The New Zealand government has had the courage to legalise
gay marriages becoming only the 13th country in the world and the
first in the Asia Pacific region to do so. The vote was passed 77 to 44 after a
two hour debate on the matter.
What a shame that Australia doesn’t have the courage to do
the same. In fact this will now potentially become an election issue with
Gillard refusing to budge on legalising gay marriages in Australia.
I guess having a number of friends who are gay I don’t see
why they do not have the same right as I do to get married, make a commitment
and declaration of love to a partner.
What gays are asking for is recognition by governments on
their status not religious acknowledgement. In fact when was the last time any
of us from any religion followed by the book what has been written in our
scriptures?
Surely part of modern day Australia would be to legalise gay
marriages? So now thousands of Australians will fly three hours across the
ditch to get hitched creating a tourist boom in New Zealand.
Will this new move by New Zealand serve as an eventual game
changer in Australia? We are quiet closely linked and we often joke the NZ
should simply become another state of Australia.
There was a failed attempt to legalise gay marriage last
year in the Australian parliament when Ms Gillard opposed the move and the
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott refusing coalition MPs a conscience vote. Gillard
has been quoted as saying that gay marriage is against her upbringing. As the
Prime Minister what her personal views are not relevant to
decisions that are taken that impact this country. Just as a good journlist will simply report the facts and not let their personal opinions or feelings impact the story.
Abbott is just as bad being quoted as saying that he sees
marriage as traditional union between man and woman stating that this was also
his party’s position. Really Mr Abbot why not take the conscience vote then to
prove it?
It frustrates me that parliamentarians are taking a decision
on this issue, since when have they become the keeper of morale standards and
what is or isn’t right in the community in regards to marriage.
Personally I am tired of hearing all the arguments against
gay marriage. The “because I said so or believe so” rhetoric from our
politicians is becoming lame and starting to look rather pathetic.
We need to evolve and move with the time. In fact there was
once a White Australia Policy in this country. My parents were impacted by this
when they tried to migrate here. Why because they weren’t the right colour! Yet
we evolved from this.
The right for gays to get married will happen in Australia,
it is inevitable. However it will take a courageous politician to make it
happen and clearly we don’t have one yet!
Great post Sadhana. Marriage between two people of the same sex is so often referred to as 'Gay Marriage' which of course is almost always an accurate term for the institution, but there is another way to look at it.
ReplyDeleteThe laws don't technically discriminate based on sexuality at all, they simply discriminate based on gender. Every man is free to marry a woman and every woman free to marry a man, but men cannot marry men and women cannot marry women. It doesn't matter whether you're gay, straight, bi or ambivalent, you cannot marry someone of the same gender as yourself.
Now I suppose straight people don't think it a problem as they have no desire to marry someone of the same gender, but doesn't it seem strange that if you had that particular inclination the government would step in and say no?
To say a man can only marry a woman and a woman only a man is blatant gender discrimination, what if the government decreed that only men could ride the bus and only women could use the train, there would be an outcry 'You can't afford different rights to different genders! We're equal!' So why is marriage any different?