A co-worker brought in a pamphlet yesterday. The heading read ‘3 ways gay marriage will change the classroom’. And I quote
‘More radical gay & lesbian sex ‘education’ programs in schools‘ like Safe Schools which ‘..already teach kids about various forms of sexual activity and encourages sexual experimentation from an early age‘.
‘Kids will be taught their gender is fluid‘…’something they choose, not something they are born with‘.
‘Loss of parents’ rights‘. ‘In other countries where gay marriage has been legalised, parents have found themselves in court after trying to pull their kids out of radical gay sex education classes‘.
We were all gobsmacked at the ignorance and blatant disregard for the truth. So here are some things that won’t happen when marriage equality is finally made law:
1. Heterosexual kids will not suddenly become gay. Homosexuality is not a choice.
2. Heterosexual kids will not suddenly become lesbian. Homosexuality is not a choice.
3. Heterosexual kids will not suddenly become trans. Being transgender is not a choice.
4. Kids in general will not be any more or less interested in sex than they are now. But kids who are taught that being gay, lesbian or trans is not ‘bad’ may become a little more tolerant. They may stop hounding kids who look or act ‘different’. And gay, lesbian or trans kids who struggle to make sense of their feelings and their place in the world may stop harming themselves and taking their own lives.
5. Parents will not lose any of the ‘rights’ they have now. They will still be free to place their children in public or private schools according to their beliefs. They will also continue to have the right to homeschool their children.
6. Religious institutions that allowed systemic child abuse to continue for decades will continue to marry or not marry people based on church dogma.
7. Adults who disliked gay, lesbian or trans people before marriage equality can continue to dislike them afterwards. Marriage equality is powerless to stop prejudice and bigotry.
8. Marriage equality will not harm any straight people.
9. Marriage equality will not take anything away from straight people.
10. Marriage equality is not the start of a slippery slope that will ruin Australia.
These are the countries that have already legalised marriage equality:
This list includes deeply religious countries like Spain, Portugal and Ireland. The sky didn’t fall in and nothing terrible happened.
Nothing terrible will happen here either. Life will continue the way it always has, but there may come a time when kids who are different can stand tall and live happy, productive lives instead of being bullied to death like Kenneth James Weishuhn. Rest in peace.
Vote Yes
Meeks
November 25th, 2017 at 6:26 pm
I just found your blog, I’m in Oz too, and I’m delighted! I’m following you for sure : )
And here’s what I wrote about the Yes vote the other day (such a wonderful day for all of us, lesbian, gay, trans, queer, and straight!):
https://boneandsilver.com/2017/11/16/australia-has-woken-up-covered-in-rainbows-and-glitter/
Best wishes, G
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November 26th, 2017 at 3:52 pm
Wonderful post, G and a huge welcome to my odd little blog in the wilds of Melbourne. 😀
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November 25th, 2017 at 5:06 am
How this is the truth! I was fortunate to have support when I came out in 2003 but I feel for the men and women that didn’t have that. When the Army gave us our first class on transgenders and homosexuals in the Army , I was sick to my stomach to hear the things that was said by straight men and women. Wish I would’ve seen this beforehand its said so perfectly.
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November 25th, 2017 at 9:21 am
Hi Sam. Welcome. 🙂 Things are improving, but so slowly and with so much back-sliding that it makes me despair of human nature sometimes. Here in Australia the nation spoke in favour of gay marriage = step forward. Now the politicians are dragging their feet in the hope that they won’t have to actually /do/ anything about it = step backwards.
I don’t know who they’re trying to please but it certainly isn’t me. 😦
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October 28th, 2017 at 4:47 am
“bullied to death like Kenneth James Weishuhn” or simply beaten, tortured, and left to die like Matthew Shepard here in the United States.
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October 28th, 2017 at 9:21 am
Ugh, I hadn’t heard of that one. I just don’t understand how so-called human beings can do such things and live with themselves afterwards. How do their friends and family bear to breathe the same air?
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November 25th, 2017 at 5:33 am
Too many have forgot them. The list of people killed for being who they are is a human tragedy. Hugs
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November 25th, 2017 at 9:17 am
Yes, yesterday’s news, today’s tragedy. 😦
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October 14th, 2017 at 1:20 pm
Reblogged this on Living Gay Brisbane and commented:
I couldn’t have expressed it better myself
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October 14th, 2017 at 4:47 pm
Thanks and cheers from Melbourne!
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September 27th, 2017 at 1:05 pm
Great post! I followed Anne’s reblog. All the same nonsense has been trotted out here, too. I don’t know why people are so afraid. I hope the people speak and that marriage equality reaches our shores as well (I’m blogging from the US).
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September 27th, 2017 at 4:54 pm
I don’t know either. You’d think the world has more ‘dire’ consequences to worry about than two people falling in love and getting married. -rolls eyes-
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September 28th, 2017 at 2:23 am
Exactly!
