In 2004 Australia became one of these countries, the Howard government brought across the Marriage Amendment Act 2004. In this Act the following words, among others, were inserted: "marriage" means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.
This meant for many people, that not only is there was no legal way to get married under the law, that also their own government doesn't accept their right to love and legally join to whom they are naturally attracted. For some this is a controversial subject, though for many others, this is something that must be addressed to give everyone "a fair go" and to recognise that marriage is about love, not discrimination.
On Monday, 17 September 2012 the Marriage Amendment Bill (No 2) 2012 was brought into Senate. If passed the Bill will implement marriage equality and remove legal discrimination against GLBTI people and their relationships.
The first Labor speaker on the Bill was Senator Louise Pratt of the Western Australian office. Louise brought across a beautiful and heart wrenching speech, that touches everyone's hearts on the situation.
"All we ask, is that you stop pretending... that our relationships are not as real as yours, our love as true, our children as cherished, our families as precious. Because they are."
- Senator Louise Pratt
This subject touches home to me quite a lot. I feel very strongly about equal rights for everyone, and equal rights marriage being in the Senate at the moment is a very important thing for me.
For everyone who is affected by this law and many others like it, we are standing with you and we will won't stop fighting until your rights are recognised.
Further Reading:
Australia: Gay marriage debate riddled with fear
A religious person said to me recently "You think nothing will happen when it get passed, but we didn't find out that cigarettes caused cancer till years later". If their arguments against it are really that fucking stupid, it's bound to happen very soon :)
ReplyDeleteHopefully the majority of the senators wake up and realise this is happening and vote for it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if everyone else realize's that this is proof that the government do not want equal rights for everyone.
ReplyDeleteGay rights and equality would have been a massive step forward for our country, and the government.
Instead of something so huge and important being voted on by the people who it affects, the Australian people, the vote was declined by 70 people who would not be affected by it passing or not.
How is it something like this gets voted upon by just the government, yet something as unimportant as daylight savings gets a referendum?
This is a step back for Aus, and the whole world. World peace and equality will be a far way off, and may never actually eventuate
=(