WHEN the Howard government banned same-sex marriages in Australia in 2004, I was the Democrats spokesman for law and justice in the Senate.
It was personally very difficult for me to have to listen to speakers discredit same-sex relationships, demean and belittle them, arguing that only heterosexual couples are entitled to the legal protections and social sanctions that come from civil marriage.
As a gay man in a relationship now approaching 25 years, it was like listening to 1950s politicians justifying segregation between blacks and whites. …
thewest.com.au: Opposition to gay marriage cost Labor outright win
External link:
- Australian Democrats – Senator Brian Greig speaks to the Marriage Amendment Bill 2002: Second Reading
Editorial comment:
AS we seem to have to keep pointing out, there is more to marriage equality than “same-sex marriage” or “gay marriage.”
When he was in Parliament, the former Senator Grieg was fully aware that marriage equality also includes intersex people and that the phrase from the Australian Marriage Act 1961 – “marriage” means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others” – is intended to exclude intersex people as well as others of whom the Howard federal government and Labor, too, disapproved.
It is a pity that journalists in the mainstream media appear to be ignorant of this fact.
It is a shame that Greig has forgotten that here too.
