#naroo

It started when he said America wouldn’t go to war because they’re ‘anti anything violent’ 

After taking a moment to wonder what fucking rock my dear friend had been hiding under, I took the opportunity to remind him of the collosal shit fights the US of A has been sneaking around in the background of in recent history. You know, Syria. Iran. A couple of dictatorships and some guns in the hands of dangerous people. 

So my friend says to me, jokingly, “When did you get so political?” 

I was kinda stunned for a bit because I’ve always considered myself fairly savvy on current events. I was voted ‘Most likely to be first female prime minister’ in high school (Thanks for screwing that one up for me, Julia Gillard) 

Then I made the startling realisation that I am, in fact, bisexual. 

Not, like, at that exact moment. That happened way earlier, but that’s another story. 

I had to go through my first wlw relationship knowing that if we were Forever, we couldn’t get married. Now, I never wanted to get married when I thought I was straight. I supported equal marriage rights, of course, because I’m not a narrow-minded fossil. But now there is the possibility that I might want to spend the rest o my life with a woman and in Australia, I cannot marry her. 

It is very hard to love a country that does not afford the same rights to all it’s citizens. Ask any POC, Muslim, disabled person or member of the GLBTQ community. 

Suddenly, it’s not about being political. 

Sudden, I as a white woman have a responsibility. Once I never fully realised before. I have a duty to my black friends and my Muslim friends, my differently abled friends, and people I don’t know and will never meet, that came to Australia on sinking boats with nothing but hope. 

It’s not about being political anymore. 

Which is what I told me straight, white, male friend, trying desperately to sound casual enough for a dinner party. With a laugh, gesturing with my beer bottle, I said; “(I became political) When motherfuckers started coming after me and my friends basic human rights” 

We laughed. 

My friend said, “Yeah, but this is Australia. You won’t get your rights taken away” 

He said it, looking at an educated white woman. Not the refugees in Naroo and on Manus Island, not at a girl in love with a girl, or an Australian Aboriginal who was taken from their parents by the government and no longer speaks their language, knows their mob or recognises Country. 

So I changed the subject, stiltedly; “Well, we’ll ignore the fact I can’t marry a woman. Anyway, how’s work been?” 

What I should have said was this: White Australia has been taking away rights for years. Rich, white, conservative Australia has a new foothold in a world framed by the Trump Administration. People like Pauline Hanson and Tony Abbot are spouting the same anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-progress, anti-human rights bullshit as Trump. 

I realise I have always had these opinions, but I am a champion at biting my tongue. Why else would that friend who has known me since I was playing with dolls think that I am not ‘political’? 

I have been far too goddamn polite for fear of being called a ‘buzzkill’, a ‘party pooper’ or heaven forbid, to be told ‘It’s just a joke, stop taking things so seriously’ 

If there was ever a time to take things seriously, the time is now.