Thursday, January 28, 2010

I'm pissed off. Why, you ask? Today I've been trying to single out some event or thought that tipped me over. That's what my doctor asks me to do. Maybe it's being told by a co-worker that it was my responsibility to fix a photocopier. Maybe it's a culmination of a general malaise, a dissatisfaction with my job, my chronic singularity. Or maybe it's because I woke this morning after a sleep full of nightmares concluding in being eaten by a dinosaur, specifically a t-rex.

I went to the gym in the hope I could burn my frustration away. This year the gym moved the cardio room to a space half the size, workout machines packed side by side. I found no relief there and my anger grew. I felt like a battery hen. "So, this is temporary right?" Oh no.... "We've closed that room to reduce the rent. We were intending to grow membership but that didn't happen, so rather than raise your fees we decided to do this," the box jawed jock said smuggly as he leant back in his office chair. It all flashed back to high school, picked on, called fat and a faggot by guys like this and I asled to terminate my membership. "You say you're saving me money but the way I see it I'm paying the same and I'm getting less." It was the closest thing I could get to punching him in the face. I guess I was bound to do something irrational and impulsive. At least I didn't quit my job.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

It's not unusual to be haranged by jesus freaks on the corner of bourke and swanston streets, be offered hugs by desperate brits wearing oxfam t-shirts trying to sell charity, or be asked for a few bucks to support a smack habit. Nor is it strange to find a gathering of socialist youths blaring slogans into megaphones and asking passers-by to sign various petitions to get troops out of Iraq or Afghanistan, end the occupation of Palestine or some diffuse idea of ending racism. Over the past few months socialist alternative who've run a stall on friday nights and saturdays have turned their campaigning to equal marriage rights for same sex couples.

I've been suspicious about their motivations in this. Marxist doctrine is generally pretty unkind to the institution of marriage. Decrying it as a bourgeois institution that oppresses woman by defining restricive gender roles/morality and sustains the capitalist/industrial machine through the production of children. Marriage they believe is heteronormic and should be seen as the enemy of gay men and women alike. For them to argue that this institution should extend to same sex couples seems to me at best hypocritical and worst, an opportunistic ploy to latch themselves like a parasite to a mainstream issue that might garner them some new members and sell a few mags.

However upon reflection I think I've been way too harsh. Socialists have historically played a integral part in the gay liberation movement in Australia and feel my comments above are unfair and ungrateful. Like many socialists the issue of whether to involve ourselves in what is essentially a heterosexual exclusive domain has divided the gay community for decades. However at least according to the socialist alternative website they appear to have put this debate aside for a moment. Liam Byrne, National Queer Officer in the National Union of Students puts it like this:

"The ultimate goal for socialists is the total liberation of all oppressed groups, and this requires getting rid of the rotten system of capitalism that perpetrates these oppressions ... But in the here and now, we want to throw ourselves into every campaign and movement where the oppressed are struggling for their rights. Today, that means marriage rights. This issue goes well beyond simply whether or not we are allowed to marry. It is about demanding equal recognition of our lives and our loves, and our right to celebrate our sexuality publicly without fear of persecution."

The fact that they're on that corner raising awareness or at protests with their megaphones and chants should be welcomed. I guess I should do less of the pow-powing and more of the getting involved and active. At least they're doing something, which more than can be said for far too many of an increasingly complacent and apathetic LBGTQI community that is too busy partying and coming down to wave a banner in the air or shout anything but another round.