Wrapping up
Jun 2nd, 2008 by Rebecca
In spite of the fact that the civil unions fight wound up in defeat, today is a pretty proud day. This morning, on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, a gay couple held the first of the compromise ceremonies we wound up with as those last few days of federal-territory negotiations descended into bitter farce.
According to said compromise, gay and lesbian couples could have a ceremony presided over by a delegate of the Registrar-General at the government’s expense, albeit with no legal recognition and no mention in the Act itself. It’s a long way from what we’d hoped, but it’s still a good step in the right direction, and I couldn’t be happier for the couple that took up the option this morning. I’m told the press were everywhere down there this morning, and this sends the firm message across the country that the sky isn’t going to fall in when gay and lesbian couples start having what are essentially weddings by any other name.
I’ve been wrapped up in study for the last couple of weeks, as I try to get my damned arts degree out of the way with as little pain as possible, and I’d probably have missed this had ABC News not rung me for comment. I’m pretty burned out after losing the central battle of the campaign, but even if we did wind up with pretty close to the worst-case scenario, today I’m appreciating that it’s still important to look around and note that couples here are now better off than than those in five of the seven other jurisdictions in Australia.
It also reminds me of a little anecdote I’ve been meaning to mention about how people can surprise you. I’ve been trying to keep my being queer pretty quiet around my workplace, as while I adore working there, my coworkers are generally fairly conservative. And so I was pretty worried the last time I wound up going on the news as to how it’d go down if folks from work were watching the ABC that night.
When I came in the next morning, one of my supervisors tells me “I saw you on TV last night.”
“Oh shit,” I’m thinking. This woman is really nice, but she hadn’t struck me as the most accepting sort.
“The bastards will come around eventually. Keep up the good work.”
It was pretty heartwarming in the circumstances. And I hope she turns out to be right.
Later update: Just watched the news, and it turns out one of the members of the happy couple is one of my lecturers - who I had no idea was gay. It was really sweet to watch the commitment ceremony footage of him and his partner.