Independent thinking

This was so funny. An opinion piece from New Zealand after marriage equality went through parliament. It's written in such a way as to delicately annihilate the so called arguments against equality.

Today is a day of celebration, not only for the gay and lesbian communities but for us all. Today New Zealanders can be proud that common sense, fairness and just good old basic humanity has won out over, what I can only describe as "people who just feel deeply weirded out about the whole thing, mostly because of God but can't really articulate any reasonable justification for it". 

I for one, am most pleased with this outcome. If this current change to the marriage legislation upsets you and makes you feel grumpy, then please know that I personally derive great measures of enjoyment from said unhappiness. Suffer in your jocks, basically. Neener, neener, neener, big fat raspberries and other childishness. 

No offence to anyone who is part of a civil union, but I always felt that this "marriage in everything but name" was something of a compromise designed to not freak out the fuddy-duddies too much. To which I have always been of the opinion, "freak them out for pity's sake, they clearly need it!" 

The leader of the Conservative Party, Colin Craig, would be one such person. If his tweet this morning "The day of reckoning is still to come" is anything to go by, Colin is not a happy bunny today. I can't help imagining him cowering, perhaps in a blanket fort in the den, occasionally taking a peek out a window to see if the street is yet filled with legions of gay men in pink PVC hotpants wielding chainsaws with which they will carve up the fabric of society as we know it. 

The inability of anyone to explain the exact nature of how society will be worse now that marriages can legally take place between two men and two women has always been something of an achilles heel within the "marriage equality is bad" argument. It may be that PVC hotpants aren't what anyone is really worried about, but this was never really clear and it's a mental image I find quite pleasing so I'm going to go with that. more

Think us Kiwi's have a bit of a way with words. We've always been very independent people, I'd guess growing up in such isolation has a lot to do with it. We have a history of thinking outside the square, as the long-standing nuclear warships ban will attest (of which the US was so annoyed about that they chucked us out of the ANZUS alliance). We seem to miss much of the hysteria on issues overseas, scratch our heads at WTF they're on about, and just go on in our own way.