SAME+ Blog: Have you asked to change the law, Mama?

By Jacqui Tomlins, Melbourne-based marriage equality campaigner. Follow her blog here.

Senate inquiry

It’s tricky trying to explain to a six year old the idea that a law – in this case a law about whether or not you can marry the person you love – can be different in different countries, and that it all depends on whether the person you want to marry is the same sex as you or the opposite.

Mama and Ema got married in Canada and that was okay, I explain, but we’re not allowed to do that here. In Australia, you’re only allowed to marry some of the opposite sex. She looks a bit confused; that doesn’t seem to make much sense to her.

But at school they teach us that everyone is the same on the inside and you shouldn’t be mean to someone just because they’re different on the outside. Isn’t that right Mama?

Well, yes Sweetheart, that’s absolutely right, but… and I’m about to say but it’s more complicated than that, but I stop myself, because really, it’s not more complicated than that at all. In fact, I’d say my six year old had just nailed the whole Marriage Equality debate.

So have you asked to change the law, Mama, so you and Ema can get married?

I have Sweetheart, I say, smiling to myself, but it takes a lot of people asking to change a law.

Then why don’t you ask some other people, too – like Maddy’s mum and Chris and Tom and people at school?

So guys, here goes, and don’t blame me!

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee is currently running an inquiry to gauge community attitudes towards Marriage Equality.  These senate inquiries are taken very seriously and the numbers of people responding for and against are carefully monitored and logged. At the moment the opposition is ahead and we’re running out of time – the deadline is this Friday, 2nd April. We know that the Australian Christian Lobby is printing off pro forma letters by the church load and distributing them to congregations.

So, if you haven’t already done so, I would really appreciate it (and the kids would, too!) if you could do a quick submission. You can do a bog standard one which requires no effort at all and will take about a two minutes, or you can add a personal comment which can be a sentence or two. If you click on this link, it’s all set up and ready to go.

Thank you. I’ll let the kids know I’ve asked a few more people to help us change the law.

JOY FM 94.9 Rainbow Report 7-8pm (1300 JOY 949)

Or there’s another way you can make your voice heard – literally – which might be fun and is even easier. This Tuesday (27th March) Doug Pollard, who does the Rainbow Report on JOY FM, is hooking up with Australian Marriage Equality to get people to phone in their submissions. The idea is that you register your interest and leave your phone number at: rainbowreport@joy.org.au

Someone will call you during the show and you can record your submission on air. If they don’t get to you during the show, they will call afterwards. At the end of it all they’ll package the whole program up as a podcast and send it to the Senate Inquiry. I think that’s pretty cool.

You can check out all the details and register here.

If you’re not in Melbourne you can still listen on line here.

Thanks.

And for your mild amusement today…

Thanks for listening,
– Jacqui Tomlins

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