Rodney Croome . gay advocate

c) Activism and social change

Debating marriage

This article was published in MCV and SX News on 8.8.11

The debate on marriage equality is almost as important as the reform itself.

Voices too rarely heard are speaking truths Australia too rarely considers.

For example:

During a recent round of meetings in Canberra, psychologist, Paul Martin, explained to leading law-makers how LGBTI people internalise the hatred directed at us, how that diminishes our lives and relationships and how legal equality helps repair the damage.

This was a revelation even to some of our most supportive MPs. They will bring these insights to every LGBTI issue they now confront.

Two weeks ago in Brisbane elderly parents from across Queensland had lunch with Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, to put the case for marriage equality.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

c) Activism and social change

Preparing for the backlash

This article was published in MCV and SX News in December 2010

2010 will be remembered as the break-through year for marriage equality in Australia.

During the election the issue hit the headlines thanks to those dauntless people who raised it at every opportunity.

Post election, full equality stayed in the news as major-party MPs broke ranks in ever greater numbers to support it, the Labor Party brought forward its national conference to deal with it, and poll after poll showed a majority of Australians want it.

But, supporters of reform would be naïve to think equality is a foregone conclusion.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

c) Activism and social change

State of the nation: the future of marriage equality

This address was given at Curtin University on 27.10.10 and published on Online Opinion on 1.11.10

We are at a turning point in the national debate on marriage equality.

From the moment in 2004 when the Labor Party decided to wholeheartedly support the Howard Government’s amendment to the Marriage Act explicitly banning same-sex marriages, the leadership of both major parties have been locked in a kind of strange staring match on the issue.

Neither dares blink first for fear they will incur the wrath of the Bishops, alienate the pastors of outer urban mega-churches, and generally annoy that small minority of religious folk who believe who can and who can’t marry was ordained for all time by God and it is their duty to enshrine His will in civil law.

But there are many people in both major parties who are tiring of this silly game.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

c) Activism and social change

Human rights funding

This article was published in SX News and MCV on 21.7.10

I was deeply disappointed when the Federal Government announced in April that it does not support a national Charter of Human Rights.

LGBTI Australians continue to suffer breaches of basic human rights that a Charter could help remedy.

But the Government’s bitter pill had a sweet coating. Over $2 million has been set aside for human rights education by non-government organisations.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

c) Activism and social change

Drag Kings for Equality

This article was published in MCV and SX News on 13.7.10

I was deeply disappointed when the Federal Government announced in April that it does not support a national Charter of Human Rights.

LGBTI Australians continue to suffer breaches of basic human rights that a Charter could help remedy.

But the Government’s bitter pill had a sweet coating. Over $2 million has been set aside for human rights education by non-government organisations.

Few Australians grasp the importance of human rights education more than LGBTI people.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

c) Activism and social change

'Opening the door'

This article was published in SX News and MCV on 7.4.10.

The national spokesperson for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Shelley Argent, has become one of Australia’s most prominent advocates for LGBT acceptance and equality.

She has lobbied Prime Ministers, attended summits, starred in TV ads and appeared on talk shows.

She is such an effective and respected advocate that it is easy to assume she was born to it.

But Shelley’s new book, Opening the door: a mother’s journey when her son comes out, tells a different story.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

c) Activism and social change

What cost equality?

This article was published in MCV on 26.1.10.

Recent revelations that high-profile campaigner, Peter Tatchell, has brain damage from the beatings he’s incurred defending LGBT human rights, highlights the cost of standing up for equality.

It’s a message that has been re-inforced by reports of opponents of anti-gay laws in places like Uganda and Malawi being beaten and gaoled.

Most LGBT human rights defenders do not suffer this much. But there is almost always a price to be paid for speaking out against prejudice.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

c) Activism and social change

An activist's tale

This interview was published in 'Activist Tales' in late 2008.

PETER JONES: Anyway, talking about the old Testament reminds me that our next guest is Rodney Croome. If you’ve read the book Leviticus you’ll know what I’m talking about. Rodney really is a rogue. He featured in the Top Ten Protestors of Tasmania that John Briggs featured recently in the Tasmanian and having had that honour, and the fact that I’m pretty sure everyone in this room knows Rodney, Rodney welcome to the forum, hope you’ve got some good stories, in fact I’m sure you have.

RODNEY CROOME: Thanks very much Peter for that introduction of biblical proportions. Of course today is a very important day. Today, October 22nd, really is my activist birthday. It was on this day seventeen years ago in the auspicious year, 1988, when I was arrested for the first time and also faced the possibility of jail. Some of you might remember the circumstances that prevailed back then. The Tasmanian Gay Law Reform Group had set up a little stall at Salamanca Market and only three weeks after that, after we first started gathering petition signatures there, the Hobart City Council found out about us, through one anonymous complaint, and banned the stall. It didn’t want any homosexuals in its family market. We defied the ban and the Council brought the Police in, and on October 22nd, 1988, the Police moved in and dismantled our stall and arrested everyone who refused to leave the market. That first week there were nine of us, I think. I was amongst that nine. In subsequent weeks there were another one hundred and twenty-odd people who were arrested defending our right to have a stall at Salamanca Market. Gay and Lesbian people, straight people, people from all kinds of backgrounds who were defending the right to free speech and free assembly. And as many of you will remember, it was because of the bravery of all those people that eventually in December 1988 that we were allowed to have that stall. Hobart City Council gave in and since then our little stall has been a fixture at Salamanca Market.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

c) Activism and social change

To speak and be heard

An extract from The Times of London, November 12th, 1844.

"For many year the Times has expressed the doubts of its readers on the matter of whether the Crown’s antipodean colonies are capable of the self rule their more idealistic and ambitious inhabitants loudly demand.

"In this regard our editor notes an anecdote from the lately-held Executive Council elections in Sydney Town.

"It would appear that a convict raged at the good wife of Captain Maconochie – with scandalous slurs like “molly-whore” – over what the felon later said was the failure of Maconochie’s plan to reform the colony’s penal establishments.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]

c) Activism and social change

Nine steps to changing the world

This paper formed the basis of a workshop on activism presented to the annual Tasmanian youth DENIM conference in Ulverstone on September 2nd, 2006.

1. Identify your issue
- there are a thousand injustices in the world vying for attention. Choose one to campaign on which can be a metaphor for, and a pathway to, broader change, rather than trying to change everyone at once and changing nothing.

2. Research your issue
- you need to have all the basic facts and relevant research about your issue at your finger tips, as well as being familiar with and prepared to rebut the arguments put forward by opponents of change. However, be careful not to load your advocacy down with too many facts and figures. One stat or study per point is more than enough.

[ read more... ] [ comments? ]