of marriage equality in Australia's history, which was obviously a major step.
I think it was successful because it brought the issue onto the national agenda and really caught the attention of the politicians and the general public and put it on the radar of a lot of people — more than ever before.
What are your thoughts on Labor's decision to hold a review of relationship recognition for same-sex couples at their national conference?
Lawonski: The Labor Party said that it was going to start working towards setting up state based registration schemes around the country that will be based on the schemes in Tasmania, ACT and Victoria.
It's really doubtful that those schemes will provide any extra rights than couples already have. It's all very far short of civil unions and marriage. Obviously, marriage gives a lot more rights than civil unions. But they didn't even come close to marriage or civil unions.
Croome<.STRONG>: Labor can review and tinker with its relationship recognition policy all its likes, but there are no substitutes for full equality in marriage.
Loader: In terms of what was passed, it doesn't go as far as we'd like and it's going to be some time before we get to a position where we can say we've achieved full equality.
But I think we expected that before we went into the conference. We expected that it would be an incremental step-by-step process, and we would have to go in there and argue the case and had to be prepared for this to be the start of that debate rather than the end.
Pitman: They made some very slight amendments to their policy platform. But basically it was window dressing. It didn't allow same-sex marriage regardless of gender, which was what we were asking for. It was a very slight change.
How does Australia compare to the way the campaign for marriage equality is developing internationally?
Lawonski: At the moment there is a lot more progress around the world than in Australia. Even Albania and Luxembourg have become two of the most recent countries to give some kind of recognition to same-sex couples.
They're coming up with other civil unions or marriage in plenty of places, even in America. So Australia is really far behind at the moment.
Croome: Australia has fallen behind other Western countries when it comes to the recognition of same-sex relationships generally, and same-sex marriage in particular.
Loader: We certainly have moved slower than many comparable OECD Western nations <193> So while we have certainly done very well in terms of getting our de facto recognition across the line and largely complete, we've still got some work to do in terms of providing a registration of partnership scheme whether that is marriage or something very close to it. We've still got some ground to move on that.
Pitman: Given there are now seven countries and six states of the US [that support marriage equality], Australia is probably behind those countries and other countries that seem to be moving forward on it.
What is the next stage of the campaign?
Lawonski: Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young introduced a bill [in parliament to legalise same-sex marriage]. So it is very important to get as many submissions from the community for same-sex marriage and that is definitely a big step at the moment.
We are also going to have a bit of an action because August 13 is going to be taken over by right-wing Christians and they're trying to make it National Marriage Day to celebrate the sanctity of marriage and protect marriage.
So we need to keep fighting. We need to use the National Day of Action as a launch pad to get more people involved in the campaign. It is very important to get a lot of submissions to this inquiry, which closes on August 28.
Croome: Continued community education and advocacy are at the top of Australian Marriage Equality's priority list.
For us it's also important to marshal support from unions, business, NGOs, public figures and state governments to further isolate the federal government.
Loader: The next stage of the campaign is the senate inquiry, which will look at the private members bill that Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has moved.
That will be a perfect platform for people to be able to put in submissions, detailing their own personal stories and calling for change. Out of that I think the government will have to respond to the outcomes of the inquiry.
We've also got to talk to a lot of the unions and see if we can expand the Rainbow Labor network to the union movement as well as across the party because we know it's very important for us to go in, in a position of strength to the next conference and negotiate on that basis.
Presently one of the key people who has been rather critical [of marriage equality] is the Prime Minister … We are going to find creative ways of getting around that in due course.
It might be that marriage equality happens under a different leader at some stage in the future. We know his influence is something we will have to think about.
Pitman: Equal Love is strictly the group that organises the rallies each year. So I guess Equal Love will now relax for another year. But it will be groups like Australian Marriage Equality and the various gay and lesbian rights lobbies that pursue [the campaign further].
I am a part of Australian Marriage Equality and we are in discussions at the moment about whether we should try to convince the states to do it. And whether we need to work on the Labor party.
There are many ideas that people are coming up with. The idea is to keep it bubbling away on the national agenda and make all the politicians realise that we're never going to go away till we get equality.
What lessons can the Australian movement learn from international struggles in support of marriage equality?
Croome: The primary lesson we have to learn from other places is there's no reason to wait, reform can and should happen now.
Pitman: The most important lesson was to get the message to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community particularly that this is not really about marriage.
We're not a pro-marriage group. This is about equality.
I think that particular message hasn't been made strongly until this year and I think that in most cases we were successful in getting that message to the LGBT community and people understood.
Once it's presented in that way, people who were hesitant about supporting marriage or didn't want to get married themselves understood. I don't care so much about marriage, but I do find it unacceptable that the government denies me the right.