Heartwarming video helps launch new Australian Marriage Equality campaign
Image: Milla Hendry features in the Equality Campaign video. Photo: Supplied
THE leading advocacy groups for marriage equality, Australians for Equality (A4E) and Australian Marriage Equality (AME), have launched a new campaign to achieve marriage equality through a parliamentary vote.
The plan is that ‘The Equality Campaign’ will help build on the momentum generated across the country for marriage equality and will roll out a number of videos featuring Australians from around the nation sharing their stories.
Newly-launched website equalitycampaign.org.au contains tools for people to lobby their MPs, hold local events, and share with their communities the many reasons why marriage equality matters.
A4E director Tiernan Brady, who helped spearhead the ‘yes’ vote in Ireland’s referendum on marriage equality, said the recent debate on the plebiscite had distracted attention away from the core of the issue and the new campaign was about giving power back to the people.
“This is a big thing. The bit that has been lost in the last few months is why we’re for marriage equality,” he said.
“It’s been about the four ‘Ps’ – process, politics, parties and plebiscite, and instead of talking about people that’s what we’ve been focused on.
“This campaign is taking the energy and making sure we maintain the momentum, but doing so in a positive way and tell human stories.
“The unique thing is we’re not trying to persuade Australians because Australia is for marriage equality. What we’re trying to do is get Australians to persuade parliament to change the laws to reflect the Australia it represents.
Brady said A4E and AME’s job now was to empower regular Aussies.
“It’s about getting the campaign out of the political chattering classes and down to kitchen tables,” he said.
“Nothing is more powerful… hundreds of thousands of people, their parents, friends and families need to have the conversation.
“That’s the bit that’s lost when we’re talking about politics, it leaves people out in places like Toowoomba, they can’t see how they can be part of the change.
“But by talking to colleagues and neighbours, there is nothing more positive.”
AME co-chair Alex Greenwich said the Equality Campaign comes at a critical time for marriage equality and that Australians shouldn’t expect anything less than a parliamentary vote on the issue in the near future.
“It is coming at a critical time, it’s so important we show a sign of strength, and to make it clear we’re not going to give oxygen to a narrative that we can or should wait for marriage equality. We need to ramp up the pressure to have parliamentary vote as soon as possible,” he said.
“We’ve employed many diverse voices for marriage equality to make sure they’re heard. This is an opportunity we have to get a parliamentary vote on marriage and make sure it gets through.
“Australians support a reform that makes people happy.”
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“This campaign is about putting the human face of the issue back in the centre of the discussion. It is based on the importance of human stories and the message to LGBTI people, their families and friends that collectively we can be the agent of change,” co-chair of A4E, Anna Brown said.
“Our campaign aims to make a clear break from the negative atmosphere which surrounded the plebiscite and remind people of the importance but also the beauty of the cause. We are promoting some of the greatest human values – love, respect and happiness.
“It is a campaign based on promoting conversations about why equality matters to us rather than angry politicised debates.”
The single most important thing that turns a person into a supporter of LGBTI equality is when they know an LGBTI person and they have a conversation about equality.
“This will be a campaign reaching out to every LGBTI person and remind them that they are the single most influential person in the space they live in,” Brown said.
Australia already has marriage equality. The laws of marriage apply equally to every single Australian citizen. Every single Australian has the same right to chose from a range of people that he or she can marry – and are constrained by the same laws that prevent he or she from marrying. These are defined in the Marriage Act 1961: Section 5 defines marriage as being the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life. This applies equally, to everyone. Section 23 defines those people who you cannot marry. For instance – a brother cannot marry his sister; And a daughter cannot marry her father; And Section 94 makes Bigamy an offence with a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 5 years. Now, all these laws pertaining to marriage apply just as equally to me as they do to any homosexual man and apply equally to my wife as they do to any lesbian woman – it’s just that homosexual men and lesbian women choose not to marry this way. Marriage is always a choice. So where is the “marriage inequality” to which same sex marriage types continually refer?…..The real issue is not to be “equal” at all (they already are), but rather what they want is to broaden the range of people that anyone can marry by re-defining the word “marriage” – that is all. They want to be able to marry people of their own sex where that is currently not permitted and this is a restriction that equally applies to all (yes….equality already exists). So both the ABILITY to marry is applied equally to everyone and the RESTRICTIONS applies equally to everyone. There is already marriage equality. But same sex marriage proponents dress it up as a grievance using emotional poetry and propaganda so that they can milk the issue to deceive as many people as they can – mostly young people because they are more naive to political manipulations and easier to sway using emotive slogans. Just like the definitions of “homosexual” and “heterosexual” are a million miles apart (and never the twain shall meet), so too, the definitions between homosexual marriage and heterosexual marriage are a million miles apart – they cannot be legitimately defined in the same wording of the same Marriage Act as the same sex marriage proponents are trying to do…..to prove this point even further: homosexuality uses the term “gay” (for men) and “lesbian” (for women) to describe the sexual gender of their relationships. But with heterosexuality, we do not use a specific term that denotes male sexual heterosexuality nor a specific term for female sexual heterosexuality…..and the reason is?…..you guessed it, heterosexual relationships are infinitely different to homosexual relationships! Try the simple $2 test: if you have one $2 coin or two $1 coins they are of equal value but they are not the same – try putting a $2 coin in a vending machine that only takes $1 coins, or 2x$1 coins in a vending machine that only takes $2 coins….you can’t do it even though both have equal value….equal value, but different. So too it is with homosexual (sodomy) marriage compared to heterosexual marriage. History has already determined that only heterosexual marriage works and homosexual marriage is an oxymoron (the two concepts work against each other), so why would we ignore history to allow some sort of a new trendy, elitist “marriage” happen that’s achieving nothing more than an acceptability “label” for homosexuality?….ANSWER: we shouldn’t. The social/legal consequences are dire if we trash the proven bedrock institution of marriage in the way that same sex marriage proponents desire to do. Our children are already being brainwashed with this new “genderless” engineering experiment that has no basis in science or biology – just political activism run amuck. The so-called “equality”, “human/civil rights”, “love” and “discrimination” slogans are feel-good slogans to try and emotionally “blackmail” us all into agreeing with their brand new marriage concept, but these slogans are all irrelevant to redefining marriage. If homosexuals want “dignity and respect” for their lifestyle choice, they won’t get it by being legally called “married”, but rather they get it by acting dignified and respectful – until they do this, they will never be acceptable no matter how many frivolous bits of government A4 paper they get with a spamp on it saying “You’re Married”. If we ignore all the name-calling, intimidation, militant naming/shaming/boycotting and emotional blackmailing from same sex marriage proponents and stick to the issue of whether marriage should be changed into something new and untried since the beginning of human existence, there is no good reason to redefine marriage.