I am cross.

I am quite cross.

I am often quite cross, about this or that. One thing or another. I'm getting older and more things make me grumpy than they ever have before. But at the moment I am quite cross about something quite specific. So cross, in fact, I have decided to tell you all about it.


In October 2013, my homeland legalised gay marriage in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). This was in response to a bill being lodged in September 2013.

Wikipedia currently has this information:

The Inquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2012 and the Marriage Amendment Bill 2012 involved an on-line survey, which received 276,437 responses, the largest response ever received by a Committee of the House of Representatives or Senate. 177,663 respondents were in favour of changing the law to recognise same-sex marriage, 98,164 were opposed to it and 610 were unsure.

Somehow I missed this. I follow Australian news closely enough, but this went under my radar. What didn't go under my radar, though, was the High Court of Australia overturning that new law.

Now we are getting to the crux of why I am quite cross.

We are led to believe that Australia is a democratic nation, and it has a democratically elected government just to prove it. No matter what you might feel about the people in power at any given time in Australia, they got there legally and democratically and that is good. Also what is good in Australia is that the state is neutral in regards to the church. Excellent.

What else is good about Australia? You are allowed religious freedom. You can be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Taoist, Buddhist, Scientologist; whatever you want. Lots of people even claim to be Jedi. Good on them. Australia is a country of religious freedom, and to be an Australian citizen you do not need to follow any one religion, or any religion at all. You are an Australian citizen regardless of your religious faith, or lack thereof.

Also in Australia, you are allowed to be homosexual. Homosexuality is not illegal, in the same way that practising a religion outside Christianity is not illegal. A man is allowed to have a sexual relationship with another man. A woman is allowed to have a sexual relationship with another woman.

If you want to immigrate to Australia from another country there are many hoops to jump through and it will probably cost you a lot of money in entry visas, but you will not be disallowed entry on the basis of your gender, your religion, your race, or your sexuality. This is one of the things that makes Australia great.
Not great, as in 'Oh, that's great'.
But great, as in mighty.
As in all that is good.
As in this is the way it should be.

The new gay marriage law was overturned because the national government challenged the decision, saying it was inconsistent with federal laws. The federal law, which was made in 2004, stated that marriage was between a man and a woman.

Marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.
Certain unions are not marriages. A union solemnised in a foreign country between: (a) a man and another man; or (b) a woman and another woman; must not be recognised as a marriage in Australia.^[7]

Australia has state parliaments which make laws for each state. For example, the age of consent for sex. It can be different for each state. So can (and are) the laws regarding abortion. So it transpires that the law regarding what is and is not legal in regards to marriage needs to be changed in the Australian federal parliament. This of course is possible, because, see previous statements about Australia being great. Mighty. Good. Democratic.

What makes me cross is the 2004 federal law, stating that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

I am cross, and frankly, confused.

If homosexuality is legal, and marriage doesn't have to be in a church, then what is the problem?

Australian Christian groups are claiming that marriage is the cornerstone of families and Australian society. That marriage should be between a man and a woman only, as children are best raised by their biological parents, within marriage. Apparently, because only a man and a woman can both be the biological parents of a child, marriage does not need to extend to homosexual people.They don't need marriage. Only straight Christian people having their own biological children need marriage.

Except, non-Christian men and woman are entitled to get married under Australian law. As are people who have children from a previous relationship. The man and the woman may not both be the biological parents of the children, but so long as you are a man and a woman, you can get married. And it is perfectly fine for a man and a woman to get married, and then have a child through donor IVF, where only one of them may be the biological parent of the child. And then there are people who adopt. Neither parent is the biological parent of the child, and those men and and women are allowed to get married.

All of these families are members of Australian society. But apparently they are not the best. The best are the Christian parents who are married and have their own biological children. They are the cornerstone of Australian society. They are the best. They are what is keeping Australia together.

Apparently.

Because those Christian families, they've done such an awesome job of being the cornerstone of Australian society so far. There is nothing I respect more than a middle class Christian family whose contribution to society is to pay as little tax as possible, and to pass personal judgement on everyone around them. There's nothing more spiritual than surrounding yourself with the warm cloak of your church full of other middle class white people, never actually going out and doing anything hands-on good in society.

Hopefully the 2004 amendment to the Australian marriage act will be changed. This is clearly what needs to be done in order that homosexual couples who want to commit to each other in marriage are no longer discriminated against in the law and are allowed to marry. Because yes, it is narrow-minded homophobic discrimination.

Love doesn't belong to Christianity. Commitment to a relationship does not belong to Christianity. The desire to want to marry does not belong to Christianity. Christians do not own marriage, and their opinions should not be considered above the majority in a democratic society. The majority of respondents to the 2012 survey voted for same sex marriage in Australia. As a democracy, this should be implemented as quickly as possible. It is what the majority want. Christians and faith groups are not above the rest of society in a democracy. Homophobia has no place in a democratic society.

Tell me I am wrong.