Two dozen MPs’ office doors in Canberra’s Parliament House were flung open to a small team of Australia’s most high-profile marriage equality activists yesterday, with an astonishing array of results.

Same Same joined them in Canberra’s corridors of power and witnessed reactions from a wide range of MPs, plus a rousing speech on marriage reform from a passionate young voice in the Senate.

MEET THE GAYS – AND THE MUMS

Australian Marriage Equality’s Alex Greenwich and Tasmanian LGBT activist Rodney Croome are now used to getting lost rushing up and down confusingly-numbered Parliamentary hallways. For several months now, they’ve been lobbying in Canberra whenever the House sits.

Together with first-timer Paul Martin, a Queensland-based counselling psychologist who has worked with LGBT young people for over 25 years, they met with 12 MPs on Wednesday.

On the other lobbying team were the lovely mothers – ably led by the Same Same’s favourite ‘Supermum’ herself, Shelley Argent. Fellow proud mums to gay sons Julie Cook and Kathleen Kirkwood (whose son came out to her just eight months ago) similarly met a dozen MPs that day to share their personal stories with them.

“I come here every time Parliament’s in session,” says Argent proudly, “and I feel we’re making progress. Doors are opening now when they were firmly shut before.”

Greenwich agrees: “People here are interested, and not just saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Usually they’ve got correspondence from their constituency, and are keen to talk it all over.”

REACTIONS

Always keen to see democracy in action, Same Same sat in on a number of the lobbyists’ meetings, which took place with MPs from across different parties. I was allowed in only on the understanding that statements by the Members were officially ‘off the record’, but I’ll be as candid as I can in sharing details without naming names.

All the MPs knew exactly where their visitors were from and what they represented, so I was surprised when one started a meeting by announcing: “I think you’re wasting your time, I won’t be persuaded on this – I’m not with you on this issue.”

Luckily, others were warmer-tempered, especially a few Liberals who seemed to greatly respect Croome’s Order of Australia badge. Several pollies mentioned their gay family members and friends – one even did a comedy impersonation of his gay uncle. Meanwhile, the mums were particularly tickled when a previously unsupportive MP said he’d mull it all over and promised to consult his wife and kids for their opinion. An hour later, another MP revealed that his position on gay marriage was “evolving”. “Oh,” replied Argent swiftly, “just like Barack Obama’s!”

Some MP’s didn’t seem to have made their mind up yet, and worryingly revealed they’d had vast amounts of organised correspondence from ‘traditional marriage’ backers. One prominent Labor voice understood that most Australian voters don’t care about this issue either way, but predicted a huge religious-based backlash if a modification to the Marriage Act was put on the agenda.

HOPES FOR 2012

Some MPs will be hard to convince, but our day in Parliament also happily included several who were very supportive. Intriguingly, two told the lobbyists they were “I’m on your side – but that’s not public yet.”

Sharing their true and heartfelt stories, the mums found their words fell on several kind ears through the day. Argent would always ask: “Tell us, what more can we do to help our cause?” MPs would invariably respond: “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

The boys were keen to get more specific though, particularly with the Labor MPs leading up to their National Conference later in the year. Nobody mentioned Civil Unions at any point, as the aim is clear – to carry out Marriage Act law reform with the full backing of the ALP government. A less desirable possibility is that a conscience vote would occur instead, involving individual votes on the issue from all sitting MPs.

As for the opposition, we found much unexpected solidarity for our cause in their ranks, but with the government taking such a hammering lately on the Carbon Tax, why would they want to deflect attention away from that and take a stand on a progressive issue which may be at odds with some in its conservative base?

Continuing a polite but urgent dialogue with all MPs seems the way to go in the months ahead, agree our lobbyists. Even the best case scenarios involve months of intense campaigning as the Bill is tossed around in Parliament. If you think the debate’s been intense so far, well you ain’t seen nothing yet. And if it doesn’t all happen reasonably quickly in 2012, the election cycle means it could then be several years in the future before same-sex couples can say ‘I do’.

Every one of us can make a difference. Australian Marriage Equality has several ideas about how to get involved here.

SARAH’S SENATE SPEECH

One highlight of our day in Parliament was sitting in the public gallery of the Senate as the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young stood to speak earnestly about a topic she says is important to the vast majority of Australians who believe in fairness and equality.

“The momentum for change continues to build,” she insists. “Across the nation we see state Labor Party organisations gradually joining the Greens in declaring their support for marriage equality. South Australian Labor members endorsed the campaign. We have seen members from Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT. We are all hoping that those within New South Wales, who will be debating this at their state conference this month, will also join with the rest of us who believe that the time has come for ensuring marriage equality for all.

“It is clear which way the tide is moving, and it is time for the national leadership of both the Labor Party and the Liberal-National coalition to ensure that they too represent their rank and file, they too allow for marriage equality to be discussed, debated and voted on openly in this place.

“I think it would be wonderful for Australia not to continue to be left behind on this issue,” she added. “It would be wonderful if in this country in 2011 we honestly believed people should be given the same rights as each other—that same-sex couples should have the same right as anybody else to marry the person they love.

“It really should not be a massive political debate. This is simply about saying that, if we believe in equality, if we believe that everybody is equal, then we must accept that all people are equal, not that some people are more equal than others.”