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Showing posts with the label University of Sydney

Indigenous Australians say NO to Gay Marriage

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But I want to suggest there is a slightly more pernicious at work, namely, an indirect suppression of the views of ethnic and cultural minorities. The real minorities in Australia — migrant communities, religious minorities, and indigenous Australians — are being subtlety treated as culturally “backward” and having their voices ignored by their supposed advocates in the public domain — the Left. Despite the media grandstanding of gay and transgender members of the indigenous community , scores of Aboriginal elders have spoken out against same-sex marriage, claiming it is fundamentally opposed to indigenous community praxis. Speaking to AAP recently, Peter Walker, an Aboriginal Elder from NSW, said that “the sacred and traditional union between man and woman is deeply part of our ancient and continuing culture across all of our communities”. In 2015, Walker and dozens of elders from the indigenous community presented a bark petition backed by more than 46 indigenous groups and clan

Same-sex marriage has an unexpected foe

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Just when you thought that all the arguments against same-sex marriage had been led to the starting gates, a new horse canters up. Writing in  The Conversation , a op-ed site for academics,  Annamarie Jagose , an internationally renowned expert in feminist studies, lesbian/gay studies and queer theory at the University of Sydney , argues that legalisation would be a disaster for gays and lesbians . “Why should marriage continue in the 21st century to be a primary mechanism for the distribution of social recognition and privilege?,” she asks. In recognising some gay and lesbian relationships as marriages, same-sex marriage emphasises the continued illegitimacy of other sexual arrangements and the continued exclusion of other social actors. The legalisation of same-sex marriage has risky consequences that exceed the good intentions of many of those arguing for it. Dr Jagose declares that the enemy is marriage itself. Why should gays and lesbians want to sign up for such an antiqu