It is a step towards a freedom to love without feeling fear.

Dear Dr. Andrew Leigh MP,

I’m not a closet supporter

As a young Labor Party member I am writing to you to express my displeasure with the directions of the Federal Labor Party is taking with regards to equality in marriage.  I believe there is a very strong sentiment in our local Canberra community that it is time to change the Labor Party’s stance on this issue, yet our government persists in letting this community down by not supporting same sex marriage.  I appeal to you as an educated man in power to continue to standup for your community and what they want.  

I am more than disappointed with our leaders response to gay marriage, that of marriage conventionally and exclusively being between a man and a woman.  To suggest marriage is traditionally a heterosexual institution is morally flawed.  Was slavery not also a traditional convention based on customs that went back to the foundation of ‘civil society’?  Many of the evils of this practice have been grasped and for the most part (or at least legally) it has been abolished.  As a Western, progressive society we must recognise this axiom; there is no moral ground on which we may support the tradition of marriage as being one of a strictly heterosexual union.  

As I was growing up I never once thought that I would have more opportunities than a good friend of mine.  Everything our parents have done for us, every opportunity they have given us, every bit of encouragement they have ever given us has been given with equal vigor.  Our parents, teachers and friends treat us equally in every manner.  Our government does not.  My friend is gay and I am straight.  The idea that I may marry the man I love and he may not is simple and plain discrimination.  

As the federal member for Fraser, standing for a party that has since the Second World War and John Curtin, claimed to embody the ideals of ‘a fair go for all’, ask you to really stand for these principles and vote for marriage equality.  I am not asking for anything more than equal treatment for all Australians under Australian Law.  Legalizing gay marriage to you may only be a vote on your conscious but to me, to many of my friends and to the next generation of Australians it is a step towards a freedom to love without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation.  I ask you, not only as a Party member and one who is likely to work with you in the future, but on moral grounds, to hear my voice when considering your vote.  

Yours sincerely, 

Alice Wade.