Tonight’s Mardi Gras Parade in Sydney will be another important milestone in breaking down the barriers and social taboos regarding homosexuality, as well as continuing to deconstruct the patriarchal notion that heterosexuality and homosexuality are somehow “different.” The pageant is central in eliminating the distinction between the “norm” and the “subversive”, between the centre and the periphery of society.
Just as vital will be the participation of a federal leader of one of the big two political parties – in this case, Labor leader Bill Shorten. It is hoped next year that Malcolm Turnbull, should he win the next election and maintain his hold on the Liberal Party leadership, will participate – especially if he can avoid having to consult the people of Australia via a divisive plebiscite and instead push through crucial legislation legalising gay marriage, which is, after all, what 80% of all Australians want. The exclusion of 15% of the total population from one of the key rites of our society simply must stop.
To this end, we need to look at ways in which the presentation of the homosexual community can continue to be normalised. We here at The XYZ feel that in one area in particular, we are yet to fully embrace homosexuality. Namely, why do we still feel the need to sugar-coat the reality of what homosexual sex is all about? Why the pink costumes, the barbie doll outfits, and all the rainbows. Such over the top diversion from what it is all about speaks volumes about the repressed nature of our society when it comes to homosexual sex. It is high time that the discrimination against the public act of homosexual intercourse cease, and those who wish to engage in it be allowed to do so. If it is perfectly acceptable for women to sunbath topless at Bondi Beach, then why, barely a few kilometres away on Oxford Street, do homosexuals still have to resort to euphemisms in revealing their true selves?
Undoubtedly, the first few years that the truest expression of homosexual love is made public will seem confronting – indeed, it is important that the act is rubbed in all our little white faces, because we really do have a long way to go, as a nation – but I hope, in time, we will come to view it the way we should, were we to take a moment to examine our last vestiges of prejudice, which still haunt us as we expel the constructs which capitalism has foisted upon us.
It is completely natural.
Photo by andy_tyler 