‘A debate on marriage equality need not be hate-filled’

Posted on July 4, 2016 
Filed under Australia, Opinion

catholic-archbishop-of-sydney-anthony-fisher“In a wide-ranging speech delivered last week and published in the Guardian (“Straight politicians don’t understand what it’s like to hide their relationships in fear), Senate opposition leader Penny Wong made the case against a plebiscite on the redefinition of the marriage.

Her three claims were: that opposition to same-sex marriage is essentially homophobia; that the Australian people cannot be trusted to have a respectful discussion about such matters; and so the matter should be left to the parliament. …

The fact is that many ordinary Australians are both pro-gay people and pro-traditional marriage. They know and love people with same-sex attraction and want only the best for them. They know that such people have often suffered injustices in the past and sympathise with the complaint that something is being denied to them still. But they also believe that marriage is a unique relationship that unites people of the opposite sex as husband and wife and, more often than not, as father and mother. Such ordinary Australians are not bigots.”

– This opinion-piece by Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher was published in The Guardian just before the federal election. (h/t SydneyAnglicans.net. Photo: Archdiocese of Sydney.)