The Same Sex Marriage Debate Could Have Ended This Weekend
If there is a single issue which seems to consume so much of the political discourse in this country which is of so little relevance to the actual governing of this nation it is same sex marriage. It seems not a week can go by when the issue is not reported on by the mainstream media, with some politician or business virtue signalling their support of it or further lobbying of politicians to legalise it. The worst thing is this debate could have ended this weekend. Saturday 11th February was the proposed date for the plebiscite to give the Australian people a say on the issue of same sex marriage. It would have settled the matter once and for all as nobody could argue against the will of the people.
But the same sex marriage activists campaigned against allowing the people a say. This was bizarre given that they had been telling us for years that public opinion was on their side. This is why conservatives had said after every same sex marriage bill put forth in the parliament over the past decade over had been overwhelmingly defeated offered the plebiscite as a compromise. The advocates wouldn’t take no from an answer from the politicians so they said if you are so sure you have the public on your side let’s have them decide.
But all of sudden the activists turned around and said that it shouldn’t matter what the public think because marriage is a right which shouldn’t be put up for a vote. Their other reason was that a plebiscite would unleash so called hate speech against LGBT people, though in their eyes anyone opposed to same sex marriage was guilty of hate speech.
So when the Turnbull government put the plebiscite legislation before the Senate in November last year, the activists lobbied Labor, the Greens and enough crossbenchers to vote it down. Conservatives, given that the plebiscite itself was a concession to supposed public opinion on the issue, rightly said in the aftermath that there will no more consideration given to the same sex marriage issue in the life of this parliament since you voted down our compromise.
But of course, the activists never taking no for any answer have continued to push the issue. Now they are lobbying for a free vote of Coalition MPs in the Federal Parliament to see if they can obtain same sex marriage via a quick vote in parliament. Even if the Coalition were to agree, this would directly violate their election promise to the Australian people to give them a say on what the definition of marriage should be. This just shows that the activists really don’t care about democracy, but only getting what they want by any means necessary. They would even try and legalize it through our courts if they could, like their counterparts did in the United States without a vote of the people.
Even though the plebiscite was voted down for some reason the government is still proceeding to waste the Senate’s time by holding a parliamentary inquiry into what provisions a bill to legalise same sex marriage would contain. This inquiry has demonstrated that the activists, while holding a disdain for democracy, also hold a disdain for freedom.
They do not want a same sex marriage law to have protections for contentious objectors, meaning that any business would be forced to provide services for a same sex wedding even if that violated their conscience. In fact, some opponents do not want same sex marriage to become legal even if it meant there were these protections.
It seems these advocates are going to keep screaming about this issue until they get same sex marriage exactly the way they desire it, where there is no room of opposition and the views of the public do not matter. We are still being bombarded with same sex marriage advertisements on television and companies such as Qantas painting its planes using rainbow colours to show their support for the issue. Some Liberal MPs are even themselves pushing for a free vote in parliament against their own election promise.
If we were dealing with reasonable people, then we could have had a resolution this weekend and we could move on to more important political issues. If the public voted yes then it would become legal, if they voted no then that should have ended any mainstream push. Though it is worth pointing out that even if it was to become law the advocates wouldn’t have stopped at same sex marriage, they would want an even more radical version of safe schools and probably hate speech protections against homophobia.
What conservatives should learn from this plebiscite proposal is that there is no reasoning with these people. Conservatives should not compromise and instead stand firm on their belief in traditional marriage and continue to vote no to any law introducing same sex marriage. There should be no buckling to pressure from the media and the elites, conservatives should say we were elected to uphold traditional marriage and that’s what we will do in parliament. We will get on with running the country and focusing on the issues that are important to ordinary Australians.