WA Liberal compares same-sex marriage to incest in bizarre speech

Western Australian Liberal Party MP Nick Goiran has compared same-sex marriage to incest in a bizarre speech in the state’s Upper House on Tuesday.

Goiran used the occasion of National Marriage Day to attack attempts “to alter the definition of marriage,” attempting to support his arguments by telling the story of an imaginary incestuous couple.

“I will talk about the hypothetical case of a gentleman by the name of Ethan and a lady by the name of Stephanie. These two people share the same father but have different mothers,” Goiran began, going on to criticise the imaginary impacts of the couple’s imaginary child.

“When this couple decide to have children they are, in essence, playing Russian roulette with recessive traits and birth defects… None of the ensuing consequences for Ethan or Stephanie or the physical and mental health of their children would, in my view, in any way strengthen society.”

Goiran went on to compare same-sex marriage to a number of team sports, and argued “mystery” was the key to a happy marriage:

“Women do not know what it is like to be a man. A woman can empathise with a man but she will never fully know what being a man feels like and she will never completely understand a man’s spirit, his pride or essence. Equally, men cannot know what it is like to be a woman.”

The member concluded by calling for the establishment of a “ministry for men’s interests,” citing his long-standing involvement with conservative anti-marriage equality group Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation.

The speech has drawn criticism from other West Australian parliamentarians. Greens MP Lynn MacLaren told the ABC she was “shocked” by Goiran’s comments.

“I thought, this doesn’t really have anything to do with marriage equality, marriage equality is about people who love each other and want to get married. Some people say it’s a conservative movement,” she said.

Labor MP Sally Talbot said the speech was uninformed fear-mongering.

“Nowhere in the world where we have marriage equality have we had the kind of slippery slope that Nick Goiran fears,” she said.

“The fact is that when you have marriage equality it does not end up with an increase in polygamy or incest.”