By Jacqui Tomlins, Melbourne-based marriage equality campaigner. Follow her blog here.
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks in Marriage Equality land with some nice, and some nasty, stuff in the media – and not all of it coming from the places you’d expect. In my last post I included a link to an article I’d written in response to Catholic Archbishop Hickey from Perth who argued that the rise of same-sex families was contributing to the neglect and abuse of children. The article was in the on-line magazine The Punch and by the end of the day 283 comments had been posted in response to it.
One of the key differences between having an article in a print publication, like The Age,for example, and an on-line magazine, is that there’s a nice person called an editor at a newspaper who weeds out all the really unpleasant letters and only includes the half-way literate ones. Even if those letters are critical of what you’ve written, at least they’re vaguely reasoned and thoughtful and generally not abusive. Not so on-line, of course, where it is open slather and anyone can post whatever they like without even putting their name to it. Prior to my article in The Punch, I wasn’t really familiar with the concept of ‘trolls’. I am now.
So I tried not to read the 283 comments, but I couldn’t help myself. At first I was a little freaked out, I’ll admit, especially at comments about the kids. My instinct was to delete all the comments, delete the article and never mention the kids in public again. But, as my blood pressure returned to normal, I scrolled down to see what they had to say; I think it’s useful to know your enemy.
Lots of the comments were from religious conservatives quoting the bible and heterosexual men who no longer saw their kids; sad for them, I’m sure, but really nothing to do with us. I reminded myself – as I regularly do – that these people are not the majority. Other comments provided an opposing viewpoint – and I have no problem with that – or were quietly supportive.
There’s a part of me that feels a little bit exposed every time I write something like this – mostly because of the kids – so it’s always good to see other people wading into the argument and taking on the trolls. Thanks to anyone who commented on line, and to everyone who recommended the article on Facebook or sent me an email. Cheers guys.
And then, lo and behold, just when I was processing all that, former Liberal Premier of Victoria, Jeff Kennett, comes out in support of gay marriage saying:
As long as you don’t break a law against me, why should I allow sexuality to prevent you from living your life as you want to…If people are living a happier life in a gay relationship which ends up in marriage, then why would I in any way want to prevent it…I want people to be happy…I’m in favour of it…It goes against the tenets I was brought up with…but I think there’s something more important…I think it’s happiness…I don’t oppose gay marriage.
Well, well, well, who’d of thought it?
And then, Andrew Bolt (for those of you who don’t know, Bolt is a right-wing columnist forThe Herald-Sun) wrote a piece criticising the very tacky anti gay-marriage ad aired by Bob Katter in Queensland this week.
You find friends in the strangest of places…well ‘friends’ might be taking it a bit far, but you know what I mean.
Senate Inquiry and parliamentary survey
Okay down to business. There are two important things I would really appreciate your help with this week. This link will take you to an official parliamentary survey. There are five questions with yes or no answers – it couldn’t be quicker or easier. If you’ve got an extra five minutes you can add a couple of sentences as well.
You can also see what Magda Szubanski, Hugh Jackman and Jimmy Barnes have to say about gay marriage and declare your support by making a submission to the current Senate Inquiry. Again, you can do the very quick version (2 minutes) or the slightly longer version (5-10 minutes). Click on this link and follow the prompts.
The number of responses to these surveys is important. The Australian Christian Lobby is in overdrive at the moment and it’s important that we keep the pressure up from our side. Thanks.
Petition Update
As I go to press, the local petition I set up to target Josh Frydenberg is at 199!!! I was aiming for 200 (well, to start with at least) so that’s great. Thanks again. Great job.
And to finish, this amused me. Hope you like it, too:
Thanks for listening,
– Jacqui Tomlins
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