New South Wales State Election, 2015

[DL]

How is it possible for someone to be both "hard left" and also an anti-gay bigoted religious freak??? In the rest of the civilized world you are never considered leftwing if you are no gay-positive. What is it with Australia?

In Canada if you opposed gay marriage you would be a pariah and face expulsion from the NDP (the sister party to the Australian Labor Party) and also from the liberal party. The only party in Canada that would not expel an MP for being anti-gay would be the Conservative party and even they are backpedal ling like crazy on the social conservative stuff.

Why does Australia stand alone in terms of being so retrograde on gay rights compared to the other Anglo countries like Canada, the UK, New Zealand and these days most parts of the U.S. as well?

[DL]

FYI, the ALP and the NDP are more than just two parties that happen to both be members of the Socialist International...they a actually quite closely allied. The ALP always send observers to NDP conventions and in fact that the last federal NDP convention in 2012 the guest keynote speaker was none other than Bill Shorten who is now leader of the ALP! Apparently Shorten was personal friends with Jack Layton too. And Julia Gillard addressed the convention by video as well as NDP staffers regularly go to Australia to share strategy with their ALP counterparts etc...I would say that the ALP is much like the NDP in provinces like BC and Manitoba that are Australia style two party systems.

I find it incomprehensible that in this day and age there is even such a thing as a socially conservative union. In Canada, the UK and even the US, the trade union movement is virtually unanimously in the forefront of gay rights in if you the see the movie Pride you'll see how in the UK the miners union has had an alliance with the LGBT a community since 1985!

I suppose people can argue about what exactly defines "left" and "right" in this day and age but it seems to me that in the 21st century one of the sine qua nons of being leftwing is to oppose racism and homophobia.

I don't know what they put in the water in Australia but in the rest of the western world if you got up on stage and said "I'm leftwing and I also think white people are genetically superior to blacks AND that gays and lesbians are inferior to straight people and should not be allowed to marry" you would be an object of ridicule.
It's particularly bizarre that New South Wales contains Sydney which has one of the worlds biggest LGBT communities. Can anyone in this day and age imagine the Democratic Party in Calfornia nominating a candidate for governor of the state who was anti-gay?

[DL]

PS, the NDP is not the only social democratic or left of cone party in the western world to be 100% in favour of gay rights. First of all the Liberal party in Canada is now also with the program and as much as I despise Justin Trudeau he has declared that no one will be allowed to run as a liberal in the next election unless they are in favour of abortion rights and same sex marriage. I'm quite certain that the French Socialist Party, the German Social Democrats and SD parties across Scandinavia are also 100% pro SSM and have it as part of their core principles.

[DL]

There are plenty of social conservatives in Ireland's Labour Party, in the Seanad more so than the Dáil, though it can be hard to tell individual positions from votes because strict party whips are imposed on all votes by all parties.

But I must say that the idea of universal social progressivism among English-speaking trade unions (if that category even makes sense), based on the evidence of one (hardly dispassionate) movie, is unsound. Furthermore, the idea that opposing gay marriage is politically equivalent to advocating the genetic inferority of blacks is also unsound.

There can be a strange tendency to see politics as basically a small set of easily-categorised international political tendencies, with extremely minor deviations in their national expressions, and no role for differences among electorates to influence party positions. This naivety should probably be discarded.

I would be the first to acknowledge that there are plenty of rank and file union members in Canada and elsewhere who have socially conservative views, but the leadership is another matter. I've been to my share of trade union offices in Canada and usually the moment you walk in the door you walk past a gauntlet of rainbow flags and pink triangles and that is especially true of the auto workers and steelworkers unions.

I see no difference between thinking blacks are genetically inferior to whites and thinking that gays and lesbians have no right to marry. The only reason anyone opposes equal marriage rights is because they are heterosexuals with their noses up in the air filled with feelings of smug superiority who like to look down their noses at gay couples and say to themselves "look how great I am. I can get married and those pathetic queers cannot. Aren't I great" opposition to SSM a is an expression of feeling that gay people are inferior human beings who must be discriminate against. It is 100% indefensible especially by anyone who claims to have a social conscience. Period.

[DL]

I have a question:

In other anglo countries such as the Canada, the US and Great Britain, inner city areas that "gentrify" still tend to vote solidly for non-conservative parties - such as electing Democrats to the House of Representatives  in the US, electing Labour or occasionally LibDem MPs in the UK anbd electing Liberals and New Democrats in Canada. The Canadian equivalent of the Liberal Party of Australia would be the Conservative Party... and it will be a cold day in hell before an inner city seat in Toronto will elect a Conservative at any level - no matter gentrified or high income it gets. Similarly no congressional district in Manhattan will elect a Republican - no matter how rich and gentrified it gets.

So how is it that in Australia - people in an inner city socially liberal, gentrified area of Sydney would even think of voting for a rabidly rightwing party led by a Catholic social conservative like the Liberal party of Australia?? Its not as if the ALP is some revolutionary party that wants to confiscate everyone's wealth.