Same-sex civil unions update
Australia’s mainstream newspapers have continued to give extensive coverage of updates regarding the “gay marriage” legislation passed in England. It’s interestring to see how an issue that arose in another country can become an Australian issue if it gains media attention.
Online News Limited (www.news.com.au) published a story titled, Defiant Liberals urge gay unions, about how some Liberal backbenchers are pushing for Australia to follow Britain’s lead.
The article presents quotes from some of the backbenchers supporting gay unions - Warren Entsch said: “I would be a hypocrite if I said those people have less of an entitlement than I would”. Judi Moylan said: “It’s a matter of fair and equitable treatment of people”, and Petro Georgiou said gay men and lesbians deserved recognition: “People in relationships should be treated equally regardless of gender”.
These comments supporting gay unions were not balanced by any quotes from anyone opposing gay unions, despite the fact that the article states that John Howard opposes gay unions, as he believes that marriage can only exist between a man and a woman, and that Labor opposes them also. I find this surprising - that Liberal backbenchers are supporting a change while Labor opposes it. Hopefully their campaign will have some success! It seems we are really behind so many countries in regards to this issue!
The article also includes ABS stats, which conlude that the number of same-sex-couple households doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 from 1996 to 2001, reflecting an increasing inclination among homosexual couples to declare their status. This statement conveys a need to recognise the civil rights of a fairly large and growing proportion of our population.
SMH published a news story titled Elton John’s ‘marriage’ certificate released. It’s a fairly mundane article and doesn’t seem to be particularly ‘news worthy’ to me, especially since the Herald published a few articles about the fact that Elton John and his partner would be tying the knot, in the lead up to their ‘marriage’. So, I think the fact that the Herald published this story shows that they are trying to bring this issue to the public’s attention and set the agenda for public and political debate.
An article about the push to legalise gay marriage in Australia was published the following day in the Sun Herald. It states that “gay rights activists will seize on Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (to be held in March 2006) to push for legal recognition of same-sex marriages.”
This article also seems to present a fairly strong case for the support of same-sex civil unions, including effective quotes from various supporters, and none from the opposition. It ends with the line “They (same-sex couples) also want the right to publicly celebrate their love and commitment”. which, to me, sounds positive and expresses no negative connotations.
I’ll continue to monitor the media’s coverage of this issue, but I should start focusing on more alternative publications….
