Marry me?

I've had a few comments about point 5 from yesterday. So it seems high time to do a bit of advertising for the National Day of Action, August 13th.

August 13th 2004 was an important (and very sad) day in Australian history. It is the day that the Liberal and Labour parties supported the ban on same-sex unions. As I understand it, the Federal Marraige Act was ammended to say that "a marriage is a union between one man and one woman" because they were scared that same-sex couples would go overseas and get married and then come back to Australia expecting the same rights as their heterosexual married counterparts. Every 13th August until this is repealed there will be a National Day of Action. Have a look at the Community Action Against Homophobia's website for more information.



My feelings on the topic are like this: I don't think that two men, two women or a man and a woman need to get married to show their love. I think they should get married (or not get married) because they want to. The difference between gay and straight couples is that we don't have the luxury of a choice. It's that simple. It's made more complicated by the legal standing of marriage and homosexuality in this country. Most state laws recognise homosexual de facto relationships in areas such as property ownership. Most federal laws do not. Tax, superannuation and social security (ie centrelink) are areas that we are treated as second class citizens.

I don't understand how rights can be denied to a group of people based soley on who they love.

I just don't get it.