Posts Tagged ‘Sydney Morning Herald’

1 Million people have viewed this video in just 2 days – want to see it too?

Posted: November 27, 2011 in Political musings, Popular Culture et al, Religion
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I agree utterly with this video and its message. Long overdue. And its way past time Australian politicians showed some true leadership – especially Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Over thirty years ago, I used to walk around at University wearing a lapel badge that read “Gay Liberation Is Our Liberation”. I was frequently stopped by people asking, sometimes aggressively, “So, you’re a real, live queer, are you?”

I patiently explained that I happened to be straight, but that Gay Liberation would never take place until we – the majority population of heterosexuals – reformed our antiquated and unsympathetic points of view. Yet as recently as two days ago, one of Australia’s major newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald, published an article by a prominent Roman Catholic arguing that Australia is not ready to say “we do” to gay marriage.

Reporting on a recent opinion survey, Chris Meney, director of something called the Life, Marriage and Family Centre in the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, opined that “ordinary Australians seem to feel that this is a divisive issue, that there are more important issues to be dealt with, that the interests of children must be considered along with the rights of adults and that any hurried change has the potential for unintended and undesirable consequences – some of which strike at the heart of our free and open society.

Well I have news for Mr Meney: not only are you pontificating, pardon the pun, from the metaphorical pulpit one of the most irredeemably conservative Catholic archdiocese in the world, but thirty plus years is not “hurried change”.

What’s more, in June 2004, a survey conducted by Newspoll showed that only 38% of respondents supported same-sex marriage, with 44% opposed and 18% undecided.

But by June 2007, a Galaxy Poll conducted for Get Up measured the opinions of 1,100 Australians aged 16 and over. Just three short years later, now 57% of respondents supported same-sex marriage with 37% opposed and 6% undecided.

In June 2009, another Galaxy Poll measured the opinions of 1,100 Australians aged 16 and over. 60% of respondents supported the recognition of same-sex marriage, with 36% opposed and 4% undecided.  In addition, 58% of respondents supported the recognition of foreign same-sex marriages in Australia, with 36% opposed and 5% undecided.

In October 2010, a third Galaxy Poll measured the opinions of 1,050 Australians aged 18 and over. By now, 62% of respondents supported the recognition of same-sex marriage, with 33% opposed and 5% undecided.

In July 2011 a survey of 543 people conducted by Roy Morgan measured the support for a number of positions on marriage.

That revealed that now 68% of Australians support same-sex marriage, and further that 78% classify marriage as a ‘necessary’ institution, with only 22% opposing.

Homosexual people do not want to “Union” one another. They want to marry one another. And not to allow them to do so is the pettiest, rankest, vilest, most discriminatory blot on Australia’s body politic, and one that should be immediately removed.

Well done, Get Up! Keep up the fight.