Three weeks ago Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull announced Australians will be offered the opportunity to vote in a postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage costing the Aussie taxpayer AU$122 million. This means your neighbour, your workmates, your boss, everyone you see on the street decides whether you a gay person and your partner have the right to get married. Of course, if you are heterosexual then no problem get married whenever you like. But if you’re gay, then you need permission from the Australian community to do something as simple and loving as get married.
Why? It seems that Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal party, in coalition with the Christian valued National party, oppose any proposed amendments to the current Marriage Act 1961 which stipulates that marriage is “the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others.” 1961 it was a different world but this is now 2017 and this archaic act is still the law in Australia.
Same-sex marriage bill
A bill has been drafted by two Liberal MPs for a vote on same-sex marriage but Turnbull will not support the bill until there is a vote by the Australian people. If it is a “no” vote no bill will proceed, while a ‘”yes” vote will place amendments to the existing marriage act under consideration. Yes, under consideration, yeah that means we’ll think about it, but we don’t really want gays marrying all over the place do we?
It would still have to go through Federal parliament and there’s no promise it will get voted in anyway.
Anti-gay propaganda
Now the campaigning has begun and all sorts of anti-gay propaganda are being fed into the media. Just released is an ad made by The Coalition for Marriage, a Christian campaign group that opposes same-sex marriage.
This 30-second ad features three mothers fearful of what will happen to their children if they attend a school with children of same-sex couples. One woman says her son’s school said he could wear a dress if he felt like it. Another woman says “When same-sex marriage passes as law overseas this type of program becomes widespread and compulsory.” Seriously?!
Well, I live in a country where same-sex marriage is legal and I’ve never heard of that happening, but if your boy wanted to wear a dress so what? Australian Labor party leader Bill Shorten has labelled the ad as “offensive and hurtful”. This type of scaremongering propaganda is dangerous, it stigmatises the LGBTI community by spreading prejudices and separatism and that hatred and suspicion reflect on their children.
Research shows children of LGBTI parents are no different than those with heterosexual parents. A 2010 meta-analysis of 33 studies, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family by Timothy J. Biblarz - University of Southern California and Judith Stacey - New York University found claims that children need both a mother and father for crucial development were dubious.
Their conclusion: “The gender of parents correlates in novel ways with parent-child relationships but has minor significance for children's psychological adjustment and social success”.
Protest
There has been plenty of protest in Australia against this plebiscite, the groundswell in support of same-sex marriage shows the majority of Australians want the bill to pass. The plebiscite is a Waste Of Time, even voting for it in parliament is a waste of time. No one has any right to say if a gay person can get married or not. It beggars belief while the Australian Government cannot see this.
