As the proceedings of the marriage equality case conclude in the Supreme Court, for some of us, the proceedings are triggering and mentally and emotionally exhausting. Why? They are a reminder of the ignorance, injustice, apathy and prejudice we have battled for decades. Most eyes see committed individuals in black and white their energetic bodies jostling with each other and their opinions clashing in the air of the courtroom. Some of us see dead people in attendance to these proceedings.
You may not see them. Perhaps you don’t know them. Maybe you do but never noticed who they were or the depth of misery in their eyes. They may be people in your family, community, or those who pass by every day. You may not notice them but we see them everywhere. These folks represent oppression and indignity in different times, spaces and settings of the society and nation we live in. They are an almost continuous, unbroken line of eyes watching and waiting in the courtroom.
Some of these are also those who did not live to see and witness this day where equality can be demanded and debated. They faced historical bias, structural and systematic oppression given to us by the colonisers….
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