I was very happy last week to see Benn Dorrington鈥檚, story in this newspaper. This is a debate worth having, and I鈥檓 glad to see 17c起草社区 take it up. One of the most interesting elements from the article were the quotes from the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights convenor Justin Koonin.
Koonin said: 鈥淚 think there is a potential for complacency for a lot of people in our community; a lot of people in the community can lead lives relatively free from discrimination and that鈥檚 thanks to the tremendous work in the past.鈥�
Looking back on my life, I think I am one of those people. I really can鈥檛 pinpoint a real example of direct discrimination against me (apart from the overall bigotry we still see in the world). Given this, I can see what Koonin meant then when he said this about same-sex marriage: 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy for some of us to think that everything has been done and once marriage equality has been done there鈥檚 nothing more to do, but that鈥檚 simply not the case and I think we need to be careful we don鈥檛 create a community [in] which some of us are equal and some of us are not.鈥�
This all opens up big questions about how we frame a queer movement going forward. Because this idea that 鈥榚verything has been done鈥� is right for some, it clearly isn鈥檛 for all. The fight for queer liberation is far from won.
So, that leads to the question of how did we end up with a focus on rainbows over reforms? There are lots of reasons for this, but I think part of it is about the lack of diversity in parts of the queer movement. Even though we are often the people who face the least amount of discrimination, I think it is people like me who often dominate the leadership structures of the movement. People of colour, working-class people, trans and intersex folk, and even women are often left out of the queer debate, both internally and externally. And when you think about this you can see how we end up with fights over rainbows instead of reforms. For those of us who haven鈥檛 faced institutional discrimination it is the rainbows that matter.
I鈥檓 not saying that middle-class white men don鈥檛 have a position in our movement 鈥� otherwise I wouldn鈥檛 be writing here today. But if we want to challenge queerphobia at all levels we need to ensure the movement is open, accepting, and diverse. Unfortunately I鈥檓 not sure it is at the moment, and we need to challenge that.
罢飞别别迟听聽or e-mail simon_copland@hotmail.com
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