It’s been a huge year in the ceaseless battle for marriage equality around the world: New Zealand, Brazil, Uruguay, France, England and Wales all stood up as nations for LGBT rights and historically said ‘I do’ to same sex marriage; progress, logic and respect for same sex couples prevailed.
In Australia, the fight for marriage equality has been similarly dotted with equal measures of peaks and pitfalls regarding the debate. Our first openly pro-marriage equality Prime Minister came into power, and the ACT made admirable strides towards liberating same sex marriage, in passing their gay marriage bill and seeing a slew of historic same sex marriages in its wake. Although the law has since been struck down, hope for Australia to reach the level of LGBT progress as our counterparts in New Zealand and the UK are still high. Today, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that same sex marriage advocate group Australian Marriage Equality have assembled a “hit list” of 70 federal MPs to target in 2014 – those who they consider likely to be persuaded to shift their support for a pro-marriage equality agenda
Notable targets ripe for the persuasion include, according to SMH, Foreign minister Julie Bishop, Treasurer Joe Hockey, Christopher Pyne and Susan Ley; from the opposition: Chris Bowen and Ed Husic. The news comes not long after Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull publicly declared his support for gay marriage and considered the possibility of a conscience vote toward the issue in parliament a “likely” prospect. The SMH reports that for a marriage equality bill to pass in the House of Representatives, around 25 liberal MPs would need to shift their stance.
While the Labor party finds itself historically populated by both a leader and deputy leader with open pro-marriage equality views – Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek – the coalition may certainly need some opinion swaying, and especially considering that the party has reportedly held different priorities during its recent come to power, according to Fairfax: “It is understood same-sex marriage has not been raised in Liberal party room meetings since the September election.”
In Australia, 2013 has had its ups and downs for marriage equality. Here’s hoping Australian Marriage Equality’s hit list is successful, and that parliament’s first New Year’s resolution involves something along the line of, It’s Time to Sort This Bullshit Out, etc.
Via SMH.
