Former Australian of the year & mental health expert says no plebiscite

Labor is meeting today in Sydney with representative bodies from the LGBT community to gauge further our views over having a plebiscite on marriage equality. They're meeting with ACON, Australian Marriage Equality, and Twenty 10.

Among who they're seeing today is also mental health expert and former Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorr, described as the most prominent of Australia's mental health experts, who is very much against a plebiscite because of the mental health damage it would cause the LGBT community. 

Mental Health Australia has also called on the Gov to abandon the plebiscite for the same reasons. Does it get any clearer than this?

Professor McGorry

Ahead of a meeting with Labor leader Bill Shorten on Tuesday, Professor McGorry warned a public campaign could increase the risk of self-harm and suicide in the already-vulnerable lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.

"Things will be said which will hurt people. Many of them are already vulnerable. There's definitely risk involved," Professor McGorry told Fairfax Media. "Anyone working in mental health would be concerned about it."

Mental Health Australia, which represents the country's peak mental health organisations, has called on the Parliament to hold a free vote on marriage equality, arguing laws protecting any part of the population from discrimination should not be contingent on a public vote.

LGBTI Australians are already twice as likely to have a high or very high level of psychological distress as their heterosexual peers and are at a higher risk of suicide than the general population.

MHA chief executive Frank Quinlan said the same-sex marriage debate was already having a negative impact on LGBTIQ people, especially young people, and urgent additional funding would be required for mental health services if a plebiscite were held.

"We are saying a plebiscite is unnecessary. It's the routine function of the Parliament to pass laws that remove discrimination," he said. Canberra Times

In case the christians need reminding, hate comes at a price. We pay for it. It's obscene that public money would be used to attack a vulnerable minority, particularly in a country like Australia. 

"The 'no' case will presumably make arguments which will be interpreted by LGBTI people as homophobic. That goes to the heart of your identity, doesn't it?" he said. 

"[Homophobia] is being given a platform and it sounds like public funding is on the table to amplify the voice. They have a megaphone to do it and it will seem to be mandated in some way." 

One in five gay Australians is currently experiencing depression, which is more than triple the rate of heterosexual Australians, while one in three LGBTI Australians is currently experiencing an anxiety condition, double the rate of their heterosexual counterparts. Canberra Times

It's true, things are already getting pretty nasty. For example I had one person use my dead wife against me the other day because I'd mentioned that I loved David as much as her and that the only difference is that he's a man. The reply was something like "Imagine what you're wife would think". Lovely.... christian love at it's finest. This was in the midst of being told to "get help" by the christian.

BTW she'd be really happy I found love, we were never a homophobic family at all. I didn't bother explaining that to the christian though as why should I? Am I now supposed to defend my dead wife's feelings about me to get permission off bigots to marry David? *pffft*

Hasn't the LGBT community already gone through hell over the decades? Why release a new wave of gay hate on us now?