Marriage equality advocates call for action to stop the plebiscite

Marriage equality advocates call for action to stop the plebiscite
Image: A still shot from a new ad run by PFLAG.

MARRIAGE equality advocates have stepped up their campaign to ensure a plebiscite on same-sex marriage does not go ahead and are urging people to do their part.

Since Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed the plebiscite will be held in February 2017 earlier this week, advocates have released petitions and are urging people to write to their local politicians to encourage them to support a free vote on the issue in parliament.

PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians) released a video to promote its Make It Law website which features an simple form for users to fill in to quickly send a letter to their local Federal representatives asking them to block the plebiscite.

The video features an image of the PM’s face superimposed onto a groom standing in a chapel and the priest officiating the wedding says: “Malcolm do you solemnly swear to take the results of a same-sex marriage plebiscite and be lawfully wedded to them forsaking all other politically convenient options.”

The ad highlights the fact politicians can ignore the result of a plebiscite, as well as the plebiscite‘s $160 million price tag.
“As parents, we will not stand by and watch the government subject our LGBTI children to the indignity and humiliation of a national vote about their basic rights,” PFLAG national spokesperson, Shelley Argent, said.
When Parliament returns the ad will be broadcast on Sky TV to encourage federal politicians to vote against plebiscite enabling legislation.
An opinion poll recently released by Galaxy research found public support for a plebiscite drops from 48 per cent to 25% per cent when respondents were told how much a plebiscite would cost and that it won’t be binding.

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Over at online community action group, GetUp!, campaigner Sally Rugg fronted a video explaining why the plebiscite ‘sucked’.

“The draft question… ‘do you approve of a law that would permit two people of the same sex to marry’, that is a really bad question,” Rugg said in the video.

“‘Approve’, it puts the queer community beneath the respondents and then we have to ask for approval.

“Plus, the language ‘same sex’ excludes intersex people, some trans people and people with non-binary gender identities… if you’re excluding some members of the queer community, if it’s not equality for all of us, it’s not equality at all.”

GetUp! has also launched an online petition to be sent directly to the Prime Minister to urge him to hold a free vote in parliament.

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An Essential poll released on Tuesday showed national support for marriage equality had increased to 64 per cent, up four percentage points since July.

Comedian Hannah Gadsby issued a heartfelt reason as to why the plebiscite should not go ahead which has since gone viral.

“Let me be clear. I don’t care about marriage equality for myself because I do not have an aptitude for relationships,” Gadsby said in the post.

“The reason I care about this is because I don’t want young kids to hear the kind of horrific bile I was forced to listen to in the 1990s when Tasmania debated on whether to legalise homosexuality.

“For many, the debate was theatre. For me, it made me hate myself so deeply I have never been able to develop an aptitude for relationships.”

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