Marriage Equality in Australia
12 December 2017
The world as we know it is certainly not the same as it was 20-30 years ago, or even 10 years ago!
Think back twenty years ago, to the things we had or, more pertinently, didn’t have: Smartphones, Facebook, a vast array of social media and the ability to instantly communicate with almost anyone from almost anywhere in the world… to name but a few things. This thing called the Internet has helped change the world a lot!
Then, also think of the relatively conservative attitudes and beliefs which probably prevailed in most cultures up until twenty years ago — and when the availability of knowledge and awareness of many things was not as expansive as it is now. The beliefs of generations gone by, coupled with the dogma propagated by religious and other similar institutions, shaping people’s beliefs and actions — meant that anyone slightly different to the norm, anyone not as homogenous as the rest, was looked down upon or often ostracised from mainstream society. Minorities were widely discriminated against both verbally and physically (many still are but at least there is some level of protection in place).
Yet, things have changed, and I know I often say this, but the advent of the internet and the associated opportunity for us all to communicate instantly with others has caused a social revolution on a scale that no-one could have possibly imagined.
As a consequence, many things which were for some reason taboo or not generally accepted by the aforesaid mainstream society or entities or institutions, such as gay marriage, have been looked at in a different light over the last 15-20 years!
After all, as many more people came to realise, just what right does anyone else, let alone the government of a country or a religious entity, have to tell any other person who they may fall in love with or engage in sexual activity with?
Love is Love. Love knows no boundaries,
What right does any government, or anyone at all, have to interfere with the lives and loves of their citizens, provided that they are law abiding and not causing any problems for others?
Yet, having said all this, still, many things move slowly. Politicians and law makers are always cautious not to lose votes (and their own power) and, in many cases, matters which should have been have addressed quickly are left to linger and can take an extraordinary amount of time… again, as a prime example, gay marriage, or marriage equality.
Since homosexuality was decriminalised a number of years ago (and should never have been criminalised in the first place!!), gay rights and gay pride have made great advances in many areas, but the right to marry the person you love if you are a gay man or woman has not, until now.
After much political almost ‘adjournment,’ the Australian government has finally brought Marriage Equality into law recently, allowing same-sex couples the right to marry and be recognised as being married.
While I am heterosexual, and have no plans to ever be married anyway — I share the view of most Australians, that people in loving same-sex relationships should have the right to marry. The Australian government has listened to the Australian people, and brought more equality to the world. To allow our culture to be more progressive. That’s a good thing.
“Sexually progressive cultures gave us literature,
philosophy, civilization and the rest,
while sexually restrictive cultures gave us the Dark Ages and the Holocaust.”
– Alan Moore, 25,000 Years of Erotic Freedom
