2 March 2013

For we are young and free? Well that's just bullshit.

Mardi Gras.  Where them gays get their gay on and the economy gets its gay on too.

This year beautiful man and I will be part of the Marriage Equality float - one of the non-celebrity, non-dancing, non-interesting heterosexuals bopping behind the float, placards in hand, in support of marriage equality.

And why?  How is this issue more important or differently important to any of the other issues that assault us on a daily basis.  For me - it's simple.

We can not enshrine discrimination in law.

I know that makes me sound wankerish.  A little bit Sandra Bullock in, well, pretty much any of her movies - but it is so very very true.

While on a personal level I really don't give a flying fuck if you're gay, trans, bi, pan, hetero or undecided - I understand that there are people that do.  And while I don't agree with them, that is their right to harbour their bigotry and their hatred and their general misguidedness.

But our law, the law of the land, should always but ALWAYS be above skin colour, hair colour, religion, race, sexual preference, football code, number of legs, mental cohesion, etc.  The law of the land should ALWAYS be equal.

And that's where this most modern, most trendy of 'issues' becomes more than a gay issue.  By condoning or dismissing the right of two members of the same sex to marry, we are condoning discrimination as an acceptable part of society.  We are saying that by the very fluke of nature that means I fancy men, rather than women, I am somehow a better person and more deserving of things than my friends who happen to fancy people of the same gender.

And in the spirit of disclosure, I have been told I have a disproportionate number of gay friends. And for the record they are just as wonderful/annoying as my non-gay friends - just as interesting/boring, just as perfect/flawed, all very special to me. (And just as oblivious as to what constitutes the 'right' number of gay friends but I digress.)

It's flawed. It's wrong.  And while creating equality in law does not necessarily make the world a better place instantly, it is laying the foundations of a better future for everybody.  Because like it or not - it is a human rights issue.  You can hate who you like, you can preach against it, rail against it, do what you like - as long as the law allows for complete equality for all Australians.  And it doesn't.  And that's really really wrong.  And you shouldn't be apathetic about living in 2013 in an Australia that allows this kind of discrimination in it's paperwork.

Because there is absolutely no, NOT ONE SINGLE REASON, for this to be law.

To me it is so breathtakingly simple.  It is not just about gays.  It is about us.  And democracy.  And the bullshit that we espouse when we drape ourselves in flags, or sing the anthem or pledge allegiance to 'the lucky country'.  Unless the words are true for everybody, they are not true.  They. Are. Not. True.

They just aren't.

And that's why we support marriage equality.  To do anything else is UnAustralian. And quite frankly - stupid.


  1. Woo Hoo Al, you tell em! Hope you have a great night tonight shaking your booty in white and that more people may become enlightened by this post and your actions.

    I find people who don't understand the true meaning of equality discombobulating! ;)