Hello fellow citizens of the blog world!
This is Renee here, a straight and narrow university student bringing you my opinion on gay marriage.
Enjoy!
Same-sex partners all around Australia rejoiced today after yesterday's announcement that the state of Tasmania has officially legalised gay marriage, the first of all Australian states to do so. For many this has been noted as a huge step forward in Australia's social evolution and there are high hopes that this is the beginning of country-wide political change to follow Tasmania's lead.
For more information on this change, view: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/tasmanias-giant-leap-for-samesex-marriage-20110921-1kkv3.html
The need for this change, in my opinion, has been overdue for far too long. Marriage is a binding contract of shared love which should be unaffected by gender and religion. The negative attitude held by the Catholic church and Christian belief system towards homosexuals no longer holds any power over marriage due to the separation of the tradition from the church. Marriages are celebrated across cultures and across religions, it is a diverse and universal tradition. There are no logical, unbiased reasons to prevent it from being shared by same-sex partners. There are no feasible, foreseeable effects or dire consequences from these unions.
Same sex partnerships are equal to married couples in taxation, super-annuation and many other aspects of married life, it should only be fair that they are entitled to the labels of husbands or wives and to have the legal rights of married couples.
American political commentator, Keith Olbermann on the subject:
Parts of Europe and the US have already legalised gay marriages, it is great to know that Australia has begun to change as well.
According to: http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=27817 there are consequences of same sex marriage. The matters addressed within this article are mostly politically related, having to do with the intervention of the government and law enforcement in religious institutions, mostly in the form of discrimination claims. There are no restrictions on marriage in the present day which state that marital vows must be exchanged within a church or by a priest. Many modern couples choose to marry through civil celebrants rather than sticking with the traditional church and priest setup. In today's society there are ways around discrimination suits such as those mentioned in the above article.
It is of my opinion that matters of politics and religion should remain separate, religions should be able to have their own attitudes to same sex marriages without interference by the government. There are christian institutions who support or in the least tolerate same sex unions as well as civil celebrants. Discrimination suits are only consequential of same sex marriage if beliefs are forced or challenged.
It is true that many people in Australian society will react strongly against same sex marriages, just as many people in the past have reacted to the rise of feminism, Kevin Rudd's apology to the Aboriginal people and the legalisation of interracial marriage. All these things have helped construct the social order we have today, this is simply a new chapter in Australia's history, just another evolutionary step towards universal equality.
-Renee
2 comments:
absolutely agreed
Thankyou :D it makes me glad to know that people are actually reading some of my stuff and sharing my ideas. Made my day.
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