Today my thoughts are on the impending marriage equality survey. And I’ve finally worked out exactly what it is that troubles me about the whole thing … it’s the fact that it exists at all. By existing in the first place, this survey is legitimising the option of a ‘no’ vote. It’s saying to people: you are allowed have a choice on whether some people should be denied the same rights and privileges as other people. It’s basically handing Australians a government-mandated right to be a bigot. It’s saying: it’s okay if you believe that not everyone deserves the same rights–we’ll give you that option and, if you vote for it, we’ll support that option.
We should never have to vote on whether one member of the human race should be afforded the same rights and privileges as other members of the human race. The answer is always a resounding yes. It’s such a vast, gargantuan, and universal failure of our political leadership to hand this decision over to the populace that it’s sometimes hard to see the sheer scale of the moral vacuum that has allowed this to happen.
There’s a reason we call people leaders: it’s because they’re meant to lead us, not hide behind us. They’re meant to guide us. They’re meant to ensure we don’t go down the wrong path: the one that leads to the abyss instead of the field. Deciding that one person doesn’t have the same rights as another is the path to the abyss. Let’s choose another path.