Marriage Bill defeated

Marriage Bill defeated

Openly gay Labor senator Penny Wong was one of 26 senators to miss yesterday’s vote on same-sex marriage in Canberra.
With only the Greens in favour, the Marriage Equality (Amendment) Bill was defeated 45 votes to five — a blow to marriage equality activists around the country.
In what pundits say is a telling sign, 26 senators did not turn up to the vote, with both major parties opting not to allow a conscience vote on the issue.
Openly gay WA Labor senator Louise Pratt was also absent from the vote.
The Age reported senior ministers including Wong were tied up in a cabinet meeting.
Australian Marriage Equality national convenor Alex Greenwich said low turnout for the vote shows there is “dissent” within the major parties.
“The fact that 26 senators were absent from today’s debate is an indication that there is dissent in the ranks of the major parties, dissent which we believe will only grow,” he said.
Citing a Galaxy poll indicating 60 percent support for same-sex marriage, Greenwich said both major parties are “deaf” to the wishes of mainstream Australia and vowed to make same-sex marriage a hard-fought election issue.
“We will be campaigning in key electorates to ensure voters are fully aware that the leaders of both major parties support discrimination against same-sex partners,” he said.
“Labor cannot claim to have removed discrimination against same-sex partners until it has removed all discrimination. There’s no such thing as half-equal.”
Greenwich said AME rejects relationship registers in place of “the full equality that comes with equality in marriage”.

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25 responses to “Marriage Bill defeated”

  1. Chris what makes you think it will be 2014????

    I predict it will be 2023 actually – because of the political and social climate.

  2. The Greens will have the “balance of power” in the Senate after the November 2010 Election and we will get what is needed for the long road to equality.

    Kevin Rudd needs to go back to school and learn the three R’s and know what equality means and what it stands for:

    * Respect
    * Recognition
    * Reconsiliation

  3. We are a laughing stock and an emmbarrassment to the whole world because of Labor being so cruel towards marriage equality – by voting against it. The Labor party is an insult to gays and lesbians who wish to marry their partner.

    If Mexico, Spain and Portugal (all countries mind you who are WAY more religious or Catholic than us) having marriage equality for all adult human beings – why here in “progressive secular Australia” can’t we have marriage equality??????

    It just does not make sense that Catholic nations are way more progressive than us here in Australia when it comes to marriage in Mexico, Spain and Portugal.

    And nearly all northern countries (such as Norway, Sweden and Canada), heck – even South Africa has same sex marriage.

    – WHY ARE WE SO SO BEHIND?????

    Kevin Rudd you are the weakest link – good bye, you are out of the House in the November 2010 election!!!!!

    VOTE 1 Greens at the polls in November 2010.

  4. Australia has a similar background to Canada and the USA. Why can we share equality between gay and straight couples, and Australia’s governments can’t? Shame on Australia, Canberra, and the non-Green parties.

  5. Thats my Hand in the picture.

    But yes it’s time that we all have the same rights l have set my wedding date for 2014 so lets hope it’s legal by then

  6. You know what,I don’t like my life being gambled like some pokie machine in the ACT.Whatever has happened it is A DISGRACE that Australia in 2010 does not have equal rights for all its citizens.
    Kevin Rudd and all his fans YOU are a DISGRACE.
    How has Australia stooped so low that countries even like SOUTH AFRICA have gay marriage laws but we don’t here??(AND CATHOLIC SPAIN ?!?!?!)
    The Labour party can well be guaranteed that they will NOT be getting the G+L vote in the next election.
    We can all carry on marching up Oxford street but the reality is we are second class citizens.
    WHAT A DISGRACE WE ARE TO THE CIVILIZED WORLD a total shameful disgrace!

  7. To those of you using the Bible as a weapon against homosexuality, you are wrong. Homosexuality is not a sin. The Bible is constantly being taken out of context to support anti-gay views. Any educated Christian would know that. Scholars who have studied the Bible in context of the times and in relation to other passages have shown those passages (Leviticus, Corinthians, Romans, etc) have nothing to do with homosexuality. These passages often cherry-picked while ignoring the rest of the Bible. The sins theses passages are referring to are idolatry, Greek temple sex worship, prostitution, pederasty with teen boys, and rape, not homosexuality or two loving consenting adults.

    http://www.soulfoodministry.org/docs/English/NotASin.htm
    http://www.jesus21.com/content/sex/bible_homosexuality_print.html
    http://www.christchapel.com/reclaiming.html
    http://www.stjohnsmcc.org/new/BibleAbuse/BiblicalReferences.php
    http://www.gaychristian101.com/

    Thats why Jesus never mentions it as well. There is nothing immoral, wrong, or sinful about being gay. Jesus, however, clearly states he HATES hypocrites. If you preach goodness, then promote hate and twist the words of the Bible, you are a hypocrite, and will be judged and sent to hell. Homosexuals will not go to hell, hypocrites will.

    This is very similar to the religious bigots of the past, where they took Bible passages to condone slavery, keep women down, and used Bible passages to claim blacks as curses who should be enslaved by the white man. People used God to claim that blacks marrying whites was unnatural, and not of God’s will.

  8. Battybattybats raises a good point. I for one would like to see complete freedom in how people are allowed to present themselves at work. =)

  9. I would like to know why the debate was 1 hour earlier than originally announced by the Greens and why it was only 30mins long. During the debate the Senate President told Fielding that the parties had agreed to this.

