Aiming for a harmonious society...

Mr. Leigh,

I don’t know what your personal attitudes to gay marriage are. I would not presume to name them. I would neither presume to coat you with the slick of wider party policy.

I write to you because I am troubled. I cannot see the question of gay marriage as anything but divisive in our society. I don’t propose that by supporting it, you can instantly force the miners of the Pilbara region to do the same. You are yourself, not the holder of the leash of the many people in Australia who are frightened by the prospect of further fragmentation of their nation, painted with the summer hues of their childhood, reluctant to relinquish the last time they were sure of anything in their memory. 

All I ask is that you, as an elected leader of the people of Canberra, as someone who must give succour and strength to those you lead, take a first step. I do not claim that you can make people change. But you can show them that the world you want, is not going to dissolve their lives, and leave them billowing on the winds of change, with no sure place to take shelter. You must show them that this question, this poisonous argument turning the characters of homo- and heterosexuals alike into hardened leather and vicious lashing tongues, is not something to be feared. It is only the progression that Australia will take, as we move towards a harmonious society that gives all the same place before each other.

You will never change the opinions of those who do not want to believe, or accept, or consider. What you, as someone with the power to do so vested in you by the electors of Australia, can do, is change the world around them, and then have the courage to weather the storm that will come while they struggle into the world that you have made.

The way forward is not the infighting that we are suffering now. It is through love and inclusiveness, and letting the outliers come back to the fold, when they have overcome their fear. You must let them feel that they will not be vilified or singled out for their opinions, and you must try to protect them if those already touched by this debate attempt to do so. You have the responsibility to lead in this. I want nothing more than that my fellow man should love me as I love him in turn. I need you to make the first steps.

I hope that you choose wisely in this matter.

Yours, 

Connor Drum