Update for Monday 27 August

Catholic Bishops over-reach on marriage equality – Kevin Hague

It’s not a surprise that the NZ Catholic Bishops have chosen to oppose Louisa Wall’s Bill for marriage equality. After all, they opposed Homosexual Law Reform, they opposed human rights protection on the grounds of sexual orientation and they opposed Civil Unions. I’m beginning to sense a theme.

Gay marriage debate heats up – NewstalkZB

It’s not all good news, but we think it’s clear the tide is turning!

A sample email sent to MPs calls gays and lesbians “sexual deviants and dropouts” who don’t have the capacity to be normal, and who gave the world HIV and AIDS.

It also asks how many sportspeople are gay.

Ironically, the Bill’s sponsor Louisa Wall represented New Zealand in netball and rugby.

Marriage rights battle heating up – NZ Herald

Another family who deserve to be protected!

Monique and Mahara have been together eight years, wear rings demonstrating their commitment and say they are engaged, though they never followed through on a Civil Union.

They are glad they didn’t now because if Labour MP Louisa Wall’s bill to legalise same-sex marriage passes, they would rather get married.

Marriage itself is not the drawcard, the women say, but they would like the right to get married because this would mean they were being treated the same as everyone else.

Yet another “opinion” on same-sex marriage – Kiwiana (inked)

Garth George has also apparently never met a homosexual who is light-hearted and carefree. I think I can safely say that I would not be particularly light-hearted or carefree if I were forced to have a conversation with Garth George, as it’s surprisingly difficult to remain light-hearted and carefree when talking with someone who sees you as a lesser human being for no other reason than the fact that you sometimes like to sleep with women.

Update for Friday 17 August

Marriage equality – idea whose time has come – Kevin Hague MP, frogblog

I fully appreciate that there are some people who hold religious views about homosexuality that are negative, but it is important to understand that marriage is, in fact, two different things. On the one hand it is a religious sacrament, and I recognise that, arising from this, some churches may object to marrying same-sex couples for doctrinal reasons. The intention behind the Bill is absolutely to continue to allow such churches to decide whom they will and will not marry. However, marriage is also a civil institution, and this civil institution must be based on the principles of law, rationality and natural justice. New Zealand is not a state where law is or should be determined by religious doctrine.

Marriage poll breakdown offers insight – GayNZ.com

Kiwiblog’s David Farrar, who is also a statistician, points out that under 35s are 76 per cent in favour, while 66 per cent of people aged 35 to 54 are in favour.

Internationally:  Gay dads of 12 among fathers of the year – GayNZ.com

Two gay Arizona men who have legally adopted the 12 children they’d been fostering have been honoured among Esquire magazine’s fathers of the year.

This is what we’re fighting for!  Protecting families, not a tradition which, when it’s backed up by the law, hurts people – and could have prevented these two guys from being the fantastic dads they are.

Rally for marriage equality!

The first reading of Louisa Wall’s bill will be on Friday, 29 August.

If you’re in Wellington, meet in Civic Square at noon to show your support!

More details on Facebook.

NZ newspapers in favour of marriage equality

From what we’ve seen (mainly on Twitter), plenty of traditional, mainstream newspapers have published editorials supporting marriage equality and Louisa Wall’s bill.  They include:

• The Dominion Post
• The Manawatu Standard
• The Marlborough Express
• The Northern Advocate
• The Southland Times
• The Taranaki Daily News
• The Timaru Herald

As well as Stuff, probably the most mainstream of online NZ news sources.

Not to mention opinion pieces:

• Duncan Garner on 3News
• Richard Boock on Stuff
• Rodney Hide in the NZ Herald
• Stephen Rainbow in the NZ Herald

If you’ve seen any more, drop us a line at protectfamiliesnz @ gmail dot com!

Why you can be against marriage equality – but still support it

One of the articles on the “Protect Marriage” site is a reprint of a 2008 article by David Blankenhorn – a “liberal Democrat” who “does not favour same-sex marriage.”

(The whole article is here.)

It’s easy to see why this article applies to people who are anti-marriage equality.  It gives a great example of someone who considers himself liberal, but doesn’t see his liberal views as naturally aligning with marriage equality.

The downside for the people who want to “protect marriage” by locking it away and only letting some people enjoy it is that we get to play the same game – with the very same guy!

This is an article from the very same David Blankenhorn, from 2012.  In the four years between that article, reproduced by the Protect Marriage website, and now, Blankenhorn has had a change of heart:

But there are more good things under heaven than these beliefs. For me, the most important is the equal dignity of homosexual love. I don’t believe that opposite-sex and same-sex relationships are the same, but I do believe, with growing numbers of Americans, that the time for denigrating or stigmatizing same-sex relationships is over.

So how about that?  The “liberal Democrat who’s against same-sex marriage” has become “the liberal Democrat who is still personally against same-sex marriage but thinks it’s the right thing to do because gay people deserve equal rights.”

Hat-tip to Red Queen at GayNZ.com