As was expected the postal survey showed the bleeding obvious, that Australians well and truly want David and I to be able to marry. Polling year after year has shown this. It was the far right of the gov that insisted on this divisive and hurtful postal survey when much more accurate polls were already showing what Australian's thought.
However despite all their efforts at obfuscation and demonising the LGBT as not worthy of marriage, despite the scare campaign by the Australian Christian Lobby about "radical" sex "theory", it all came to nought for them. The postal survey result of 61% in favour of marriage equality was exactly where it was at the start of the survey campaign. Australians didn't buy Lyle's lies.
It's not over yet though. Abbott and co just refuse to give up and are continuing to push for religious exemptions outside of churches for commercial businesses to discriminate against gay people, setting us back decades. It's highly unlikely the bill will be adopted, but the fact that they're even trying it says volumes about their ideology.
The survey has also come at a cost to the LGBT. For two months we've had to endure online hate speech against us with fringe dwellers being given licence to "have their say" in the survey. Calls to LGBT help lines have hugely increased during this time, reflecting the harm that has been caused. For some the hate experienced in this survey will be with them for years to come.
Yes, we celebrate Australia voting for our love. At the same time though we know what we've been put through to get this far and how unnecessary it has been. If not for the present gov standing in our way every last step of the way we'd have had marriage equality years ago. Instead the gov has been more like an ideological brick wall than elected representatives put there to serve us. We'll never forget Turnbull's spinlessness and the entrenched homophobia within the coalition. I don't know how anybody could vote for such a spiteful and cruel group of people as them.
But for now we take the survey as a victory to shove in the face of the No people. We fought and won in the face of enormous adversity and we should all feel very proud of that. Despite the cost, we prevailed. The No voters can all go suck lemons.
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| Polling over the years supporting marriage equality (click to enlarge) |
James Paterson won't introduce his controversial marriage bill after all, says "It is clear the majority of senators believe my colleague Senator Dean Smith's Bill is where we should start." pic.twitter.com/SdbepSZ0NY— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) November 15, 2017
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