Why I’m Coming Around To The Idea Of A Plebiscite

By Samuel Leighton-Dore

(Disclaimer: I understand this is a sensitive issue and respect that many will vehemently disagree with what I’ve written. I respect your opinion, but feel compelled to share mine. And no, before you ask, I’ve never voted Liberal. Gross.)

Firstly, I feel like it’s important to establish that to participate in something isn’t to agree with, endorse or enjoy it.

Sometimes we’re simply dealt a super shitty, divisive, hurtful hand of cards. Sure, we can toss them aside in protest. We can cry foul. We can accuse the dealer of wrongdoing. We can even fight for a reshuffle.

But when it comes to the increasing likelihood of a national plebiscite on marriage equality, the game’s already started behind closed doors. It’s happening right now. And when you consider that a loss could very well delay same-sex marriage for up to twenty years, it becomes frighteningly apparent that we really need to win.

Speaking personally, it could mean the difference between my partner and I raising our children as a married couple or not. The difference between our children being born into a society that values their family as equal, or having them live through a regurgitation of the very same political battle we’re currently fighting.

While it’s certainly uncomfortable to equate our very human, emotionally taxing struggle for national marriage equality to a simple game of cards, that’s essentially what it’s become for many of our hard-headed politicians: a low-priority topic with which to leverage, divide, provoke, delay and conquer the masses.

Sure, some of these cards are still in play, but the LNP’s hand is looking increasingly stacked in favour of an unfavourable scenario. So I can’t help but wonder: at what point are we going to accept the cards as they’ve been dealt, inspect our hand, and get our heads in the game?

Look, we were initially working within a terrifyingly narrow timeframe. With the plebiscite not set to be legislated until mid-September, the originally reported November 5th voting date would have given marriage equality campaigners a measly six weeks to shift into gear and publicly commit to fighting for YES votes as Australians reluctantly shuffled back to the polling booths.

That’s not much time, particularly given that Australian Christian Lobbyists and co. are unlikely to wait around for shit to become official.

However, with news that the plebiscite could now be pushed into early 2017, Malcolm Turnbull may well have thrown the LGBTIQ community a slippery little lifeline. Don’t forget that, in some infinitely less important ways, this plebiscite is Malcolm’s to lose as well.

As compromising and spineless a politician as he’s turned out to be, he doesn’t want a failed plebiscite to be his legacy. He doesn’t want to be remembered as the politician who cowardly fumbled with and ultimately ruined the opportunity to legalise same-sex marriage.

The problem with Malcolm is that he’s trying to suck two dicks at once, and his grimy little mouth can’t take it. His party’s compromise (the plebiscite) is his weird way of keeping two ends of the political spectrum somewhat aroused. But in this grossly fetishised political game of rub-and-tug there can only be one happy ending, and I fear that unless we start turning ourselves onto the idea of a plebiscite, there’s a good chance it won’t be ours.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that none of the hard-fought battles in LGBTIQ history have been won by playing nice or compromising. You’re thinking that a plebiscite would be cruel and undignified. You’re thinking that the media’s current plebiscite-or-nothing narrative is a crock of bullshit; that it’s being spoon-fed to the general public by the LNP as way of furthering their own divisive agenda.

And I completely agree.

But I also know how desperately my uncle wants to marry his partner before his mother passes away – and how unlikely it is that she’ll live to see another Labor government. I also know how quickly momentum can be lost. I also believe we need to pause and look at the facts.

Even though he personally believes that marriage SHOULD be a matter for parliament, Malcolm Turnbull has repeatedly PLEDGED to his party that he WILL hold Abbott’s proposed plebiscite. Not only that, but he went to the election with this pledge and has stood by it publicly ever since. If we’re being really, truly, brutally honest with ourselves, surely most of us realise that a man like Malcolm is not about to cut himself a slice of humble pie, admit that he was wrong and change his mind.

All parties involved in this fight are already gearing up for what could now be a six-month campaign. Flyers are being printed and distributed. Designers and video editors are being hired on short-term contracts. Headlines throughout the queer media are slowly shifting their tone as they consider the looming possibility of flipping their focus to winning the plebiscite. Australian Marriage Equality themselves are starting to receive some backlash from the online community for appearing to soften their resolve to achieve a free parliamentary vote.

But these aren’t signs of surrender. These aren’t signs of betrayal. These aren’t signs of passivity.

If anything, these are signs of what’s actually going down beyond the public eye. In my opinion (and I’m aware that I’m currently in a tiny minority) we just can’t afford to wait any longer. We can’t afford to spend our time, energy and resources fighting this plebiscite all the way until mid-September. We can’t afford to be a community divided, unprepared, and fighting what could be yesterday’s battle. We need to start planning. We need to start coming together. We need to start talking to people. We need to start shifting our focus away from preventing the inevitable, and onto the ways we can minimise damage to the community and influence what remains to be the only acceptable outcome.

Marriage equality.

This means fighting for a plebiscite that is structured fairly. This means fighting for a plebiscite that is reflective of popular vote, not electorate. This means fighting for a plebiscite that we can and will win, not one that is setup for us to fail.

YES, the plebiscite is awful.

YES, we’d all rather it didn’t happen.

NO, our relationships and families shouldn’t be subject to public debate or national opinion.

But according to whispers now emerging from both sides of the political battleground, the chances of having the plebiscite blocked in parliament have slipped beyond the realm of possibility.

All signs are suggesting that this ugly joke of a thing IS going to happen.

Now we just have to decide how ready we want to be when it does.

Not to embrace it, but to win it.