The passage of a marriage equality bill in the UK House of Commons earlier this week (meaning that marriage equality looks likely in England and Wales later this year), prompted renewed discussion of this issue in Australia.
The Sydney Morning Herald/Sunday Sun-Herald Loaded Dog section sought 150 word comments from readers on the topic “Should gay marriage be an election issue?”
I submitted the following piece, which was published this morning. On the positve side, it was the first ‘reader’s’ comment published, and meant my opinion was presented on the same page as equality advocate, athlete ally and all-round good guy David Pocock.
On the flipside, in the online version at least, my comment was published directly below the incoherent, homophobic ramblings of suspended Katter candidate Bernard Gaynor.
Anyway, here is what I submitted, followed by a link to what was published:
My partner Steve and I have been together for four and a half years, and engaged for three. We are the epitome of your average couple –except we are not allowed to get married in our own country, simply because of who we love.
We could marry overseas, but that would be prohibitively expensive, and mean that many family members and friends would be unable to celebrate with us.
Instead, we wait for the day we are finally treated equally here. In the meantime, we both have elderly grandmothers that we love, but who may no longer be around when we can legally wed in Australia.
If you are heterosexual and oppose marriage equality, please consider this: would you accept the Government deciding that you couldn’t get married, or making you get married in another country, or forcing you to wait 10 years? I didn’t think so. Neither do we.
alastairlawrie 