71. Gay Marriage

Hi, I’m Jenna and I will be doing my oral presentation on gay marriage and why it should be legal in Australia. An everyday problem in our society is that people of the same sex are not allowed to get married. Ok, so we all know of gays, either by being related to them, or being friends with them. They are good, hard working people, who pay their bills and live by the law. They are no different from us in any way apart from the small fact that they are attracted to the same sex because of this small factor they are discriminated against, separated from society and they’re not allowed to have their special day. Yet, they can help you pick out your wedding dress, they can drive you to your wedding and they can even proclaim you husband and wife, but they can’t have that same happiness of getting married themselves? It’s wrong.
Australia prides itself on being a multi-cultural and anti-discrimination country, but by not letting gay people get married they are being homophobic. It’s like the government is saying “no, you aren’t like everyone else, so you aren’t allowed to get married like normal people” They are though, recognized as being in a de-facto relationship and are given the same benefits as any other couple in a de-facto relationship such as super annuation, social security, health benefits and taxation but they are still not allowed to formalize their coupling in a marriage ceremony. The only difference between a married couple and a de-facto couple is a marriage certificate, so what is the big deal?
As of the marriage amendment bill passed in 2004 the definition of marriage in Australia is as follows “Marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.
Certain unions are not marriages. A union solemnized in a foreign country between: (a) a man and another man; or (b) a woman and another woman; must not be recognized as a marriage in Australia” This means that the Australian government refuses to recognize if a homosexual couple has been married in another country. This is another homophobic act by government, because if a man and woman were married in let’s say Germany and moved to Australia, their marriage would be recognized, so why can’t homosexual couple’s marriage be recognized by the government? I can’t think of one good reason why it shouldn’t be.
Recent polls have shown that 60% of Australians support same sex marriage; I think this is enough people for the government to stand up and pass a bill to legalize same sex marriage. True love is an extremely hard thing to find, for straight people and even more so for homosexuals, I think that when a person finds true love we should be congratulating them and helping them embrace it, no matter if they are young or old, or straight or gay, not stopping them and saying they can’t have their special day. By separating gay people from the rest of society and not allowing them to marry we are making Australia look bad. It is ruining our reputation for being a non-discriminatory country. Many other countries and states have started recognizing gay marriage such as; Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and Sweden. It makes Australia look a little behind.
In conclusion I think that gay marriage should be legalized in Australia because really what harm is it going to do? I think the government needs to stop being afraid of people who are a little different and embrace gay marriage like many other countries and states have. After all, can you think of one good reason of why they shouldn’t be allowed to have their special day?
Thank you for listening.
- Jenna McNamara