I am a bit taken a back by this article on News.com.au here(http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22292944-421,00.html) in Australia. Under pressure to make a choice on drawing legislation to give gay and lesbians the same intrinsic rights as their heterosexual countrymen, John Howard now has the final choice. I am surely not the first person to not hold their breath over this. Howard a self proclaimed christian would rather met with mysterious Australian Sects (which are under investigation for huge cash support to the last Howard election effort see here:http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22287068-5001028,00.html ) over making this important decision on the rights of large section of the population.
I can't believe this is such a "hard" decision, surely its a no brainer to be qualified as "normal" by the greater population. I am personally over having other people decide if I am good enough to be considered worthy of full rights. Admittedly gay men are their own worst enemies sometimes when it comes to fighting stereotypes, but this is no concern to the country. Drug addicts and wife beaters have more rights in regards to family and marriage, than people that happen to be gay. Bigots seem to start their reasoning for resistance with "Some of my best friends are gay but..", this to me makes no sense. If you truly cared for these people you would want them to be happy, fall in love, marry, be able to buy property together and have full government supported benefits as a functional and worthy members of society. Would you truly deny your "good friend" these basic human wants and needs? How would you feel if your rights were taken from you because society deemed your sexual orientation "immoral"? Not too hard to imagine is it..
Masking bigotry in a middle ground glittery wrapping paper is still bigotry. How short peoples memories are, I feel history will judge our generation harshly for the delay and debate over the unalienable rights of people who happen to find solice and love in the same sex.
If you simply google "civil rights of the 1960s" you will see an eerie similarity. How we laugh when we read/hear the racist excuses that were given to not give black people equal rights in the US.
Australia is no better, only giving Aborigines (Australia's 50,000 year old sentient settlers) Australian citizen status in the 60's and this still had to go to a referendum before the landslide victory.
How is this different from the excuses given now. I am sick of the prejudice and stereotyping, sick of chorus lines of "Will somebody think of the children!" and the bollocks that reforms will "blow the budget" from the right wingers.
Stop mucking about, its time to move our society higher and forward, not to be stuck in the bog of indecision, hate and obfuscated bigotry.
I can't believe this is such a "hard" decision, surely its a no brainer to be qualified as "normal" by the greater population. I am personally over having other people decide if I am good enough to be considered worthy of full rights. Admittedly gay men are their own worst enemies sometimes when it comes to fighting stereotypes, but this is no concern to the country. Drug addicts and wife beaters have more rights in regards to family and marriage, than people that happen to be gay. Bigots seem to start their reasoning for resistance with "Some of my best friends are gay but..", this to me makes no sense. If you truly cared for these people you would want them to be happy, fall in love, marry, be able to buy property together and have full government supported benefits as a functional and worthy members of society. Would you truly deny your "good friend" these basic human wants and needs? How would you feel if your rights were taken from you because society deemed your sexual orientation "immoral"? Not too hard to imagine is it..
Masking bigotry in a middle ground glittery wrapping paper is still bigotry. How short peoples memories are, I feel history will judge our generation harshly for the delay and debate over the unalienable rights of people who happen to find solice and love in the same sex.
If you simply google "civil rights of the 1960s" you will see an eerie similarity. How we laugh when we read/hear the racist excuses that were given to not give black people equal rights in the US.
Australia is no better, only giving Aborigines (Australia's 50,000 year old sentient settlers) Australian citizen status in the 60's and this still had to go to a referendum before the landslide victory.
How is this different from the excuses given now. I am sick of the prejudice and stereotyping, sick of chorus lines of "Will somebody think of the children!" and the bollocks that reforms will "blow the budget" from the right wingers.
Stop mucking about, its time to move our society higher and forward, not to be stuck in the bog of indecision, hate and obfuscated bigotry.
