May 17th, once again celebrates Idahot Day, an international day dedicated to fight against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia. It’s a worldwide celebration of sexual and gender diversities.
This year’s theme revolves around “Mental Health and Well Being”. How are we doing so far in the struggle against social stigma, persecution and discrimination?
Currently, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, or ILGA, lists seventy-five countries with criminal laws against sexual activity by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people (LGBTIs), but that’s an understatement. Ten of these governments also have laws providing for the death penalty for same-sex intimacy, at least on paper.
The total number of nations which discriminate would be eighty-one if it were to include Russia and Lithuania, two countries that do not have laws against homosexual acts but do have repressive laws against “propaganda of homosexuality.” Libya and Nigeria have similar anti-propaganda laws, but also prohibit same-sex relations, so they are already on the list.
On paper, Australia’s reputation is certainly more tolerant but deserves closer scrutiny because the discrimination can in fact be more subtle and hidden but no less deadly for some.
A new global survey by American research body Pew Research Centre has named Australia as one of the most tolerant countries in the world when it comes to accepting homosexuality.
Seventy-nine per cent of Australians surveyed said homosexuality should be accepted, coming in behind a handful of nations including Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany and Spain, which at 88 per cent had the highest proportion of affirmative responses. The survey nominated women and younger respondents as more likely to be accepting. But how tolerant are we really and where’s any intolerance in Australia actually coming from?
Unfortunately much of it emanates from a conservative religious base. Despite indications of some growing tolerance from Pope Francis, he has never contradicted the Catholic Church’s official opposition to LGBT relationships, which describes same-sex “inclinations” as “objectively disordered.” It’s a bit like being invited to a party and told you will need to wear a mask so you don’t infect others with your disease. A church that still holds this inaccurate and dangerous psychological view still has a long way to travel.
This week’s call by the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference to oppose same sex marriage reform at the election is particularly disappointing. A group that has been so totally discredited as a result of the abuse of children under its care, should perhaps keep quiet for a couple of centuries on issues related to sexual preference.
Locally, the Australian Christian Lobby and its Managing Director, Lyle Shelton, both remain rabid advocates of intolerance. 
The Lobby recently invited Eric Metaxas, an American theologian, to their 2016 conference, a man who backs ‘gay-conversion’ therapy and has likened homosexual liberalism to the rise of Nazi Germany. This group has also fiercely opposed the government’s ‘Safe-Schools’ program which was designed to teach children about sexual and gender diversity and stamp out homophobia and bullying. Our own Treasurer, Scott Morrison, actually attended this conference. There are links between conservative politicians and conformist religious.
Opposition was recently inflamed by a number of members of the conservative Liberal National Party government who lobbied to have the ‘Safe-Schools’ program axed. As a result much of its activities were restricted and now it is only to be used in high schools (except in Victoria whose Labor government resisted).
This conservative political lobby is the twin source of intolerance. One of its members, Mr Christensen, a Federal Liberal politician from Queensland, wanted the program suspended because he did not want to see young people “sexually liberated”. He said the program was about Marxist ideology and sexual liberation. “I don’t want to see sexual liberation of young people, I don’t want to see young people sexualised at all,” he said. He also believes that legalising gay marriage would be opening ‘the door’ to polygamous marriages.
Liberal Senator, Cory Bernardi claimed the “innocuous-sounding” Safe Schools program actually provided links to sadomasochism sites and encouraged 12 and 13-year-old children to experiment sexually. His infamous remarks in 2012, linking same sex marriage to bestiality, forced his resignation as a parliamentary secretary.
It’s reasonably clear that religious, right-wing conservative politicians make up this second group opposed to sexual and gender tolerance. Anxiety about gender and sexual fluidity is just one of the liberal issues many current politicians seem unable to face.
Same-sex marriage is the football that politicians have been kicking half-heartedly around government for far too long and last year the then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, kicked the issue right out of bounds, avoiding a parliamentary vote and relegating the decision to an expensive plebiscite. However, expense is not the only concern thrown up by the plebiscite option.
In 2014 the Australian Human Rights Commission released a report ‘Face the facts: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People’
Some of its result are so alarming they should be quoted here in full:
· LGBTI young people report experiencing verbal homophobic abuse (61 per cent), physical homophobic abuse (18 per cent) and other types of homophobia (9 per cent), including cyberbullying, graffiti, social exclusion and humiliation.
· 80 per cent of homophobic bullying involving LGBTI young people occurs at school and has a profound impact on their well-being and education.
· Transgender males and females experience significantly higher rates of non-physical and physical abuse compared with lesbians and gay men.
· Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are three times more likely to experience depression compared to the broader population.
· Around 61 per cent of same-sex attracted and gender-questioning young people said they experienced verbal abuse because of their sexuality, while 18 per cent reported experiencing physical abuse. Young men (70 per cent) and gender-questioning young people (66 per cent) were more likely than young women (53 per cent) to experience verbal abuse.
Discussions around such a plebiscite on same-sex marriage may well unleash and give permission to the kinds of cruel remarks we have already heard from some of our elected politicians and religious leaders. We truly appear to have a government that refuses to take such dangers seriously. Our Prime Minister appears incapable of reigning in his aberrant members.
There is also unfortunately a postscript to the debacle that is offshore refugee detention and relevant to this discussion. Nauru is a country that holds laws criminalising homosexuality which are based on the Queensland criminal code of 1899, with terms of both seven and fourteen years with hard labour for ‘unnatural offences’.
Last week Rakib, a Bangladeshi man died on Nauru from a suspected heart attack. It is understood that he had fled Bangladesh because he was gay and had been beaten along with his boyfriend. He had been threatened with dismemberment and blinding and disowned by his family before ending up on Nauru. Both Labor and LNP have failed to think through further potential disasters resulting from detention on Nauru.
I would argue that these more subtle attitudes of discrimination in Australia can be as deadly as criminal sanctions in some overseas nations. Most of our current laws do in fact support LGBTI rights. It’s the nibbling away at the edges with casual discrimination by people in positions of influence that is damaging. Perhaps the forthcoming election is one way to continue the struggle for equal rights which is obviously still incomplete.
