How then can you allow such discrimination to also extend to gay and lesbian couples ?

Dear Gai,

Marriage rights for homosexual couples is an issue that concerns everyone not just the gay and lesbian community. Because, rights for gay and lesbian couples are human rights. Hence, I am deeply concerned that my government could so blatantly undermine the rights of my fellow man.

We live in a country that calls itself ‘multicultural’, a term that stems from our belief that we are among some of the most tolerant people on earth. Whilst as Australians we have reached a point where we believe that it is wrong to discriminate against others based on their race, religion, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, it seems our laws do not reflect such values. Why should so many suffer under such a contradiction?

As a woman, and particularly in politics, I am sure you will understand equality is not something that has been wholly extended to our sex. I am sure that you personally understand the discrimination many women experience today by virtue of being born a woman. How then can you allow such discrimination to also extend to gay and lesbian couples who have no control over who they fall in love with, just as you have no control over your gender?

Therefore, I urge you and others to see this issue for what it really is, something that concerns the entire community, an issue concerned with the rights and freedoms of every single person. There is a very real danger in not speaking out against such injustice in the community. The following poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller is a painful reminder of this fact,

First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Gai Brodtmann, please speak out for the rights of the gay and lesbian community.

Regards,

Emma Lindfield