Photographer : Photo by Cape Town Craig @ Flickr
They say love surpasses everything. And it often does. But what if you’re a man in love with a man or a woman in love with a woman? You’d probably like to get married and start a life together? Think again. Same-sex couples in Australia cannot legally get married. Australia is currently denying two people of the same sex their right to publicly celebrate their commitment and obtain the legal benefits of marriage, purely based on their sexual orientation.
Australia is falling behind many other developed countries around the world on the issue of ending discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation and gender identity.Same-sex couples want to marry for all the same reasons as their opposite-sex counterparts to publicly celebrate their commitment, for legal security, and above all because they are in love.
Government restrictions on whom gay and lesbian Australians can marry violates their fundamental human rights in the same way that the rights of Aboriginal Australians or African Americans were violated by laws which prevented them from marrying who they wished.
Exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage also fosters discrimination in other areas, it sends out the message that discrimination based on sexual orientation is acceptable. This message fosters intolerance, prejudice and unequal treatment of same-sex relationships in the community.
Opponents of gay marriage often say ‘it’ll demean or destroy the institution of marriage’, but rarely do they say how marriage as an institution will be diminished by equality. There is no evidence that heterosexual marriages have suffered, or that marriage is held in lower esteem, in those countries where same-sex couples are allowed to marry. Another argument used against gay marriage is that marriage is a religious concept and same-sex couples in a relationship are committing a sin. However in Australian law, marriage in a civil institution in which bible-based views are not relevant.
Despite some ill-informed opponents, the majority of Australians agree that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. According to an Essential Research poll in December 2010, 57 per cent said people of the same sex should be allowed to marry.
So whether there is a conscience vote in Parliament or the government decides to represent the majority and change the definition of marriage within the Federal Marriage Act to ‘people’ rather than ‘a man and woman’, it doesn’t matter, how the change is made. It matters that the change is made NOW. Because we can be very confident that if the Federal Marriage Act was revised, before long people would look back and wonder what all the conjecture was about.
So next time when you nod at a dinner party in agreement or smile politely to avoid having to have an opinion on the issue, think about what you could be doing, this issue will not go away, it will only get larger within the Australian community as each year passes, so why not do NOW something to solve the utter prejudice towards gay people by denying them the right to marry the person they love.
It is time the heterosexual majority lead the way and together stand as one for Australia’s gay minatory. It is time Australia as nation matured, recognised the gay community and accorded it the same rights as every other person on the street.
When you look at the image, you don’t know if it’s a man and a woman or if they’re two men or two women. You don’t know who they are. But it doesn’t matter. They’re people, they love each other and they want to celebrate their love through marriage, and that’s all that matters.
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