Groundhog Day in Australian politics in Political shit

Right. I watched the press conference this morning from our PM and the finance minister, who explained how all of this is going to work (or not work). As I already mentioned, they are putting the plebiscite (man I am so sick of writing that word) bill to the senate (yet again).

These are the options from there…

a) If the senate decide ‘yes’, there will be a compulsory, non-binding, $186 Million plebiscite put to the Australian public, which will be done by the end of November this year. Every Australian will have to vote a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ to changing the current definition of marriage from ‘one man and one woman’ to ‘two people’ and the other stuff I mentioned previously about the ^cough^wanker^cough^ religious groups being exempt from doing so.
If the majority of the vote comes back as a ‘Yes’, then the government will then, and only then, draft a bill to have a free vote on this, and even then, they can still say ‘no’.
(You know, cos doing this right now at a cost of $0 would just be waaaaaaay too hard for this incompetent government to do, which you know, if only their god-damn job in the first place.)

b) If the senate vote ‘No’ (more than likely, since they did once before), the government will move onto a postal vote, which from what I can understand, the government has seeked legal advice on because it’s against the law to actually do this and bypass the senate. The postal vote is NON-compulsory, again-non-binding and will cost $122 Million dollars, so you know, they’ll be able to save an extra $50M for the gigantic budget blowout that the government already has ^rolls eyes^
This is being done through the Australian Bureau Of Statistics (the same people who counted the Census last year) and anyone on the electoral role will be able to have their say. People can vote on this if they wish to, and this will happen at the beginning of November.
Again, if the majority vote ‘yes’, a bill will be drafted, and a free-vote will happen in the parliament.

In both cases, if the majority vote no, no free vote will be granted and Australia will remain with the dinosaurs.

Here, this link explains it better than I do.
The yet-to-be extinct dinosaurs who run our country

It saddens me because this is actually such an awesome country, then we’ve got people like this who think a plebiscite is a good idea. I’m probably skewed in my views on this because of my religious upbringing, but not one single person in my entire family would be the type of person who would vote ‘Yes’ on this, despite having an openly gay person in their family circle.

It sucks when it’s personal, and it sucks even more when straight politicians are voting on something that doesn’t even affect them. Our ex-PM, Tony Abbott is the one who first proposed the expensive plebiscite, and he even has a gay sister. One of the most homophobic politicians from my state, Bob Katter (who is a complete nutter btw), has a gay half-brother. But their hatred gets in the way. Religion gets in the way. Ignorance gets in the way.
It’s no wonder that gays act out all the time, it’s no wonder there are protests every three months in every Capital city around the nation. And you know, we only have one of the biggest gay celebrations in the world via the Sydney Gay And Lesbian Mardi Gras, but marriage equality is just far too much to ask for.

Protesters always quote Maude from the Simpsons, “Won’t somebody pleeeease think of the children?”, and believe you me, I sure as fuck do.
I think about when I was a kid, and my dad was flicking channels on the TV and it was back in the day when ABC televised the Sydney Mardi Gras (these days it’s televised by SBS but there were many years when it wasn’t) and he says, out loud,
“…Should put them all in a room and blow them all up.”

I mean, I was only a kid then (probably something like 13 or 14) and I didn’t know who I was, but I do remember the viciousness of the tone of his voice, and thinking back then, “Why? Why would you say that?!” They looked like they’re having so much fun.
I’m pretty sure I wasn’t looking at boys or girls or anyone back then. I was colouring in my colouring in books and riding the motorbike down the farm tracks.

I do think of the chidren. The children of our future. I want this to be normalized. I want the kids of the future to see this as a normal thing. “Yes, little Lucy… you can marry whomever you’re attracted to.”
Not this, “Well I’m sorry, but because you both have vaginas, that is seen as evil. No, sorry, no can do, sistah!”

And fast-forward 6-7 years to when I came out, and the sheer amount of religious pamphlets and bullshit arriving in my mailbox each month from my dad, telling me how wrong my life was, and the headlines reading ‘You can change” and “Don’t let the devil get inside your head”. It was out of control. Each and every pamplet I would open from an envelope, I’d rip into shreds and throw into the bin.

And then Lucas Von-Hoff passed away in London. He was the son of good friends of my parents. He was a beautiful person and still maintained his faith throughout probably all the same bullshit that I was going through. I only really had a few conversations with him throughout the time I knew him, but we were in different circles and never really crossed paths. I remember telling him about all the crap my dad was sending me and he was very thoughtful in his listening and told me he’d gone through some of the same bullshit. I don’t know if that was because of his sexuality or whatnot. All we know is that he was meant to meet his friends for lunch one day in London and he never showed. When his friends went to check on him, they found him, dead. No cause was ever announced from the coroner, and his death was listed as a cardiac arrest. I remember his memorial, and seeing his little brother play the piano. I sometimes run into his brother at the club.

Then there was the whole Facebook post from my dad, which I am not going into again because I sound like a broken record, but basically it’s why I’ve blocked him for the past 5 or so years and didn’t talk to him for two. I only started talking to him (when I absolutely had to) because I figured he won’t be around forever. I’ve even wondered if I would attend his funeral when he dies. That’s pretty fucking morbid, but that’s how much I hated him. For someone who helped bring me into this world to publicly say such horrible things, not just about me, but about same-sex attracted people in general.

So not only had the eldest son of the parents of friends of my parents died, here was my dad spewing vile homophobia.
I was livid. They had LOST their child.
YOU still have yours.
Unbelievable.
Parent of the fucking year.

THIS is what concerns me about a plebiscite, either way it is conducted. One of the reporters during the press conference asked the PM about this and his response was dismissive, “People always use this excuse and it’s the lowest of the lows. The people of Australia are able to express their opinion and have a civil and frank discussion on this.”

Yeah, sure Malcolm. Because that’s gone down so well in my personal experience.

But. Hopefully the PM is right. Hopefully the uneducated derro’s and bogans of rural Australia who scream out ‘Fucking faggot!’ to me from their passing Commodores can think past their latest Centrelink dole cheque and plasma televisions bought with the baby bonuses from their 8+ kids, and not scribble down ‘Fags Just Die’ next to their “No” vote on the ballot paper.

Hopefully.

Last updated August 08, 2017