Queensland has had many branding slogans over the years, ranging from ‘Where Australia Shines’, ‘Beautiful one day, perfect the next’, ‘The Smart State’ to ‘Where Else But Queensland?’ But all of these seem tired and irrelevant.
So, what should the next catchy motto be? If it is to be conceived within the next month or so, it could be, ‘The G20 is really inconvenient to my every day activities’. Or how about, ‘If you go grocery shopping in the city, don’t carry eggs because that allows you to be searched for some reason, perhaps you are concealing some sort of attack chicken’.
But neither of those are suitable as their relevance would expire after the G20. Because of this, it’s probably best to go with something that has a long past, and looks like having a very solid future. The line I’ve come up with is, ‘Queensland: We seem to have no interest in changing homophobic laws, so stop asking us’.
“... it does say something when a Government that essentially has carte blanche to pass legislation chooses not to use that power for the benefit of its gay citizens.”
It could be pithier, I suppose - but it is accurate.
I got the idea for the slogan reading about the Victorian Government’s passing of legislation enabling Victorian men to have their criminal records expunged of any historic conviction for engaging in consensual homosexual sex before it was decriminalised.
Similar legislation is likely to be passed in New South Wales, after a comparable law recently passed the lower house. Besides the obvious emotional benefit and removal of the stigma that hangs over the head of men who have a criminal record because they engaged in gay sex before society was evolved to where it should be, the expunging is also important due to huge increase in employers who now check criminal records.
But up in ‘Queensland: We seem to have no interest in changing homophobic laws so stop asking us’, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said the government had no plans to follow the other states. Bleijie says, "…the government's priorities are lowering the cost of living for families, growing a four pillar economy and tackling crimes such as organised crime, drugs, domestic and drunken violence."
Obviously, these are all good concerns to have, but it does say something when a Government that essentially has carte blanche to pass legislation chooses not to use that power for the benefit of its gay citizens.
This is especially true when you consider that one of the very first things the Newman Government prioritised when coming into power was to rush through amendments to roll back the Civil Partnerships Act passed by the previous government. It is also particularly clear when Queensland is the only state that differentiates between the age of consent for anal sex (18) and all other sex acts (16) – clearly targeting male same-sex relations.
It definitely says something when Queensland still has the ‘Homosexual Advance Defence’ on the books, otherwise known as the ‘gay panic’ defence. When discussing this defence in 2012, and the Government’s decision not to implement recommended changes to the defence, Attorney-General Bleijie stated, “…it’s not a priority to change it”. Sound familiar?
That’s what is the real issue here.
It is not that the Homosexual Advance Defence is used very often. It is not that many men are fired because they still have a criminal record for homosexual sex that is not expunged. It is not that Civil Union ceremonies were amended as an urgent and top priority. It is not even that a Government busy with four pillars of economy and stopping people riding motorbikes together found time and money to make sure Queensland babies born on the same day as Prince George receive commemorative medallions.
It is all of this.
It is the symbolism and the semantics. Perhaps if you are heterosexual, it is hard to understand, but it is made clear to me by the inaction, the language, and the concerns of this Government that it does not care to prioritise the well-being of its LGBTI citizens - and perhaps it never will.
I guess I’m off to make “My Government doesn’t think I’m important” bumper stickers.
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