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September 24th, 2017 at 7:02 am
Fabulous post, Meeka. The lies and paranoia need to be smacked down hard with the blatant truth. Thank goodness the US is on that list! That was an amazing day when love beat out fear. And guess what, for most of us nothing changed. Everyone kept living their lives and doing what they do. To the marginalized LGBT community, it was a day to celebrate and we all joined in.
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September 24th, 2017 at 10:00 am
‘Everyone kept living their lives and doing what they do.’ Exactly!
That’s the truth that rings out from every country that has embraced marriage equality – the sky did not fall down.
I truly hate this constant twisting of the truth. Spin is a lie no matter how much it’s prettied up.
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September 24th, 2017 at 11:03 am
I don’t get the freak-out that some people go through. I sure do hope it passes. 🙂
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September 24th, 2017 at 8:03 pm
Me too.
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September 22nd, 2017 at 7:25 pm
My partner and I got married in the U.K. Our neighbors, shockingly, continue to be straight. We still haven’t figured out how that could be.
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September 22nd, 2017 at 7:37 pm
-grin- takes all sorts. 🙂
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September 22nd, 2017 at 11:07 am
As a gay man in the USA who has been with my now husband for 27 plus years , married as soon as legal, thank you! Hugs
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September 22nd, 2017 at 7:39 pm
lol – your relationship/marriage has lasted 10 years longer than my straight marriage. You and your husband should be giving lessons on how to make marriage /work/. -hugs-
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September 21st, 2017 at 11:28 am
I had to reblog this, Meeks, because you present these arguments in your usual logical and interesting way. I hope everyone who supports the Yes campaign gets out and ‘votes’. There are no guarantees that if the yes ‘vote’ gets up there will be plain sailing through Parliament. However, if the No campaign gets up then it will definitely not go to a parliamentary vote.
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September 21st, 2017 at 6:50 pm
Thanks so much Anne. I agree with you, as stupid and ridiculous this monumental waste of money is, a ‘No’ result is unthinkable.
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September 21st, 2017 at 11:19 am
Reblogged this on Anne Lawson and commented:
All Australians will know the background to our current Marriage Equality debate. For non-Australians, I will quickly bring you up-to-date by saying that despite the majority of Australians supporting Marriage Equality, our conservative government would not take the issue to Parliament. Instead they have issued a postal survey that is not compulsory and not binding on our parliamentarians.
I have to reblog Meeks’ latest post, as her ’10 things marriage equality won’t do’ is a great antidote to some of the arguments against giving everyone the chance to marry whomever they want.
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September 21st, 2017 at 6:51 pm
🙂
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September 20th, 2017 at 10:02 am
Yes this. All of it.
Also, maybe, just maybe trans, gay and bi kids will be less prone to commit suicide.
I truly don’t understand the fear. The last time someone claimed it was a choice, I promised them that wasn’t the case or there wouldn’t be any gay people in Alabama. Flippant maybe, but so tired of their disregard for fellow humans.
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September 21st, 2017 at 6:54 pm
Absolutely. Perhaps it’s simply the case of the ‘haves’ fearing they’ll somehow lose out to the ‘have nots’. Pathetic.
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September 20th, 2017 at 2:30 am
The misinformation on this subject is out of control! Where people get the idea that sexuality is taught in school is peculiar enough, but the notion of “recruitment” is noxious. We have to keep up the drum beat of reality. Sexuality comes in all sorts of flavors and it is what we are born with NOT what someone tells us is our individual truth.
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September 20th, 2017 at 9:36 am
‘…the drum beat of reality’. YES! It terrifies me that so many people, many of them in positions of power, can refuse to see, or see only what they want to see.
I can sort of understand people of my parents’ generation being too hidebound to accept that the world has changed, but there are a lot of younger people in the ‘coalition for marriage’. I just don’t understand. In a world where the divorce rate is so ridiculously high, how can any sane person still ‘venerate’ the traditional form of marriage? Gah….
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September 19th, 2017 at 10:50 pm
Hear hear.
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September 20th, 2017 at 9:36 am
😀
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September 19th, 2017 at 9:53 pm
Good on you for taking on the fear mongerers! Here’s to tolerance and equality for all. 🙂
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September 20th, 2017 at 8:44 am
Especially for me; because some animals are more equal than others! 😀
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September 20th, 2017 at 9:30 am
Bien sur…:p
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September 20th, 2017 at 9:36 am
D’accord!
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September 19th, 2017 at 9:52 pm
Well said Meeks. Both sides are entitled to their POV… providing it’s reasoned, rational and if not, that’s ok if it’s personal & kept out of public, persuading forums. I have so much hope for a positive outcome, but I’m nervous because while I assume engagement, thoughtful & informed… I encounter just enough disinterest, apathy and misinformed to know there’s a way to go yet.
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September 20th, 2017 at 9:40 am
Exactly! The thing that annoys me the most is that every pet peeve is being dragged into this relatively simply question to justify not changing the status quo. Freedom of speech? Really? Freedom of religion? Reeeeaallly?
-face palm-
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