On Equal Rights

This is probably old news now, but I only saw it this morning, so here we go:

In case that embedded tweet doesn’t show up properly, that’s an editorial in the NT News which says:

Voting papers have started to drop through Territory mailboxes for the marriage equality postal vote and I wanted to share with you a list of why I’ll be voting yes.

1. I’m not an arsehole.

This resulted in predictable comments along the lines of “oh, so if I don’t share your views, I’m an arsehole?”

I suppose it’s unlikely that anyone who actually needs to read and understand what I’m about to say will do so, but just in case, I’ll lay this out as simply as I can:

  • A personal belief that marriage is a thing that can only happen between a man and a woman does not make you an arsehole (it might make you on the wrong side of history, or a lot of other things, but it does not necessarily make you an arsehole).
  • Voting “no” to marriage equality is what makes you an arsehole.

The survey says “Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?” What this actually means is, “Should same-sex couples have the same rights under law as everyone else?”

If you believe everyone should have the same rights under law, you need to vote yes regardless of what you, personally, believe the word “marriage” actually means – this is to make sure things like “next of kin” work the way the people involved in a relationship want them to.

If you believe that there are minorities that should not have the same rights under law as everyone else, then I’m sorry, but you’re an arsehole.

(Personally I think the Marriage Act should be ditched entirely in favour of a Civil Unions Act – that way the word “marriage” could go back to simply meaning whatever it means to the individuals being married, and to their god(s) if they have any – but this should in no way detract from the above. Also, this vote shouldn’t have happened in the first place; our elected representatives should have done their bloody jobs and fixed the legislation already.)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *