For the record, I am in favour of same sex marriage. I don’t see why two people who love each other deeply can’t express that love in the way that society endorses those relationships.
Let’s get a couple of furphies out the way. There has to be a separation of religious and secular rules. Not all of us are religious or share the same notion of Christianity. I separate conversation with a deity and the secular.
This notion that marriage is all about procreation is unmitigated nonsense. Relationships between individuals who are not and never were married often result in offspring. It’s been the case since there were more than two people on this earth.
This nonsense that marriage is sacred and is for life has never really been the case. Divorces have been possible for centuries and we all have friends who have been in marriages and are not happy about it. This notion is a religiously imposed once given to us by a bloke who had never been married. That works, doesn’t it?
Secular marriage is about two things. It is about an expression of devotion (at a particular time of life, something to be celebrated and shared with others who hold both parties in affection.
The other is about legal equality, the right of inheritance, the right to shared estate ownership, the right of “next of kin” status.
At the end of the day, in terms of human relationships, religion gets in the way. Look at the imposed marriages in some Muslim and Hindu societies, look the outrage at marriages between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, look at the interference in birth control by the Catholics in recent years gone by.
I won’t be told who I can live with by some bloke in a dress who talks to an imaginary friend. Who I have as a life partner is none of anyone’s business except me and my partner.
All I need is the State to recognise that union for the purposes of legal equality. When I meet the Almighty, I’ll discuss the matter with Him/Her. Until then, He/She can get out of my face.
It seems that is too much to ask.
We’ll see when the Coalition, Labor and the cross-benches exercise their conscience votes in federal parliament. Although, it is a bit academic for us here in the ACT until we get true sovereignty.
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