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TIMES UP?
In the US of A, both the colossal Democratic and Republican National Conventions, in which presidential candidates are anointed before thousands of over-zealous party faithfuls cheering on carefully rehearsed speakers, typify the country’s flair for ostentation.
Last week’s DNC in Denver offered a important milestone: a major US political party explicitly including queer Americans in its vision for government should it win November’s general election. Firstly, Democrat elder statesman Senator Ted Kennedy argued that Barack Obama would ‘close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, group against group, and straight against gay’. The following night, Senator Hillary Clinton, while urging her many disgruntled supporters to throw their support behind Obama, claimed she originally ‘ran for president to renew the promise of America … To fight for an America defined by deep and meaningful equality – from civil rights to labor rights, from women's rights to gay rights …’ She then went on to assure her supporters Obama shared a similar agenda.
Sure enough, on the final night of the convention Obama confirmed an LGBTI equality agenda as part of his campaign: ‘I know there are differences on same sex-marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in a hospital and live lives free of discrimination.’ This was the first convention in which a major party presidential candidate, defeated candidate and longest-standing senator all made mention of queer Americans in their presentations, and all were received with rapturous applause and cheers from a hyper-excited audience.
Obama’s victory is far from assured, of course, but even on the Republican side, Senator John McCain has presented himself as a candidate seemingly much less under the command of the US religious right than his predecessors. Though any reforms for same-sex couples would likely stall under Republican rule, McCain has at least demonstrated a hitherto unseen level of goodwill towards the LGBTI community.
Meanwhile, Californian queers including Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi are taking advantage of the state’s recently enacted marriage laws. Whether or not these laws are overturned by popular vote will be a real litmus test to see just how spooked people are by same-sex marriage now compared to a few years ago.
Clearly, in the (so-called) Land of the Free momentum is gathering for genuine equality, and in the event civil unions became a reality under Obama’s presidency, Australia would be the last comparable democracy not to enact nationally applicable formal partnership laws for same-sex couples.
For a nation that all too easily dances to the beat of the USA’s drum, this would be one occasion where Australia must follow Uncle Sam’s lead. Kevin Rudd, Brendan Nelson and their respective parties would have nowhere left to hide.
Sam Butler:
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Opinion 
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