A brief excursion to Queer Politics

The National Union of Students has two Queer Officer positions. These are elected (usually) at the December meeting. For the past few years, the positions have been dominated by members of Socialist Alternative, who have focussed more-or-less exclusively on the issue of Marriage Rights.

I have to say, I do think marriage is something worth fighting for. But the language used in the debates often comes across as suggesting that marriage is the one-and-only issue in which queers are oppressed in modern Australian society.

As a person living as Genderqueer, I find this to be, frankly, bullshit. The following series of emails, reposted from the NUS Queer e-list, will hopefully go some way towards explaining why.

This email was sent out to the e-list from the newly elected National Queer Officer Bearers (hereafter referred to as NOBs) three days ago.

Hi All

This is Kath Larkin and Phoebe Kelloway, your newly elected National Queer officers for the National Union of Students (NUS). We've been centrally involved in the equal love campaign to repeal the ban on same-sex marriage, particularly on the campuses, where we've been working with students. We look forward to continuing that work this year as well as making NUS more relevant to students.

Last year's Queer Officers Heidi Claus and Liam Byrne did great work in building a profile for NUS and keeping it relevant to students by immersing themselves in this campaign. The demand for same-sex marriage rights has overwhelming support from students and we hope to build on that this year; the national year of action for same-sex marriage. Equal Love has called 2010 the year of action, so as to use the election year as an opportunity to place real pressure and demands on our government to repeal the homophobic ban.

We made a great start yesterday at Pride, the annual march which concludes Melbourne's Midsumma festival - a celebration of the LGBTI community. . We marched with the equal love contingent, because while it's fantastic to be able to celebrate who we are, it also really important to continue to fight for equal rights, the reality is that homophobia continues to kill people today. Rudd's ban on same-sex marriage enshrines this homophobia in law.

The contingent drew a diverse range of people (not limited to Victorians), including many students. The contingent was lively and vibrant, getting a great response from the crowd as we chanted. As part of the contingent we handed out thousands of leaflets advertising the next rally (details bellow) and got 100's upon 100's of signatures on the equal love petitions demanding same-sex marriage rights.

It was fantastic to have an NUS presence at this important community event- to show NUS's continued support for queer students. Phoebe was even interviewed by Joy FM!

Next Rallies
Sydney
March 20: Rally, 1pm, Sydney Town Hall
Melbourne
March 13: Equal Love rally, 1.00, state Library of Victoria
Brisbane
March 20: Rally, 1pm, Queens Park

It'd be great if you could all come along to the speak-out for same-sex marriage, this Friday 12^th of February on the corner of Bourke and Swanston sts at 5.30pm.

Looking forward to a year of campaigning
Kath and Phoebe

So they've put out their plans. Okay, they're focussing on marriage (and don't seem to have got the memo that people really should be talking about 'marriage equality', not 'same-sex marriage').
They've also used the word homophobia a lot. Now, this is something of a matter of debate, but generally among queer groups (as the NUS queer e-list must surely be presumed to be) it's become much more standard to use the term 'queerphobia' when referring to discrimination against all queer people, with 'homophobia' being reserved for specific discrimination against gays and lesbians (ie, the homosexuals).

So I decide to respond. Politely. I do try to give people the benefit of the doubt where I can. Or maybe I just want to give people enough rope to hang themselves. One of the two.

I was wondering, since it didn't seem to be covered at all in your email, what plans you have for campaigns for the rights of sex and gender diverse people?

There's a response from Kath:

We're keen to take up issues that effect sex and gender diverse people, there's going to be someone representing one of the transgender organisations in melbourne speaking at the next rally.
Do you, or anyone else on the list have any ideas or initiatives they'd like to suggest?

-Kath, national queer officer for

Which, while respectful, suggests to me they haven't got any ideas, and I really wonder whether they'd have even tried to come up with ideas if they hadn't been prodded.

There's a bit of to-and-fro, one of my colleagues down at Wollongong uni pointing out the complete lack of consultation by the Queer NOBs as to what they would be focusing on this year. Within a reply to that, from Jason Virgo (who, I gather, is involved with the marriage rallies down in Melbourne), is this paragraph.

I think the equal marriage is a campaign that is growing momentum and as it is one of the biggest issues nation-wide it should definitely be a priority and take up resources of the nus queer officers, of course anti-discrimination laws are also important but if we can't get our own government to stop discriminating against us (ie not allowing us to marry) i hardly doubt they are going to put in solid anti-discrimination legislation.

For a lot of people, this wouldn't seem like a big thing to say. I suspect Jason Virgo didn't think about the implications in this paragraph. Well, hopefully he's now considering his next move, because I finally got my rant on with this reply.

To reduce all government discrimination against the queer community to one issue is to ignore the many and varied ways discrimination works. In particular, to put this single issue forward as the *single main* topic of discrimination is incredibly short-sighted. It comes across as at least being cis-privileged.

Let me make it plain to you, and to the others reading this. Every time I fill out a form, including legal governmental forms, I am forced to make a choice. Do I put down my gender identity, and risk having my application being denied on the basis of not answering a required field in an acceptable manner. Or do I lie, tick the box that says 'man' or 'male'.
This is not a light decision. It is not easy to make. One choice involves continuing to live in the closet, somewhere I swore I would not return to. The other involves trying to deal with often quite transphobic policies, and people that simply cannot understand the concept of gender diversity.

For me, this is a far more fundamental human right that is being denied. Far more fundamental than marriage. And to be told, time and time again, often by the people who have promised (and are getting paid) to advance the cause of queer rights, that I just have to wait until the latest popular cause is done with, strikes me as a betrayal.
It makes me wonder just how these people dare claim to represent queers when they seem to only have the interests of cis-gendered gays, lesbians and *some* bisexuals at heart.

In many ways, I'm a lot better off than many other people within the umbrella of 'sex and gender diverse', in that I don't need to deal with the medical community.

But don't you dare tell me that marriage is the one and only matter of discrimination queers need to worry about. If you continue to do so, then I will have no regrets in calling you a transphobe.

~~~
The NUS Queer e-list can be signed-up-to here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nus_queer/

It has sometimes been a rather volatile list, since queers are hardly a single bloc. We've all got different ideas on how to achieve equality/equity/freedom/liberty/domination (delete to suit). In the past, there have been massive, sprawling debates on a few different issues. Perennial favorites include: the ethics of sex work and/or exotic dance; arguments between radical feminists (particularly lesbian separatists) and transpeople as to what gender means; and as the above shows, debates on what rights are important to fight for.