Gay marriage – Australia, a country behind the times

Earlier this week Labour leader Kevin Rudd stated he would not support same sex marriage. This surprised me because Australia has quite a large gay population. I also thought that Kevin Rudd was a more progressive leader than Prime Minister John Howard.

I don’t know if Kevin Rudd does not support same sex marriages because he personally does not believe in it. Or because he is trying to get elected and feels the Australian people are not ready for such a radical change.

When you compare Australia to similar countries - western and commonwealth (UK, New Zealand and Canada) you can see a difference in same sex polices. Both Canada and the UK passed laws allowing same-sex marriage in 2005. While New Zealand passed controversial legislation to recognize civil unions between gay couples in 2004.

Compare this to Australia in 2004; Australian Prime Minister John Howard banned gay marriage. He inserted a definition into the marriage act stating that only a man and a woman can be married in Australia.

What is different between the UK, Canada and New Zealand versus Australia ?

I haven’t lived here long to know really, but are some thoughts.

This is a society that because of its heritage and location is a very protectionist and conservative society.

There is also a segment of this society both old and young (I hope the older more than younger generation) that is very prejudiced and holds assimilationist view towards outsiders. Some say that Prime Minister John Howard and his government policies have favoured these views as well for the past 11 years.

It’s going to take some time for these attitudes towards gay marriage to change. But no matter how far away Australia is from other parts of world, the rest of the world is going to continue to evolve and change. The global village of television, movies and the Internet opens the world to Australia. No doubt Australia will be exposed to the social and cultural changes of the world.

The one thing working in favour of Australia is the younger generation. Many young people have friends that are gay and views that are socially progressive. The future of Australia lies in its young people and that is a very encouraging sign for its future.