I am the last person who is qualified to talk about relationship. I never had a successful one. Even mine with my cat is dysfunctional. But that is a different story. As such I could never understand why other people’s relationships are some other peoples’ business. And furthermore, I don’t understand why some people think they have the right to judge and make decision whether other people can have a civic relationship in the form of a marriage. A marriage is after all a union between two persons.
The whole marriage equality debate is really getting ugly these days. Unfortunately, some of those hurtful comments were made by my fellow ethnic group and that made the whole thing so much closer to home. Some of the arguments were not even evidence or fact based but fear mongering rhetoric and even outright lies.
If these are common people I understand. They might be uneducated, ill-informed or just plainly prejudiced. But some of our so-called scholar politicians were doing the same thing too. For me this not only set bad examples for the rest of the society but also shamed our country internationally. How could these so-called leaders of the country be so outlandish about what they said?
A lot of people brought out the whole Holy Matrimony thing about marriage as a base of arguments about why Australia should not allow people of the same sex to get married. This for me is ridiculous because:
a. Australia constitutionally is not a Christian country. What faith those politicians or people have had nothing to do with what should be considered a social right among all people. A basic re-balancing of rights for the people who should be made from a social standpoint and not from a religious standpoint. This is because, again, Australia is not a Christian country
b. Marriage exists outside of the Christian establishment. Take China for example, it is not a Christian country but people still get married. So, marriage is something beyond the governance of religion but the solidification of two persons’ relationship. Arguing against marriage equality based on religion basically is, well, baseless
Some people argued marriage equality promotes homosexual life style, which is not healthy for the society. For one thing, homosexuality exists long in human history before human society is willing to admit its existence. There were lots of historical documents that rulers in the olds worlds have homosexual relationships, that includes some kings in the Chinese dynasties. So, there is no promotion required. Further from what I understood from my friends, it is not a lifestyle you adopt. If you are into it you are, if you are not, you just are not. Also, there was no scientific evidence showing that marriage equality drastically increased the homosexual populations in those countries where marriage equality stands.
The whole thing about that woman in the Coalition for Marriage TV ad saying she is worried that her son can wear dresses to school, something that already refuted by the principle of the same school was just completely fear mongering, preying on people’s insecurity on the issue. Also, I wonder whether that mother had ever wear pants in her life. Pants were once considered as man’s attire, so if she could wear pants why can’t her son wear dresses? There are men who wear similar things in history, such as kilts, does that make them less men? That kind of imaginative arguments simply do not stand but only aimed to create fear for people, hoping to ill inform other people.
At the end of the day, what you don’t like does not matter. What I felt in this whole debate is all about, especially for the “No” side, were what they want, what they think. Those arguments had nothing to do with what the society needs to progress. Pauline Hanson said her society was brought up with father and mother as a family. Well, guess what, a long time ago someone like her calibre would not be able to get into the Parliament either. So, she accepted that part of the change to her favour but not the part that not to her liking. This kind of standard shifting and favouritism is what is killing the Australian society in this and other social issues.
I do not expect to live in a Utopia but I would hope everyone respects everyone, and everyone makes an effort to make this a better society. The debasing exhibited in this whole debate is just heart-breaking. Maybe I am too rational as a person whole only operates on facts and evidence, and in this post-truth world people like to take advantage of the uniformed, but I believe if everyone who has the sense tries to correct this, one day our society will be back on the right track again.