    Given Bob Browns concerns earlier in the day that the government would not allow this to come to a vote, it seems to me that the Greens sold us out when it really mattered.

    Rather than fighting for the longest possible debate, so that our friends and foes were forced to state their views, the Greens fought to have a vote in the Senate. A vote that everyone already knew the answers to.

    On his blog yesterday leading marriage equality activist Rodney Croome wrote “I understand this may have been because of a last-minute deal between the parties to allow a vote on the Bill. This is unfortunate because the whole point of debates on Bills that won’t succeed is the debate.”

    Exactly. It makes me wonder if the Greens really do care about these issues and moving them forward, or if they really haven’t grown out of their stunts and immaturity as a political party.

  10. Ian – “Deviancy is a gay value” – Oh and what about all the heterosexuals who involve themselves in deviant acts ? Looser.

  11. Richard from Tasmania – What pathetic reasoning, Also Richard homophobes are a minority in Australia like yourself. Maybe you should be declined superanuation death benefits then ?

  12. Gay Marriage has happened for thousands of years and across many cultures that have never heard of the Bible so perhaps Richard from Tasmania and Ian should just come out of the closet. It is documented even in ancient Rome and pre Modern Europe.

    Going to these gay websites to attack our community is a way of saying to yourself you are not gay but you are. You are fascinated by us. You even would get erections thinking about us. You would not get enjoyment out of attacking us here unless you were gay. You are here because you are both twisted little fucks.

    Please go get help. Homophobia is a mental condition but homosexuality is not. Go see some experts on mental health and they might be able to you both.

  13. While this is an important issue might i remind everyone that there’s nothing remotely like equality when people in New South Wales can be legally discriminated against for Gender Expression!

    Only if your a transitioned Transsexual are you covered. Drag, Crossdresser, GenderQueer, Effeminate Man or Masculine Woman Gay or straight you are stuffed! They can kick you out of bussinesses, jobs, schools, the works!

    That sexuality is protected is no protection at all if your not fitting male or female stereotypes! A woman not wanting to wear makeup or cutting her hair too short and wearng pants and not a skirt can be fired. A man with long hair and earings and especially wearing a dress may be thrown out of a bussiness.

    Sure marriage equality is important but how about we plug the gap where so many of us still can be legally discriminated against?

  14. To Richard from Tasmania, who is really an annoying troll, do some reading up and you’ll find that homosexual practices and identity have had a role in every culture on earth and at every point in history, and that indeed have often not been illegal but in fact celebrated.
    Those native cultures you speak of often have homosexual relationships as a central part of their culture.

  15. Good on Sarah Hanson-Young and the Greens for trying. This is just the latest round in an on-going struggle. We were always going to lose this round, but I’m hopeful and optimistic that we will win the battle eventually.
    As a Labor member, and a member of the Labor Left I’m disgusted by the way in which Kevin Rudd has capitulated to the Christian Right and has rigidly imposed his version of the party on to the ALP. At first I thought that Penny Wong and the others were gutless but faced with being forced to vote against their conscious, not turning up was the only option.
    There are many in both major parties who support Same Sex Marriage and Labor in the past has been the party which has achieved much (unfortunately often dragging its feet) for the GLBTIQ community. What we really need is someone with the courage, foresight and bravery of Don Dunstan who legalised homosexuality in South Australia in 1972 (before any other state) without even thinking twice about what the electorate would think.

  16. Why do the pretentious little dears complain when they are treated like the minority group that they are.

    Marriage has nothing to do with the Bible, natives in the jungles of the world who have never heard or the Bible do not condone same sex marriage.

    They should be glad they live in a country like Australia where they are not jailed or stoned to death for practicing homosexual acts.

  17. Ian your comments are truly appalling. I am a heterosexual Christian man, and i couldn’t give a toss about Leviticus. Have you even read it? I believe that God IS love, and can be found in any true application of love. Marriage is about loyalty and commitment. Having a life partner that will be there for you. The world has gone crazy! Nothing grates me more than bigets that claim marriage is sacred – as if homosexual marriage would destroy it – and yet at the same time have no real issues with the legalization of divorce and adultery. Shame on you Ian! If God is real and we are judged by him when we die, do you think the God of love would be happier with my view or yours? Go pull your head out of your ass.

  18. @Ian

    Ummm…WHAT??

    Who cares if gays and heterosexuals have nothing in common interest (even if that were true)?

    What matters is that all people deserve the same rights regardless of sexual orientation!

    Decades from now, when equal rights for gays and lesbians is accepted without question, they will look back in history at people like Ian and think how the human race could ever be like that.

  19. Ian…You bigot …this is a site for the gay and lesbian community and their supporters..not for small brained nazis like you so fuck off and post your views on the Daily telegraphs site not here.

  20. The Greens must get tougher – declare that if they win the balance of power at the next election, they will not pass Goverment Bills unless the Government allows a conscience vote on same-sex marriage.

    Green bills only get up when the Government is forced to horse trade for support.

  21. Marriage is a hetersexual value.
    Deviancy is a gay value.
    The two have nothing in common interest.
    Therefore the bill was defeated.
    When will gays realize that heterosexuals do not share their thinking or lifestyle?

  22. When will the larger parties get over the outdated religiously based stigma on homosexuality and accept that it is here to stay and we will get marriage regardless of the opposition of conservative institutions who deny us our rights.