If you would like your organisation to be added to the following open letter please email equalloveaustralia@gmail.com with your organisation's name and symbol.
This will be presented to ALP National Conference Delegates.
OPEN LETTER TO ALP NATIONAL CONFERENCE DELEGATES
Dear delegates,
The amendment of the Marriage Act by the Howard government in 2004, which restricted marriage rights to heterosexual couples to the exclusion of all others, represented the most serious attack on LGBTI rights in decades.
In one stroke, it relegated every non-heterosexual relationship to second-class status, and provided validation for homophobic prejudice in all its forms. To all those suffering abuse, marginalization or rejection because of their sexuality, it sent a clear message that the Australian government sides with discrimination and hate. And it epitomized the divisive, wedge style politics that had characterized the Howard era, and that voters rightly sought an alternative to in 2007.
While the Howard years are now a distant memory, it is to the everlasting shame of the subsequent government that homophobic discrimination is not. It is time for full equality before the law for LGBTI people to become a reality.
Equality means full equality. The 2011 ALP conference must commit to supporting full marriage rights for all couples. Civil unions, or any other scheme which creates a special or second-class category for non-heterosexual couples, should be vehemently rejected. Such a scheme will reinforce and perpetuate discrimination, by maintaining the exclusion of LGBTI people from the most common form of relationship recognition in society today. Until full marriage rights are granted, there cannot be genuine equality.
The ALP national conference presents an important opportunity for the party to commit to upholding equal rights for all Australians. We therefore urge delegates to reject any half-measures and to support full marriage equality for LGBTI people this December.
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