I’ve written about marriage plenty of times on this blog.
There’s organisation devoted to keeping marriage between a man and a woman and there’s organisations hoping to achieve equality so all can get married.
The ‘traditionalist’ are frighten that ‘allowing’ men to marry men or women to marry women will bring about the destruction to our civilisation. They never offer any any evidence for this downfall or suggest just how this might cause the world as we know it to collapse. They often quote the bible as proof that it was their god’s intention to only have a man marry a women, that their god created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. They often cite research that indicates children grow up much happier when they are the product of a marriage where the parents stay together, but ignore the fact that there is no evidence to suggest this wouldn’t be the case if the parents were the same sex.
Some years ago the Australian government under the leadership of John Howard, passed an amendment to the marriage act that essentially removed any hope that people of the same sex could get married. He changed the act to say that marriage was between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. This move was supported by the then opposition who have now come into power. Activist hope that with the new government will come new hope, and in fact the Australian Government did amend a raft of laws that removed discrimination against all but one thing. Same sex couples still can’t get married.
Gay people are now seen as mostly equal in the eyes of the Government, even the general population now agrees that discrimination against people because of their sexuality is wrong. I would guess that most people don’t give a rats arse.
Equal Love has a day of protest coming up on 1st of August and they have released a few YouTube videos that are really very clever and talk about equality.
I’m not one for getting married. I’m in a very good place in my relationship, I have a Love Llama that I’m very dedicated to and want to spend a considerable amount of time with. I don’t actually need some legal documentation that tells me I’m married to him. I love him without that need. My public declaration of my love for him is seen by those we mix with, we kiss, hold hands, share glances across the table, we hug and touch all the time, being ‘married’ would not change the way we are and would add nothing to our relationship. In a way we are married if you consider marriage to be a public declaration of love between two people.
I’d be happy to do away with the ‘institution’ of marriage right now. Throw it out with the christians. Set up a system where people who share and live together are required to register that relationship but purely as a legal necessity if things should get ugly.
Having said that, I expect and demand that people have the right to choose marriage, regardless of their gender and the gender of their partner. There is no reason to deny anyone this right any more. The world will not stop moving just because two poofs hitch up or a couple of lessos tie the knot. I’d go a step further, and say that as it is a civil contract, any ‘celebrant’ the refuses to marry two men or two women should have their license revoked on the spot. The one area that seems reluctant to change is that of religion. They continue to deny homosexuals equal status as members of their congregations, they continue to call homosexuals sick, sinners or abominations. It’s time to call them to account for their medieval attitudes and force them to conform to the rest of the world. Religions of the world have shown the ability to change, and here’s another change for them. It must be mandated, they can no longer hide behind their god and claim that as the reason why they continue to discriminate.
Oh, Love Llama – will you marry me?