On a recent episode of ‘A Current Affair’ — an Australian report program regarding issues occurring nationally — Magda Szubanski, a beloved Australian comedian, actress and author shared her views on the legalization of same-sex marriage in Australia. Being a homosexual herself, she agreed on voting ‘Yes’ for same-sex marriage. Recently, Szubanski’s mother had passed away, a strong Catholic woman who embraced equality for her daughter. Magda heartily shared, “I’m really sad that she died before this – before seeing me have the same rights as her other two children.” Her mother proved to be an incredible support system for her, a sacred and relieving need for individuals a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Magda also expressed her opinion on the impact of the voting of same-sex marriage legalization on Australian youth, saying, “The thing is that kids are always…super sensitive to being different and I’ve said before, like with every other minority group, the family shares the minority status, but for a LGBTQI youth, you’re a minority of one within your own family, and to have that institutionally reinforced by the State, it’s a wrong that can be righted so simply.”
The two distinguished perspectives of the issue of same-sex marriage – ticking ‘Yes’, thus supporting same-sex marriage, or ticking ‘No’, thus being homophobic – have not only affected the future for Australian youth a part of the LGBTQ+ community, but have helped differentiate and highlight the bulk of bigotry that has now disgustingly, and heavily surfaced, but labeling themselves as ‘the silent majority’.
Magda had mentioned her distaste of the ‘No’ campaign – popularly known as ‘Coalition for Marriage’. She protested that Tony Abbott, former Prime Minister of Australia and a proud supporter of heterosexual marriage being the only defined marriage, is “such an attack dog, and he will destroy anything in order to get what he wants”. The Coalition for Marriage is a recent campaign established to support in voting ‘No’ towards changing the Marriage Act. When visiting their website, the phrase, ‘we are the silent majority’ appears boldly. A campaign supporting only heterosexual marriage, the only universally accepted marriage that doesn’t struggle with bias, believes that they are supposedly ‘the silent majority’, the majority that cannot be heard for their long-lived, full-throated views. To further prove the amount of blatant dishonesty and foolishness represented within that phrase, recently the supporters of Coalition for Marriage chose to sky-write the words, ‘Vote NO’ in the Sydney sky, in hopes to somewhat promote individuals to consider voting ‘No’. It is hard to assimilate that a campaign would portray themselves as being attacked and misunderstood, but label the sky that almost 5 million Australians look up to each day with two words powerfully representing pure discrimination; ‘Vote NO’. The Coalition for Marriage hopes to also achieve the eradication of the ‘Safe Schools’ program, Australian organisations that aims to provide a safe environment at schools for individuals a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Cory Bernardi, an extremely bigoted Australian politician remarked at The Coalition for Marriage’s National Campaign Launch that “We’re under assault because we’re on the right side of legal and moral history”. But he somehow continues to encourage the removal of the well-being of people who need and depend on the support of the ‘Safe Schools’ program, especially the future generation, the highly influenced and most likely to influence. The Coalition for Marriage holds no appropriation to use the phrase ‘we are the silent majority’ – when clearly they haven’t been.
Featured Image Source: ABC News Australia
