With the recent legalisation
of same-sex marriage in New Zealand, Prime Minister Julia Gillard is unmoved on
her position against gay marriage.
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| By Kate Lundy from Canberra, Australia [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
''I doubt we're going to
end up agreeing, I’m sorry,'' Ms Gillard said at a community cabinet meeting in
Melbourne.
Gillard has said that a
recent vote for the same-sex marriage bill to be passed that occurred in the
House of Representatives was defeated by a vote of 98 to 42.
Australia is a country
that can no longer pride itself on giving everyone a ‘fair go’ because of the
Australian Government’s unwillingness to treat everybody equally.
Globally, there are many
countries, which recognise same-sex marriage certificates even if you can’t get
married there.
Although it is likely that
many Australians are going to take the three hour flight to New Zealand to get
married, when they return to Australia, sadly, their marriage won’t be legally
recognised because of the laws against gay marriage.
For several years, a
majority of Australians have supported marriage equality for same-sex couples.
According to the Australian Marriage Equality, a website for the equality of
marriage, 64% of Australians support marriage equality, 53% of Christians
support marriage equality, 76% of Coalition voters want Abbott to allow a
conscience vote, 75% believe the reform is inevitable, and 81% of young people
(18-24 years) support marriage equality.
Though same-sex marriage
is not legalised in Australia, a ‘civil union’ can be held between same-sex
couples which is a legally recognised union similar to marriage.
Peter Tatchell, a
Melbourne-born UK gay rights advocate says “Marriage is the internationally
recognised system of relationship recognition. It is the global language of
love. When we were young, most of us dreamed of one day getting married. We
didn’t dream about having a civil partnership.”
There are over 190
countries in the world and only 14 of those have legalised gay marriage,
including, recently, Paris, and New Zealand as the first in the Asia-Pacific to
do it.
Though, gay couples will
have to wait four months for the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs to
organise to receive gay marriage licences, it is expected that thousands of couples
are going to fly to New Zealand to tie the knot.
Loud cheering and singing
of the New Zealand love song "Pokarekare Ana" erupted as the same-sex
marriage bill was passed in the New Zealand’s Parliament. The bill was passed
with a large majority, with 77 votes in favour of same-sex marriage and 44 against it.
Neither Julia Gillard, nor
Tony Abbot want to give the people of Australia want they want, which is
same-sex marriage to be legalised in Australia. Also, neither seems to
recognise or care that Australia is falling behind the rest of the world
because of this out-dated minority view.
“We’ve already fallen
behind the rest of the world on this issue, in fact Australia is the only
English speaking democracy now with a leader of the country does not support
marriage equality,” says gay rights activist Kerryn Phelps in a heated debate
on Sunrise.
In May last year, Barack
Obama announced that he believes that same-sex couples should be allowed to
marry.
"At a certain point
I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead
and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,"
said President Barak Obama.
For children who are gay,
growing up being bullied and believing that wanting to be with someone of the
same sex is wrong, can lead to mental health issues and instability in their
life.
“Marriage equality is primarily
about ending social exclusion and giving all Australians the same basic rights.
Lack of equality has strong links to mental health issues among same sex
attracted young people. We want to see an end to the unnecessary stigma and
isolation another generation of young Australians could face because of this
inequality,” says Australia’s youth mental health foundation, Headspace's chief executive Chris Tanti.
We want the future
generations to be happy in a world where everyone has the same human rights,
instead of this stigma about same-sex marriage. We don’t want them growing up
in a world that tells them that being yourself is wrong.
So, with this debate about
same-sex marriage, we can only hope that Julia Gillard’s successor has the
ability to change the laws to create a bright future for the coming
generations.
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