FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, AND NOT PROUD

I have realised that I no longer live in a democracy.  

Recent surveys show that 75% of Australians believe the Same Sex Marriage Bill should be passed in Parliament. In other words, the majority of Australians believe the law should be changed in order to recognise that ‘marriage’ is not only between a woman and a man. Whether they condone same-sex relationships or not, most Australians recognise that equality should be the basis of law.

Twenty other countries, including some that are classed as developing, have passed laws recognising a marriage between same-sex couples. Australia has not. The leader of the Australian Labor Party finally introduced the Bill in parliament earlier this month. It will be voted on later this year. I find this ridiculous and shameful, and I am still not very hopeful that it will be passed. But should I really be surprised?

In NSW in Australia right up until last year, you could actually use the ‘Gay Panic’ or ‘Homosexual Advance Defence’ for a murder charge. This primitive, crazy law could be used if a defendant found the advances of a homosexual person so offensive and frightening that it brought on a psychotic state characterised by unusual violence. You could actually have your murder charge downgraded to manslaughter simply by claiming an unwelcome, non-violent sexual advance from a person of the same sex. Yes, that is for real. It was changed in 2014. Some other States in Australia and most in the US have not abolished the use of this defence.

I’m fully aware that I sound like a whinger, but as an Australian it is my right.  We are supposed to be the lucky country, yet lately, I can’t help but be embarrassed to be an Australian. It’s not supposed to be like this, and I am ashamed.

Aussie Aussie Aussie…Boo Boo Boo!

TIDBIT:  I was thinking the other day how pleasant I would find the world if I could speak to people the way I speak to my children. To the policeman who booked me that day, I would point my finger at him and say, ‘Now, go back to your car, sit there for 10 minutes and think about what you just did’. To the person who cut me off at the roundabout, I would shout ‘Come back here and say SORRY like you MEAN it’. To anybody that ‘close-talks’ to me, ‘Back off. Do you want a slap?’

To our Prime Minster, ‘I’m starting at 1, if I get to 3, you are going to sit in that corner until I am ready for you to come out’.  

What would Jane say?  ‘I am afraid…that the pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety’. Maybe not, but I think the pleasantness of telling it like it is, is very satisfying.