En Passant

To move the ALP to really fighting for marriage equality maybe our demand should be for them to make the Parliament ungovernable. Labor could refuse to vote for any government motion or Bill, even ones they in theory agree with, until the Government allows a free vote on marriage equality.

We could begin that process by making the cities unworkable, by calling protests with the express goal of thousands of supporters closing down key entry points until the government allows a free vote on same sex marriage and calling on Labor to make the Parliament unworkable until that happens.

Imagine if Labor mobilised hundreds of thousands to take to the streets to win equal love. That is a real plan B, Labor. Lead a mass civil rights campaign for equal marriage. Do it now. Call us out on to the streets to stop business as usual until we win equal love.

Unite and fight this rotten Abbott government now.

Queer socialist activist, writer, and soon to be public school teacher in Boston, MA, Keegan O’Brien, responds in Jacobin to those on the left who dismiss the US Supreme Court’s historic ruling on June 26 making gay marriage the law of the land in all fifty states as at best insignificant, and at worst a step backwards. In explaining why they’re wrong he says in part:

‘When calls for radical change take the place of figuring out how to dynamically relate to people other than committed leftists, activists have created an echo chamber that only inhibits movement building. Demands to abolish marriage or smash the state may generate support from other radicals, but they remain empty slogans without the popular forces required to bring about social transformation…

‘Long-term, patient organizing may not be the revolution. But it’s the only way to get us there.’

The homophobes hope they can manoeuvre away from a vote on same sex marriage or that if there is one they can win a majority against equal love. That is why they are stalling. Shorten’s Bill has cut the Gordian knot and put same sex marriage on the politicians’ agenda for resolution this year.

Given the level of public support for same sex marriage I believe Tony ‘Canute’ Abbott cannot now turn back the tide of a vote nor the tide of a successful vote for same sex marriage before the end of the year. We can smell victory. Let’s make it a reality. Increase the pressure on the Parliament now to win equality by the end of the year.

Let’s keep the pressure up on Australian politicians to force them to vote for same-sex marriage today. How about mass rallies across Australia to celebrate the success in Ireland and to call on the Australian Parliament to amend the Marriage Act so that, in the words of the Irish amendment to the Constitution, ‘marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex’?

The High Court will pay attention to what people are doing in the streets. That means building huge rallies across Australia to support the ACT same sex marriage laws. Doing that also puts pressure on the other State and Territory jurisdictions, and ultimately the Commonwealth, to legislate for equal love.

The brave campaigners for equal marriage have won the first battle. Now to win the war.

If you and your partner would like to be amongst the first same-sex couples to marry click HERE.

We will keep you update on the progress of the legislation and the process involved in getting married. Australian Marriage Equality is also planning some major events around the vote in the Territory Parliament and we will keep you up to date on how you can be part of history.

The ACT legislation will be an important victory. It should spur us on to fight for full equality, for equal love, across Australia.

A handful of unelected right-wing ideologues, appointed by presidents who are now viewed as illegitimate failures, will have more to say about the civil rights of millions of people than the obvious shift in public opinion on the issue of marriage equality.

Still, the die isn’t cast. Other decisive cases in history have shown that the justices are swayed by popular opinion–contrary to the myth that they are impartial arbiters standing above society. This isn’t because of the justices’ own beliefs, but because they have to be concerned about whether the U.S. justice system is viewed as legitimate and representative of the sentiments of the majority of people in the U.S.

Thus, in 1989, when legal abortion hung in the balance in the case of Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, with a Supreme Court stacked with conservative judges, hundreds of thousands of protesters descended on Washington, D.C.–and helped tip the balance for the Court to step back from overturning Roe v. Wade.