Go on, have a laugh at the No campaign’s reactions to the postal survey result
Image: Lyle Shelton, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby. (Picture: David Alexander; Star Observer)
After months of campaigning, the postal survey on marriage equality is finally over and Yes has saying they support rights of LGBTI people to marry.
But let us not forget that those months of campaigning were made awful for us by the No campaign and many of its supporters.
The base indignity of being forced to participate in a non-binding survey on the validity of our relationships would have been bad enough, but being forced to endure constant commentary on our personhood made things even worse.
And so it was with joy, today, that we cheered for Yes and got to witness the No side eat crow as their insistence on a ‘silent majority’ was quietly laid to rest today.
RIP The Silent Majority, 2013-2017. At least you outlasted Tony Abbott’s Prime Ministership.
Speaking of Tony, his comments today don’t remotely reflect the aggressiveness of his campaigning, which , included , and saw him .
Despite all this, he today said that the postal survey “process has been a credit to us as a nation” while thanking “the 4.7 million Australians who supported marriage between a man and a woman” and calling for the ability to discriminate against same-sex couples to be enshrined in law.
Cory Bernardi, meanwhile, began an email blast to his supporters by trying to spin the result into a positive – that “nearly 40% of Australians voted NO to redefining marriage.”
Bernardi is also calling for Parliament to be suspended until the citizenship crisis is resolved in an attempt to delay introduction of Dean Smith’s same-sex marriage bill.
Cory Bernardi in the Senate a few moments ago. We’re tracking the political reaction to the survey result in the blog, including the introduction of legislation later this afternoon.
鈥� Henry Belot (@Henry_Belot)
It’s important to read these reactions, because we only have so long to amuse ourselves with their forced contrition before the next campaign against our rights begins.
The Marriage Alliance has claimed that the Yes result came about thanks to “the huge media bias against the ‘No’ campaign'” and against supporters of “true marriage”, even though the No campaign .
The Coalition for Marriage, meanwhile, have vowed to continue fighting “to protect Australian kids from being exposed to radical LGBTIQ sex and gender education in classrooms,” saying that their supporters “cannot be discouraged”.
No campaign spokesperson Lyle Shelton complained that “democracy hasn鈥檛 gone our way today but I thank God that we live in a free and open, democratic society.”
Shelton tried to downplay the Yes result by arguing that the Yes campaign has been operating in some form for over a decade.
“They have been relentless in this … they have seen the fruit of their relentlessness and being involved in the political process,” he said, as though there haven’t been organisations like his Australian Christian Lobby fighting against the progress of LGBTI rights for just as long.
Andrew Bolt’s hot take was to damn marriage equality advocates for fighting against the postal survey in the first place, accusing the Yes campaign of “sheer thuggery”.
“Australians clearly wanted the say that so many on the Left were so determined to deny them,” he wrote, even though the postal survey merely affirmed what numerous opinion polls already suggested.
Today isn’t just a day to celebrate our love and the Yes result; it’s a day to cackle wildly, glass of ros茅 in hand, as the No campaign retreats with its tail between its legs.
It’s a day to giggle at the No campaign event this morning .
It’s a day to laugh at all the ridiculous nonsense we’ve endured for the past few months – and, indeed, the many years this battle has taken.
Because, finally, it’s nearly over.
鈥渢o protect Australian kids from being exposed to radical LGBTIQ sex and gender education in classrooms,鈥�
What in particular is “radical” about it?
Perhaps they’d be better to use the word “icky”? I think that’s what they really mean.
As a teacher, I look forward to being asked to teach the “radical LGBTIQ sex and gender education in classrooms” – I have already begun preparing the powerpoint, and have some entertaining (if physically demanding) prac activities in mind.
Honestly, I don’t see what’s so wrong with the LGBTIQ sex and gender education being taught in classrooms. I wish I knew the things people are learning today when I was in high school so I didn’t have to struggle with being something I wasn’t for ten years.
Parents may not like it but kids are going to want to know about sex and the ever-increasing awareness of gender that comes with that. I just hope that armed with the knowledge they’ll obtain, they no longer feel alienated or scared to be who they are. Parents just need to stop being so skittish about talking to children about something that will one day impact their lives.