To all Australian Senators and Members of Parliament,
Greetings. The issue which I'm about to discuss is one I feel that the majority of you are simply too thick to understand, so I am going to explain it for you. I will try not to use very big words.
For many years now, Australians have been campaigning for the right for couples of the same gender to marry. The fact that they have had to do this at all shows that there is, at some level at least, a resistance to embrace this at a legislative level.
In 2004, the Howard government tried to ensure it would never occur by amending the Marriage Act to specifiy that a couple should be heterosexual. That means a man and woman, Messrs Joyce and Katter.
That this was done shows that there was a popular drive to recognise the rights of those Australians who desired such a commitment, and that the Australian government took overt action to deny those rights.
It is a travesty that government should take action to deny Australian citizens equality. You may well cite personal beliefs, religious views or even offer up your general confusion on the topic to justify why you should perpetuate this travesty. Well stiff shit. You have all been elected to function as legislators and representatives of the Australian people. All of them. Not some of them. Not just the ones who voted for you, or the ones you like, or the ones who give you fat bribes and kickbacks. All. Of. Them.
Understand this. You are to represent the Australian people. You do not get to dismiss Australian citizens because you personally do not like them.
While you mumble and shuffle your feet on the issue, or choose to appear at rallies that incite division and hatred (which incidentally is shameful behaviour for an elected official to stoop to), the plain, unvarnished and simple fact remains that you stand by a two-tier system of rights. One rule for the majority, one for a subset you have gone out of your way to support persecution of.
In case you are not aware, this is the 21st century. We are not living in 1950 or even 950. Homosexuality is a real, innate part of the broader makeup of the human species. It is normal and yes, it is natural. It is more real and more present than any spirituality you subscribe to. You can walk the streets and see gay Australians wherever you go. No-one has yet seen a choir of angels on Bourke Street, or God rattling the bones in Crown Casino. You are welcome to hold your beliefs, but not to inflict them on those who do not subscribe to them, or hold a more harmonious and compassionate interpretation of them. You are not in the Upper or Lower House to legislate your religious beliefs. You have no licence or mandate to tear apart an egalitarian parliamentary democracy to do so.
All Australian citizens should be equal before the law and the processes of government. We are not discussing destroying religion. We are not discussing forcing churches to conduct ceremonies for same-sex couples (although the fact that many refuse only serves to highlight their bigotry). This is about the law. Homosexuality is not illegal. Same-sex couples can adopt. Nowehere else in law is there any kind of discrimination against same-sex couples. For the Coalition to flat-out refuse to support equality, and for the ALP to prefer a conscience vote (the only time in my recent memory the ALP has allowed a conscience vote on any subject), shows nothing but complete abject bigotry for the former and mealy-mouthed cowardice for the latter.
We should not have to remind you that you represent ALL Australians. We should not have to remind you what your job is. Most especially, we should not have to remind you what compassion and respect for a human being is. We should not have to constantly remind you that you are perpetuating two tiers of law, based only on an ignorant legacy of discrimination, bigotry and basic ignorance of the topic itself.
The removal of restrictions to same-sex marriage will injure no-one. It will invalidate nothing. It will not bring about an Apocalypse. These are the sick fantasies of ignorant and deluded minds. If you choose to champion the minds that spout this utter, sick nonsense instead of standing up against inequality, you will have done nothing but prove what abject failures you are at your jobs. You will have proven that you would rather hold onto personal biases and prejudices than treat the citizens you govern with any kind of respect.
Some of you must be singled out for special mention.
To our Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Any claims you may have once made to be left-leaning, I hereby call on you to immediately repudiate. You, madam, are a very poor leftist. Leftist politics routinely champions equality. You have routinely championed bigotry, for no other reasons I can surmise than that you are a puppet of your party's right-wing faction. This issue is your last, faded, tattered chance to show that you are anything more than a mouthpiece for the most lowbrow elements of your party.
To Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Your right-wing leanings are well-known. Your disregard for fact and science are common knowledge. You, I find to be almost a lost cause. I do not blame your Catholicism for your stance. It is no secret that the Catholic Church is one of the most mean-spirited, corrupt and criminal religious organisations in the world. To subscribe to their doctrine is to immediately surrender a grasp on the fundamentals of ethics. I just assume you simply do not know any better. There are gay men and women who share your faith, buggered if I know why, but there are. No matter if you represent your electorate, or hope to be Prime Minister, or if you seek to represent your faith, you walk that path with gay Australians. Start showing some damned respect to them.
To Messrs Katter and Joyce. When you attended the rally for 'protecting marriage' (from what?) and shared a platform with the odious Rebecca Hagelin, you debased your roles as Ministers, and you debased this nation. You must realise that in your role, anything you touch is lent validity. You have sent a clear message to Australians and the people of the world, that Australia is a home of intolerance, hatred and bigotry. You especially Mr Katter with your odious treatment of your half-brother stand revealed as little more than a bitter, foolish old man. What respect do you bring to your office with such behaviour? Especially when you publicly ignore your own gay constituents? What are we to make of an MP so blatantly hostile to the people he represents in our government?
This issue is not complex, it is not difficult, it raises no complicated questions. It is simple.
You are the ones who are being difficult. Grow up and do your damned jobs.
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