Comments on: ‘I’m sick of hearing straight people discussing same-sex marriage’

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 11:34:45 +0000

there can be an ignorance factor with some heterosexuals regarding same sex marriage…

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 10 Sep 2016 03:34:40 +0000

In reply to nespa. I think that this comment highlights the main problem with this whole debate, a fundamental misunderstanding of what the issue is. The LGBTI community is, and has only ever been, advocating for the right to have civil unions. In Australia, civil unions are covered by a piece of legislation called the Marriage Act which was changed in 2004 to specifically exclude same sex couples. No-one is asking for any religious institution to be required to marry same sex couples. When marriage equality is finally achieved in Australia, churches will be free to refuse to marry same sex couples just as they can currently refuse to marry inter-faith or inter-racial couples today.

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 21:50:53 +0000

@nespa: that would have been a nice post IF mariage had been a Christian construct or invention. It’s not. Endof.

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 05:45:59 +0000

Well now it looks like that marriage equality will not happen until 2019! Don’t blame me, I voted Labor!

By: Fiona Anderson

Fiona Anderson — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 20:39:16 +0000

Well said Rob. Thankyou for this article.

By: PeterFerry

PeterFerry — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 13:17:28 +0000

All Australians should be heard – the fact that the debate is being shut down by the left is frightening for the rest- expect a fight back from the rest of Australia. Attempts to pass this without proper discourse will fail. An open adult discussion with set parameters needs to happen.

By: nespa

nespa — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 12:45:24 +0000

I don’t know what Q&A panels you have been watching, but I have seen the LGBTI Community have always had the opportunity to voice their opinions, loud and proud and have been overwhelmingly represented in this debate. In fact, anyone who says otherwise is immediately and grossly (and unfairly) painted as a homophobe. I understand your point about having your intimate lives being dissected across the nation – something I know I wouldn’t feel comfortable about either… but at the same time you have been advocating to appropriate something that does not belong to mainstream culture, but to Christian doctrine, for something it was absolutely never designed for and so you can’t be surprised if Christians are up in arms about that. I don’t condone hate crimes but I do condone their right to fight for something they believe in, which belongs to them in the first place! If marriage was an Islamic concept – would you be surprised if Muslims everywhere were fired up about the LGBTI community appropriating it for themselves? Is it because they hate the LGBTI? No! It is purely because they are protecting something that is sacred to them from becoming something it was never intended for and thereby desecrating it. If the LGBTI community had advocated for civil union this would have been a completely different story. Straight Christians are talking about Gay Marriage because it was only ever intended for Straight Christians! They have every right to speak on this issue. It affects many people in more ways than you can imagine both in your community and the Christian community. Both have felt attacked and just as you have expressed how the ‘intimacy’ of your lives has been put on public debate, many Christians feel that something they consider to be an intimate value originating from their doctrine is also on public debate. A public it was never designed for.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 07:18:58 +0000

So sorry to say but you are right. Disgraceful. One of the 15million for whom this is none of my business, no matter how enthusiastically I vote yes. Well articulated article. Im still hoping the BS plebiscite will be squashed.

By: Stuart Maddison

Stuart Maddison — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 19:52:13 +0000

I couldn’t have said it better myself.
It is inevitable that some vulnerable members of our community, particularly youth who are still coming to terms with their identity and who feel isolated, alone and frightened will attempt suicide and some will succeed. The vile, vicious and deceitful propaganda of those opposed not just to marriage equality but our very existence will see a rise in gay hate crimes and some members of our community will pay the ultimate price at the bloodied hands of those who go from hating us in thought to hating us in violent action.
Any of us who lived through the trauma of gay law reform already know the storm of hate that will gather and break upon us. For the most part I have blocked those memories out. You have to as a survival mechanism, you don’t want to carry that anxiety with you, but I also naively believed all that open and strident display of hate in the guise of public debate was A distant painful memory. But here we are again, the storm is gathering and this will be like nothing we ever seen before, beyond our worst nightmares.
I’m left wondering if I’ll be strong enough this time around.

By: harleymc

harleymc — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 12:10:37 +0000

I don’t have any issues sticking up for same sex marriages, or same sex relationships of the non marrying kind.
This debate that John Howard initiated has been a fruitful one for shifting public opinion. We’ve come a long way since 2004.