by Amanda Wilson
Growing up as 1 of 4 girls from a good Catholic family, when the teenage years approached we were not allowed to have boys in our bedrooms. My sisters and parents laugh now, as I often say they should have banned girls from my room as well!
I live with my beautiful female partner and twins (boy and girl aged 9). We are the family with 2 mums, 2 kids and 2 dogs. Our children tell everyone this. We certainly don’t have 2 heads!!
Australia is so far behind the Western world in that our country still does not allow same sex marriage. Yes, gay people are subject to the same taxes, rates and most laws, however we are not afforded the same rights to marry the one we love because of our sexuality. We are made to constantly feel inferior to our fellow heterosexual Australians.
The world is forever changing as we evolve as humans. Women are now allowed to vote, Indigenous children are no longer stolen from their mothers, single mums aren’t hidden in convents and forced to give away their babies for adoption.
The debate before us makes the gay community feel ostracised, unaccepted and alone. The outright fabrication and vile lies circulated by the “against group” have discredited the gay community and encouraged hatred and intolerance of others in our society. We have been subject to this abuse and discrimination for years, for example the propaganda that right wing groups have distributed – that 92% of children of gay parents are abused, 51% of children from gay couples have depression, 72% of children from gay parents are obese, 40% of gay people are child predators. There are no statistics to support these outlandish statements and several studies show quite the contrary. The disgusting insults such as “Stop the Fags” are designed to scare off those who are unsure of what is the right thing to, being voting “yes” on Marriage Equality.
If you are unsure and believe that marriage is between a man and woman (“God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”), before you cast your postal vote (the next generation won’t even know what a post box is!) please consider the effect that same sex marriage will have on your own relationship. Will it change YOUR marriage? Will your marriage become less of a marriage because same sex marriage is voted in providing equality for all? It won’t change your relationship or marriage at all.
It could, however, change a friend’s life, a work colleague’s life, your brother, sister, neighbour or a fellow parent’s life. It could change your child’s life. It will allow those who have been in the closet for years to start to feel accepted in society. Most of all, it will impact our youth, the next generation of society, who, if attracted to the same sex are currently made to feel “abnormal”, their feelings “unnatural”. These people are currently taking their lives at an alarming rate because they are still not accepted or treated as equals in Australian society.
Vote YES for equality!
