Wednesday 17 April 2013

Way to go New Zealand!



Oooh, where to start on this one? First of all – CONGRATULATIONS NEW ZEALAND!! Well done you and thank you so much!! Good on Louisa Wall for sponsoring the bill!

Also, in keeping with the practically compulsory patriarchal tradition of only discussing female political figures in terms of their physical appearance and dress, isn’t Louisa Wall lovely? :D

Ok, now that we’ve done that bit, now for the hard part. AUSTRALIA WHERE ARE YOU?

How far behind do we have to lag on the question of what is right? Especially when, in this case, what is right lines up so neatly with what the people want?



Anyways, what I really wanted to talk about is just how horrible I find one of the particular arguments against same sex marriage.

It’s the “allowing same sex marriage will diminish and devalue the meaning of marriage” argument. This really gives me the pip – to the point that it’s actually getting harder to just plain state my thoughts and not start ranting and yelling and whacking people with the how-on-earth-did-you-get-to-be-like-this stick.

Speaking as a person with a marriage of my own, I think it devalues that marriage to have to hear my country saying “Hi there! Australia will extend this fairly basic civil right to only some of our citizens. We will exclude other citizens. Not for any particular reason, just because we say that our previous cultural conditioning is far more important than the present happiness and legal rights of some of our citizens.”

There are plenty of things that do devalue the ideal of marriage:

A country that for arbitrary and unjust reasons only allows some of its consenting adult citizens to marry, but denies that right to others;

Celebrity 3-day marriages consecrated by Elvis in the Chapel o’Love at Vegas;

Marriages conducted without love or mutual respect solely as a property/power liaison between families;

Forced marriages;

Liars, cheaters and those who, for whatever reason, deliberately misrepresent themselves in relationships (Yes honey, I DO want kids, lots and lots of kids); and

Abusers of power – emotional, mental, physical and/or sexual domestic abuse.

These are all things that devalue, debase, diminish and damage marriage as an institution.

But allowing two consenting adults who genuinely love and respect each other to marry? Nope, that one is only ever going to enhance marriage and strengthen our communities.

It will happen here one day. If only because we always claim every good thing from New Zealand as our own.