‘In this house we believe in fairness and kindness’: Post-liberation politics in Australia's same-sex marriage postal survey

Thomas, A; McCann, H; Fela, G

‘In this house we believe in fairness and kindness’: Post-liberation politics in Australia's same-sex marriage postal survey

Thomas, A

McCann, H Fela, G

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Publisher:: SAGE Publications
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Sexualities, 2019, pp. 136346071983034 - 136346071983034
Issue Date:: 2019-03-14

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Thomas, A https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5460-5641	en_US
dc.contributor.author	McCann, H	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Fela, G	en_US
dc.date.issued	2019-03-14	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Sexualities, 2019, pp. 136346071983034 - 136346071983034	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1363-4607	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/138124
dc.description.abstract	In December 2017, Australia legalized same-sex marriage (SSM), following a 13-year ban and a drawn-out postal survey on marriage equality that saw campaigners mobilize for a ‘Yes’ vote on a non-binding poll. Through a discourse analysis of the Yes and No campaigns’ television and online video advertisements, we demonstrate how the Yes campaign was symptomatic of what we call a ‘post-liberation’ approach that saw SSM as the last major hurdle for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) politics. While the No campaign linked SSM to gender fluidity, transgender identity, and sex education programmes, in contrast the Yes campaign limited itself to narratives around love and marriage. In not attending to the link between sex, gender and sexuality, the Yes campaign narrowed the possibilities of the debate, preserving existing White heteronormative expectations of gender and sexuality. We contrast the debate that unfolded during the postal survey to the Australian Gay Liberation movement of the 1970s, the latter of which was able to successfully and radically challenge similarly homophobic campaigns. Rather than relying on ‘palatable’ or mainstream ideas of equality, love and fairness, Gay Liberation in Australia embraced the radical potential of LGBTIQ activism and presented a utopian, optimistic vision of a transformed future. Here we suggest that we can learn from the history of campaigns around sexuality, to understand what was ‘won’ in the SSM debate, and to better develop strategies for change in the future.	en_US
dc.language	en	en_US
dc.publisher	SAGE Publications	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Sexualities	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1177/1363460719830347	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Gender Studies	en_US
dc.title	‘In this house we believe in fairness and kindness’: Post-liberation politics in Australia's same-sex marriage postal survey	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.for	1699 Other Studies in Human Society	en_US
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies	en_US
utslib.for	1117 Public Health and Health Services	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Social and Political Sciences Program
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	false	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published online	en_US

Abstract:

In December 2017, Australia legalized same-sex marriage (SSM), following a 13-year ban and a drawn-out postal survey on marriage equality that saw campaigners mobilize for a ‘Yes’ vote on a non-binding poll. Through a discourse analysis of the Yes and No campaigns’ television and online video advertisements, we demonstrate how the Yes campaign was symptomatic of what we call a ‘post-liberation’ approach that saw SSM as the last major hurdle for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) politics. While the No campaign linked SSM to gender fluidity, transgender identity, and sex education programmes, in contrast the Yes campaign limited itself to narratives around love and marriage. In not attending to the link between sex, gender and sexuality, the Yes campaign narrowed the possibilities of the debate, preserving existing White heteronormative expectations of gender and sexuality. We contrast the debate that unfolded during the postal survey to the Australian Gay Liberation movement of the 1970s, the latter of which was able to successfully and radically challenge similarly homophobic campaigns. Rather than relying on ‘palatable’ or mainstream ideas of equality, love and fairness, Gay Liberation in Australia embraced the radical potential of LGBTIQ activism and presented a utopian, optimistic vision of a transformed future. Here we suggest that we can learn from the history of campaigns around sexuality, to understand what was ‘won’ in the SSM debate, and to better develop strategies for change in the future.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/138124