Love and Marriage

Why do people get married? I think it would be fair to say that most people in Australia get married because they love their partner, they want to be with them and build a life with them.  Of course there are going to be exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, love is the driving force.

With that in mind, I cannot understand why, in the year 2012, people that love someone who happens to be the same gender as them aren't allowed to get married.  It seems to me to be a pretty basic right, and yet they are being denied this by our government.  I believe in this more strongly than I believe in a lot of things.  I'm not sure why.  I said that to Dr C last week and he said that it seems to have awakened a long hidden social justice part of me.

I've spoken to a few people about this subject and none of the reasons against it I've heard  make ANY sense to me.  Let's see if they make any sense to you...

'But the bible says it is wrong!' Well, the bible also talks a lot about stoning people to death, feeding people to lions, whipping people and having more then one wife, do we have to follow what the bible says exactly?

'Traditionally, marriage is between a man and a woman' If we never challenged tradition women wouldn't even be allowed to vote, let alone be the Prime Minister of Australia.

'They can be together, but the word 'marriage' shouldn't be used, that's OUR word and they can't have it!' Yes, someone actually said this to me. I had no words then and I don't now.

'Australia was founded on Christian values, so we should continue that and gay marriage isn't Christian'. Umm... Excuse me, but I thought the fundamental principles of Christianity were to 'love one another'. How is treating someone differently because of who they love following those principles?

'It will ruin the institute of marriage!'. Sure it will. It will ruin something people like Elizabeth Taylor, the Kardashians and Tom Cruise have been building up for years.

'People choose to be gay' 'Being gay is unnatural' 'Homosexuality is a mental illness'. You don't choose who you love. I'm in love with Dr C, and I would be regardless of his gender. Love is completely natural and as for the mental illness argument, that's complete bullshit.

'But being married is about creating a family, it's about having kids'. There are so many things wrong with this that I don't even know where to start.  Firstly, lots of gay people have kids. I don't have kids, I might never have them, does that mean I'm should never have got married? When is the cut off for me to have them and stay married? 

Convinced? Nah, me neither!

I really think that in twenty years, and in all probability, even sooner we will be looking back on this and feeling a similar shame to what I feel when I read accounts of how white people treated black people, making them sit in the back of the bus, believing they carried different diseases etc.  I really hope that doesn't happen, I really hope common sense prevails and everyone is allowed to be married, regardless of who they want to marry.

Now at this point you might be thinking 'Fair go, Jo, aren't you being a bit hypocritical? You're asking people to change their minds and you don't seem to want to change yours'. And to that I say that yes, I am asking people to change their minds, to a view that won't hurt them one bit.  I respect everyone right to believe whatever they want to believe, but at the end of the day, if you don't like the idea of gay marriage, for whatever reason, then don't have one, but please don't stop someone who does want one from having that option.