Bigotry reigns

There was a piece by Labor MP Tanya Plibersek in the SMH recently in which she summed up by saying something I've often thought with regard to how history will view our society's attitude to same-sex relationships:

There will be people who say that gay men and lesbians do not deserve the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual men and women. We would not accept this argument if it related to ethnicity or religion. Just as we now view the White Australia Policy with regret, there will come a time when we find it strange that we accepted legal discrimination against a group of our citizens because of whom they love.

Only, I don't think the White Australia Policy deserves to be viewed with mere regret- it deserves to be viewed with disgust.

Basically, like any sane person now looks back on the White Australia Policy, or the Apartheid government in South Africa, or segregation policies in the US and Australia, as being bigoted verging on barbaric, I like to think that in the future most people will view Australian society's treatment of same-sex relationships in the same way.

Just like you'll be hard pressed to find an elected member of parliament today who would say publicly that they're against interracial marriage, I think (hope?) that 20 years from now we'll be hard pressed to find a political leader who will unashamedly paint gays and lesbians as somehow being a threat to heterosexual relationships, to marriage... even to their own children- all things that John Howard has done. Just like you'd be hard pressed to find an MP who would claim publicly that they'd be 'disappointed' if their child married someone of a different race or culture, I think that in 20 years we won't be seeing a Prime Minister of this country publicly denounce homosexuality by saying that he (or she) would be disappointed if their child was gay- something that John Howard did on TV a few years back. I think we won't be seeing questions raised about gay couples' capability as parents, and that just like people today who are against interracial marriage are rightly labelled as bigots, the same thing will happen to those who continue to denounce same-sex relationships. Because they are bigots. There is no 'debate' on gay marriage- it's just a byword for open slather on anti-gay bigotry.

Of course, despite Tanya Plibersek's column, Labor doesn't support gay marriage either, and I'm not sure whether they support allowing gay couples to adopt children or have the same access to IVF treatment as heterosexual couples. I'll never vote for a party that doesn't believe that all loving relationships between two consenting adults have the same value, regardless of the gender makeup of the partnership.