Trab weighs in on Australian Marriage

[DesDownunder]

Trab excelled himself with his letter.

(From Brody's Scribbles...) Weighing In On The Australian Marriage Issue

Editor's Note: BN&S columnist Bart Vogelzang weighs in on the Australian Marriage Equality Amendment Bill in a letter to Ms Julie Dennett, the Committee Secretary for the Australian Parliament's Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee.

Dear Committee Secretary,

Please find attached my submission to the inquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2010.

Ms Julie Dennett, and the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee, I apologize for taking up your time with this submission. As you are no doubt aware, I am Canadian, and living in Canada, therefore it would seem that I have no ‘relationship’ to the subject of this inquiry, however, that is absolutely not the case.

Any time, and anywhere, that discriminatory practice is condoned, and worse, enacted, it is an affront to every human being on the planet. Just because some people feel that discrimination is permissible, those feelings are generally being brought forward by the same irrational feelings and training of their parents.

For thousands of years, women were thought to be less than human, chattel to be bought and sold. For hundreds of years, non-whites were treated as less than human, held as slaves, and treated with the utmost disrespect. Now, in a relatively short and recent time span, homosexuals have been targeted with just as much unreasonable and discriminatory disdain.

Gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, and transgendered people are equally as human as anyone else; having feelings of pain, frustration, loneliness, anger, and love. Equality in marriage discussion is NOT simply a matter of marriage equality, but of equality and recognition of our very humanity. It is a discussion over our very right to be treated as human beings.

In Canada there is full and equal marriage between same sex people, and it has not destroyed us as a nation, and it has not destroyed families, and it has not hastened the demise of moral values. If anything, it has aided those values, in that people are more accepting of variations, and same gender parents can raise respectful, respected and diverse families of their own. Equality has given hope and respect to thousands, many of whom might in the past have been crushed, defeated in misery, loneliness and despair.

Can Australia not do the same, and firmly declare that each and every person has a right to exist in loving legal harmony with any other?

Yours truly,

Bart Vogelzang

[Merkin]

This is a wonderful letter, and the shame of it is that I, as a citizen of the U.S.A., am in no position to write a similar letter putting forth my own country as an example to be emulated.

James

[colinian]

Excellent, Des. Congratulations to Trab for succinctly summarizing what's wrong with laws that institutionalize descrimination. Now what we in the U.S. need is for you to write a similar letter to Barack Obama.

Colin

[blue]

Thanks to Trab for a concise letter speaking the truth. If only my own country and my home state would listen, and several people I know, including some relatives.

Some people's writing should be seen and heard more than it is, and Bart's one of those. Whether fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose, some people's words are needed, or we miss part of the puzzle of life, to find out what the picture is..

[DesDownunder]

Excellent, Des. Congratulations for succinctly summarizing what's wrong with laws that institutionalize descrimination. Now what we in the U.S. need is for you to write a similar letter to Barack Obama.

Colin

Err, Colin, it was Trab's (Bart's) letter, not mine. My own submission was much tamer. He asked me to post the whole thing with the intro as it appeared at BN&S, (with permission) so that people would understand why he was making the submission.

At the moment I am certain that the Obama re-election campaign is carefully considering whether the President's evolution on marriage is best done before or after the election. Some Democrats are urging the party to make it a plank in the party's platform. The real work is to stand up to to the conservative religious right and get them to understand that their religion is protected by the Constitution, but is not enforced by it. The real effort that has to be made, is to convince the many supporters of marriage to actually go and vote for the candidates who have already stated they support the issue.

I consider that a Republican win at the election will mean the USA. effectively becomes a theocracy, losing all the benefits of a secular state separated from religious influence.

[Cole Parker]

I consider that a Republican win at the election will mean the USA. effectively becomes a theocracy, losing all the benefits of a secular state separated from religious influence.

I personally don't think that will be true if Romney wins. If one of the consrvative Christian (who isn't a Christian by any rational definition) candidates would win, it might be different, but even then, remember, the President is one third of the managing directorate here, and is less powerful in making and enforcing laws than you might think.

C

[DesDownunder]

Yes, but the make up of the Congress is relevant, too. And then there is Supreme court...

And an 'effective' theocracy' might just be as bad as an actual theocracy.

I'm more concerned with reactions from any group, to whoever wins.

Let's hope sanity makes an appearance soon.

[colinian]

Err, Colin, it was Trab's (Bart's) letter, not mine. My own submission was much tamer. He asked me to post the whole thing with the intro as it appeared at BN&S, (with permission) so that people would understand why he was making the submission.

Yes, I missed that, and apologies to Trab. I fixed my post.

Colin

[DesDownunder]

Thank you Colin, it was an easy mistake to make as we don't often find ourselves in the position of posting for someone else.