It is now almost two years since the voters of the US state of California passed Proposition 8, the bill that banned the equal right to marriage for everyone there.
Banning marriage equality so soon after it had been granted meant that the legal unions of thousands of Americans were immediately placed in jeopardy.
Equality was instantly replaced with inequality and hope with despair, whose hideous face is all too familiar to the persecuted of this world.
The Guardian: After 8.
2010 is the year that marriage equality is being sought for all Australians, and intersex Australians are included in that number.
Intersex Australians do not have equality, or human rights, or protection against discrimination and vilification, or the right to employment, or the right to client-centred healthcare, or the right to make our own decisions about our own bodies as children or the right to marriage as ourselves, as intersex people.
We are not freaks, nor monsters, nor perverts, nor sex fiends, nor disordered, nor diseased nor so rare as to count for nothing.
We are 1:60 of the Australian population, and we walk amongst you each and every day.
We are your mothers, your fathers, brothers, your sisters, your aunts, your uncles, your cousins, your nieces, your nephews, your friends, your workmates, your colleagues and your customers.
We are ordinary Australians.
We are not “these people” that you need to be protected from, Raelene Boyle.
We need to tell our own stories just as much as the courageous Americans who shared their lives with the world in the face of Proposition 8.
