Love is love. In every country, no matter the amount of hate its people hold, there is love. Love between friends, children and parents, men and women… but in only 26 countries is there legal love between two men or two women, making up only 13 percent of the world. Recently, Australia joined the fight for same-sex marriage.
After a prolonged two months of waiting, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released results from a survey stating that 61 percent of the country is for same-sex marriage. With a majority of the population on board for this authorization as of Nov. 14, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called for “same-sex marriage to be legalized before Christmas”.
True to Turnbull’s word, The Marriage Amendment Act passed on Dec. 7, and the marriage of same-sex couples came into effect two days later.
Critics think one’s sexual identity is a choice. Scientifically speaking, sexual identity sprouts from genetic combinations, factors such as birth order and the structure of the brain. A person can’t choose his or her sexual orientation and can’t change how much love is needed. Belongingness and love is fundamental for survival, according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Some people think that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to legally love each other, and therefore thrive in their true identities, and that is infuriating. There has never been a time where heterosexual couples were unable to marry because of their sexual orientation. It’s time for the same justice for those in the gay community.
Some might argue that the bible states that marriage is only to be between a man and a woman. This all depends on interpretation, as it also mentions love as bearing and believing in all things.
Others say that allowing people of the same gender to wed would be a gateway toward humans and other mammals marrying. This is a false equivalence, and is quite derogatory towards homosexual people.
Gay marriage does not affect straight people at all. It’s none of their business. What they do with their lives does not have any impact on others lives whatsoever.
The only thing posing complications would be a difference of opinions. Differences of opinions, as small as they may seem, can grow and grow until a war sprouts and the world will become divided, in countries, on continents, and as a whole. There’s no need for more civil wars or revolutions. The only killing here should be with kindness.
Until 1920, the world didn’t think women could vote. Ninety-seven years later, women’s suffrage has proved to be a fundamental part of life. If the world is now saying that a person can only love someone if his or her relationship conforms to society, the human race is moving backward in time.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, the Civil Rights Movement was transpiring, which had the goal of ending discrimination against and giving equal rights to black citizens of the United States. Almost 70 years later, this country is still struggling with equal rights toward all residents.
This really makes one consider if one is on the right side of history. In the 1900s, many people thought equal rights for all wasn’t necessary or fair. In hindsight, this is deranged thinking. But back then it was normal.
In another century, will our children and grandchildren look back on today and think, “How crazy was the world that you had to be biologically opposite genders in order to love someone”?
Holland started the normalization of legal same-sex marriage in 2001. Sixteen years later, Australia has become the 26th country to follow suit. It can’t be the last.
