Key Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage In Australia

Australia. A country who prides itself on being a multicultural nation that opens its arms and welcomes different people from all across the globe. So why aren't we opening the same welcoming arms to the LGBTI community, to gay Australians? Why are we discriminating against some individual differences but welcoming and celebrating others? According to the Australian Human Rights Commision, 11 in 100 Australians are of diverse sexual orientation, this means they identify themselves as anything other than heterosexual but most commonly as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, no gender or gender fluid. They have also reported that the number of same-sex couples has more than tripled between 1996 and 2011. In my view these statistics alone are

This is statistically untrue as the 2016 census showed that for the first time a status of no religion overtook catholic status with 30% of Australians declaring they were of no religion compared to 22.6% of Australians declaring themselves as Catholic. In addition many catholics and christian followers believe that same-sex marriage should be legalised, myself being one of them. Former Prime minister Tony Abbott - whose own sister is a lesbian and who had to travel to New Zealand to get legally married - was hesitant and unwilling to push for same-sex marriage in Australia arguably based on his own catholic views. In comparison Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who is a catholic, openly supports gay marriage, despite his personal faith, he states that ‘the idea of private belief, whilst it ought to be valued and respected, it is fundamentally different from public duty.’ Whilst I also fully respect each individual's right to follow whichever faith they do choose I believe it is completely unreasonable that the religious views of individual members of parliament should influence law making and amending. Although the issue of same-sex marriage has been a topic heavily discussed in parliament over the last year, these discussions seem to be getting the issue no where, Malcolm Turnbull’s government should take the responsible and just action and allow a free vote in parliament as this is the most practical way of achieving marriage