Previously mired by infighting, delegates at this year’s Queer Collaborations were united on two fronts: gay marriage and student unionism. Iain Clacher reports.

Queer student activists have voted to campaign for the repeal of the same-sex marriage ban and overturn voluntary student unionism.

The resolutions were adopted at the 19th Queer Collaborations Conference, which was held at the University of Melbourne last week.

The now-annual conference, which began in Sydney in 1991, has become infamous for its splits and schisms, with many delegates dividing along political lines each year.

Most notoriously, the 2001 Conference in Newcastle split in two after a political dispute saw non-socialist delegates leave the conference and form their own meeting in a nearby bar.

Though without any dramatic splits this year, the conference was not without its passions and divisions either, according to co-organiser Bree Ahrens, queer officer from the National Union of Students.    

“[Same-sex marriage] has been an issue that’s been quite controversial in student activism,” Ahrens told SX.

“There are some who don’t feel that marriage is something we should be working towards as part of queer liberation, but we saw it as necessary in order to defeat queer-phobic laws,” she said.

Ahrens said students will use the resolution on same-sex marriage to get behind promoting the annual National Day of Action on the issue which is planned for August 13 to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the Federal Parliament’s marriage ban in 2004.

“We hope that as usual there’ll be a large student turnout at the National Day of Action,” Ahrens said.

Marriage was also one of three demands at this year’s Queer Collaborations “action”, a protest at the office of Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner. 

“He wasn’t there, but we managed to squeeze into his office lobby, and we intend on sending him a letter with our demands when he returns,” Ahrens told SX.

But at least one conference participant wasn’t impressed.

In an online post, feminist blogger ‘Burning Woods’ wrote: “The socialists wandered off down to the office of the Minister for Finance (because it was close) to do an impromptu protest for the not-especially-coherent manifesto of gay marriage, overturning VSU, and homophobia in schools, while the non-socialists fucked off into the city and went shopping.

“Did it actually achieve anything besides giving the Trots an adrenalin high? Of course not. But hey, since when were we expected to try and, y’know, do something useful with the time?”

Burning Words’ criticism extended to the Conference itself, adding that an opportunity for networking and productive discussions were being hijacked by others with less peaceful motives.

Nonetheless, Ahrens told SX there were over 30 workshops run by students and representatives from outside organisations on subjects as diverse as queer history, genderqueer and transgender issues and the Federal Government’s intervention in Northern Territory aboriginal communities.

“I found it to be a really productive conference,” Ahrens said.

“It was an important space for political discussion and in that context it was useful. I feel that as queer student unionists there was unity in that,” she said.

The 2009 Queer Collaborations Conference will be hosted jointly by the Australian National University and the University of Canberra.

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