If you live in Australia and your name is entered on the electoral roll you'll shortly receive a ballot paper in the mail, asking you to cast your vote on the issue of permitting same-sex couples to marry and be granted the same legal and social rights currently enjoyed by their heterosexual counterparts.
Unfortunately, this ballot –– or survey or plebiscite as our Government also likes to call it –– is being undertaken at a cost $122 million to the taxpayer because our Prime Minister, the not-so-honourable Malcolm Turnbull, lacks the courage to allow the question to be decided by a free vote in Parliament. Turnbull is doing what politicians do best –– sitting on the fence until the country he purports to lead tells him how he should behave, thereby increasing his chances, as he sees it, of retaining power come the next Federal election.
No one with an ounce of compassion or intelligence can deny that granting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Intersex people the right to make a binding legal commitment to the person they love and have those unions fully recognized under Australian law is the sensible and humane thing to do. Similar legislation has already been passed in the fiercely conservative USA and even staunchly Catholic countries like Ireland and Argentina now allow and recognize same-sex marriage.
Why not Australia, which prides itself on the concept of giving everyone 'a fair go'?
Sadly, there are many Australians who feel threatened by any form of sexuality and would have you believe that voting YES will be tantamount to 'encouraging homosexual behaviour' and 'enticing children' into adopting such behaviour before they're old enough to graduate from kindergarten. These people are generally fundamentalists –– Christians, Jews or Muslims, the choice of religion is secondary to the prejudicial and narrow-minded attitudes they espouse –– who also believe that God watches over them, and only them, from a big fluffy cloud in the sky and that He created the planet Earth for their exclusive benefit and enjoyment. Many also support the hard right faction of the Liberal Party led by our attention-starved former Prime Minister Tony Abbott –– someone who won't be voting YES even though his own sister is in a committed same-sex relationship and has been for many years.
These same people are currently spending $35,000 per day to convince their fellow Australians that this issue doesn't concern them and, even more insultingly, that it shouldn't matter.
WHY I'LL BE VOTING YES
I support marriage equality for all Australians regardless of their sexual preference or gender identity. This is a right –– not a privilege –– which must and should be recognized by any Government, Australian or otherwise, which presumes to describe itself as democratic.
No one should be discriminated against because they happen to be a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning or Intersex person. Sexual preference and gender identity have nothing to do with an individual's capacity to love and commit to another human being. To suggest LGBTQI people are somehow unworthy of this right based solely on their sexuality maligns and stigmatizes them, causing them and their families unnecessary suffering while at the same demonizing and marginalizing them.
Do we want ours to be an inclusive or a divisive society? A society where LGBTQI kids can feel comfortable being who and what they are or one in which their sexuality becomes a problem which leads many of them to harm themselves and even commit suicide? I implore you to think of the parents and siblings of these kids, all of whom would rather attend their weddings and celebrate the love they’ve found with the partner of their choice than attend funerals to mourn their tragic and entirely preventable deaths.
Voting YES will save lives. Voting no, on the other hand, will perpetuate stereotypes and continue to send the message that it's okay to hate and vilify anyone the religious right perceives as being 'sinful' or in any way different to itself.
No one currently has the power to tell a heterosexual person who they can and can't marry. Why should any Government or religious institution have the power to apply these restrictions to the lives of LGBTQI people? The short answer is that no one –– no Government, no civil or religious authority, no citizen or individual –– should presume to dictate to a fellow human being when it comes to deciding who they can and can't love.
Love should not be subject to caveats and exemptions any more than eating, breathing or sleeping should be. Marriage should not be described as the union of 'man and wife' but as that of 'two people.' This is what marriage really amounts to in the end –– two human beings making a public commitment to love, respect and support each other throughout the many vicissitudes of life. It's an individual choice that must be recognized and respected as such.
If you're Australian and you're reading this, I hope you’ll act on the wishes of 5 million of your fellow Australians and vote YES to make ours a fairer, more tolerant nation.
The time for change is now. Vote YES and show the bigots and the hypocrites they can't win, no matter how much they spend spreading lies about LGBTQI people and their lifestyles in their idiotic television smear campaigns.
Click HERE to PLEDGE YOUR YES VOTE at the website of the EQUALITY CAMPAIGN. You can also click HERE to read a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the plebiscite and HERE to read a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the issue of Marriage Equality and why it's such an important one for all Australians regardless of their sexuality.
TICK THE YES BOX TO MAKE OURS
A TRULY FAIR AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY
