Civil Partnerships Bill Passes at 3am

I am pretty heavily involved in the local battle for same-sex marrriage, with the past five months being dedicated to the battle for Civil Unions with Ceremonies. Last night a much watered down version of the Civil Partnerships Bill we’ve been fighting for was passed. A bill that doesn’t include ceremonies.

My housemate and I headed out to the legislative assembly at about 8.30pm and ran into a couple of local Queers. We spent the next 5 hours popping in and out of the assembly, chatting to MLA’s, drinking beer, and waiting. At about 1am the debate on the Civil Partnerships Bill started. I am, in spite of my recent involvement in Politics, very new at this, and so didn’t know any of the speakers other than Deb Fosky (Greens), Andrew Barr (Labor) and Simon Corbell (the Attorney General, Labor), and I only knew them because of their involvement in the protest movement. I spent most of the night not knowing the rules, and didn’t even bow the first couple of times we went in and out of the Assembly.

I was pleased to see that the members were eager to put their opinions of the Federal Governments push to have the bill watered down on the record. The bill doesn’t allow for legal ceremonies for same-sex marriage and requires that one member of the couple be resident in the ACT (ie you move across the state border to Queanbeyan, and your Civil Partnership isn’t valid anymore). Those are the two amendments we were most opposed to, however there were 15 homophobic amendments forced upon us by the Federal Government all together.

Some of my colleagues and friends from the CCU are extremely disappointed in the results from last night. However, I think that even if the bill is not the bill we hoped for, we should keep in mind the position that places the Tasmanian and Victorian lobby groups in to fight for inclusion of various rights we were granted, that they still do not have. We can fight for amendments, the battle is not over, neither here in the ACT or around the country in other states and territories.

I fought hard for this bill, and it is a step in the right direction. I was one of the queers in the gallery that stood and clapped when the bill was passed. I do not agree that the Bill is a ‘skull fucked corpse‘ of its former self, and find that phrasing deliberately inflammatory. Yes, the territory could, and SHOULD have done things better. Yes, its not the bill we hoped for. Yes, its been amended into a registration scheme by another name. However, it is still a step in the direction of legal equality for LGBT people in the ACT, and around the country.