There is a wild public vote going on in Australia about marriage equality. I'm not sure on the particulars but as far as I know the vote is nonbinding. However, that hasn't kept the anti-marriage equality side from wildly spewing all sorts of horror stories from every direction, particularly the claims about how marriage equality will harm children:
Don't these propaganda flyers and newspaper ads remind you of our fight? They should:
Wouldn't be fascinating if someone collected all sorts of statements and leaflets and posters as well as credible statements about the idea that "gays recruit children" just to show its potency and the predatory mindset behind the folks and groups who exploit it?
You never know . . .
Editor's note - In the second anti-marriage equality ad, those "children of gay parents who are now criticizing marriage equality" are some of the same ones the opposition used during this country's fight.
Editor's note - In the second anti-marriage equality ad, those "children of gay parents who are now criticizing marriage equality" are some of the same ones the opposition used during this country's fight.
I want to see what people will say in a hundred years' time, when it becomes normal, if they went to a museum and saw this kind of propaganda. I'd probably be dead and gone much before then, but I want to see if they react with the same revulsion and horror at these pretty much baseless statements as people do to Nazi, Anti-Suffrage and past racist propaganda today.
ReplyDeleteTo fill you in a bit from Australia – the vote is non-binding; technically it’s a survey since it’s not being administered by the electoral commission but the Australian Bureau of Statistics whose main job is to do the census – they did a terrible job with it last year and took months longer to do it than they should have.
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely no need for this to occur, parliament could pass a bill on marriage equality as soon as it sits again in October if the Prime Minister allowed it. His party went to the last election promising a binding plebiscite on marriage but our Senate has repeated knocked it back because it would stir up nasty debate about LGBT people and is a massive waste of money. Having failed to get his policy through parliament, a group of pro-LGBT MPs and Senators from the ruling party tried to get their party to allow a free vote but the conservatives had the numbers and stopped it.
The postal survey has come about because a group of the most reactionary members of the governing party found a legal loophole that did not require legislation and so here we are. The only reason the Prime Minister is doing this is because he is too weak to stand up to the right of his party which he thinks would split if he just allowed a free vote. He was supposed to be a moderate when he came to power but has consistently given in to the hard right on a range of different issues and his polling has been terrible ever since.
Yesterday he promised a free vote even if there was only one extra vote in favour of equality, conversely if it fails; he will block any attempt at marriage equality not just till the next election but the one after. The Leader of the Opposition has been passionate about marriage equality and has said he will change the law within 100 days of winning the next election whatever happens and gave a passionate speech attacking the Prime Minister from throwing us under a bus which is well worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpMGxukbdbw
It hasn’t been nice so far and we can look forward to two more months of this crap.
My prayers are with y'all, Blogsy. Our marriage equality fight wasn't as complicated but it was long and NASTY.
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