Racism isn’t okay, so why is homophobia?

OUR politicians have defended Israel Folau’s homophobic comments as free speech. But if applied to other marginalised groups would they really do the same, asks Seb Starcevic.

TEN years ago, LGBT magazine The Advocate ran its now-infamous “GAY IS THE NEW BLACK” cover.

In 2008, Prop 8 had just passed in California after a fiercely contested referendum that saw millions of dollars pumped into a scare campaign and record-breaking voter turnout. Though the amendment was eventually ruled unconstitutional, the passing of anti-same-sex marriage legislation inspired a renewed awareness of queer issues.

As Michael Joseph Gross wrote for The Advocate at the time, “[Gay people] are the most socially acceptable targets for the kind of casual hatred that American society once approved for habitual use against black people. Gay is the dark pit where our society lets people throw their fears about what’s wrong with the world.”

Fast forward a decade and those words are still achingly relevant. Even after seizing the blood-bought right to same-sex marriage in Australia, a number of unrelated incidents in the past couple of weeks have shown gay people are still fighting for the bare minimum of recognition afforded to other marginalised groups.

On a recent episode of Miranda Devine’s podcast, Miranda Live, Treasurer Scott Morrison commended Wallabies fullback Israel Folau for his “strength of character” and “standing up for what he believes in” after the latter wrote that gay people are headed for hell, going so far as to say it’s “what this country is about.”

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison said Folau’s right to make homophobic comments freely is “what this country is about.”. (Pic: supplied)

Putting aside the fact that faith has been opportunistically weaponised against queer people for generations, so there’s nothing noble or even remotely surprising about it happening now, imagine if Folau had taken aim at another minority group.

Would ScoMo be so gushing in his praise, declaring Folau a “good man” and portraying him as some sort of embattled patriot, if his fire-and-brimstone spiel had been directed at the indigenous community? How about interracial couples?

As campaigner Sally Rugg put it: “If Israel Folau wrote that disabled people or Jewish people will go to Hell, we wouldn’t be thoughtfully debating free speech. Not a chance.”

That’s not all. After a socially conservative Liberal branch with ties to MP Kevin Andrews called for the resurrection of conversion therapy, Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt was infuriatingly reluctant to condemn it.

When asked to clarify his stance by ABC Radio National presenter Patricia Karvelas, he tried to spin community concerns as an assault on free speech, saying: “People are entitled to have different views that I disagree with. What I do worry about is this constant view that nobody is anywhere allowed to have a different view.”

This “different view” of conversion therapy, let’s not forget, has been derided as dangerous pseudoscience by health authorities, including the Australian Medical Association and the UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists, both of which Hunt himself cited earlier in the interview, albeit in the context of recreational cannabis use.

Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt said “people are entitled to have different views. (Pic: Alex Murray)

Incredibly, when the question was sprung on him at a press conference, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said he had “no view” on conversion therapy, as if he’d been asked to pick his favourite ice cream flavour. This is the same guy who once described gay people as “sordid” and “unnatural” before claiming to be a changed man.

Making out the ex-gay movement as simply an alternate perspective rather than a manifestation of murderous homophobia affords it a sense of legitimacy it doesn’t deserve. And there’s the rub: unlike other brands of bigotry, homophobia is still legitimised by a large swath of society, including some of the most senior members of government.

These are the same people who accept conventional wisdom that racism is indefensible, that no reasoning, scriptural or otherwise, is sufficient to justify it. Yet they permit quackery and hatred directed specifically at gay people under the guise of respecting a plurality of beliefs.

That’s not to say racism doesn’t still exist and isn’t deeply, cancerously embedded in our political and social structures. But overt racism is at least less normalised than it used to be and comes with an innate gag reflex. It’s increasingly apparent we haven’t reached that level of awareness when it comes to homophobia.

Gay probably isn’t the new black, but the comparison works in a big way. Because just as it’s not OK to be racist, it shouldn’t be OK to be homophobic. And the sooner all of us realise that, and our fearless leaders smell their own rank hypocrisy, the better.

Seb Starcevic is a freelance writer and contributor to RendezView. @sebstarcevic

Originally published as Racism isn’t okay, so why is homophobia?