Breaking News:
Well done to the Australian Greens for pushing this issue and to Australian Labor for agreeing to support. Shows maturity. And also to those independents.
Australian Parliament proving to be quite different this term.
Hope it lasts.
A Greens motion urging MPs to gauge community support for gay marriage has been passed by the House of Representatives.
The motion, which has ignited debate over the issue this week, was passed by 73 votes to 72 with the support of Labor and crossbench MPs Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Andrew Wilkie.
The Coalition refused to support the motion as did independent MP Bob Katter.
Earlier this week Labor agreed to back the motion, put forward by Greens MP Adam Bandt, as tensions erupted internally over the party’s refusal to allow gay marriage.
Yee haa! Go the gays!
!!!!!!!!!!
Could someone from NZ Labour tell me what Labour’s position on same-sex marriage is as of right now? Are there plans to give us in the gay community full marriage (and adoption) rights when Labour is next in power? Or can we expect more support for “equal but separate” civil unions?
Awesome! Is it time for New Zealand to start discussing our separate but equal laws for same-sex partnerships?
I’ve no problem with same sex marriages, and have never understood the rabid christian right bleating about devaluing the sancity of their own unions etc…
To object is bigotry, plain and simple. The end.
And anyway, as that old joke goes – Why shouldn’t gays be allowed to marry? They deserve the right to be as miserable as everyon else
LOL
That’s suprising, during the election in one of the town hall chats Gillard said to a person who asked about gay marriage (I’m paraphasing), “not on my watch, Aussie isn’t anywhere near there yet”…
Hello dear people, just thought it might be nice to intoduce a little diversity into the debate.
Here is the traditional approach – marriage is an institution amongst all peoples and cultures everywhere in the world, since time immemorial, a publicly stated relationshi[p between a man and a woman, in order to raise children. There has never been such a thing as marriage between people of the same sex.
And that’s the way its going to stay,
Forever.
Well, richgraham, it’s always interesting to read different opinions, but you really don’t know much history or pre-history do you?
There are plenty of examples in diverse cultures throughout history where there have been same-sex marriages and/or unions.
http://gayteens.about.com/od/rightsandactivism/qt/marriage_hist.htm
And there is no universal practice of heterosexual marriage throughout history in the form that exists today in western countries. See here for instance:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-ryan/the-prehistory-of-prop-8_b_674722.html
I’m glad Labor is shifting, albeit slowly on this issue. I’ve never been that much into the notion of marriage for myself, and always saw it as a bit of a plus of being a lesbian that there wasn’t any pressure for getting legally hitched. But I think it should be equally available for those who want to it.
This is a teeny, tiny step for Australia. The ALP is on record opposing marriage equality, although polls show that 74% of their voters back it, as do 62% of Australians generally. They’ll come around eventually, but not any time soon.
Which means that NZ Labour still has the opportunity to establish full equality for GLBT citizens before Australia does for theirs.
I wasn’t going to respond to richgraham, but I’m feeling sporty tonight: You’re entitled to your views, but not to impose them on everyone else. Marriage equality is slowly becoming fact in the developed world and it will eventually come to both New Zealand and Australia—there’s absolutely no doubt about that. There cannot be full equality for all citizens without it.
Happy for some debate on this and I think it’s fine so far and I respect the different views being expressed. Please be civil and respectful.
NZ has taken some great steps forward in this area and I welcome more discussion. It’s a healthy thing. We are a stronger and more open society as a result of our civil union law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_union_in_New_Zealand
@rich graham, not only has gay marriage (or similar) existed in the past but many forms of relationship quite apart from monogamous heterosexual ones have also been prevalent in the past…
“There has never been such a thing as marriage between people of the same sex.”
And now there is. Deal with it. It won’t hurt you in any way.
“in order to raise children”
This bit of richgraham ’s comment is also completely wrong. Where the limited type of marriage he describes has been the only form, it is almost always to do with property rights. It is about inheritance issues for the most part, a way of determining in law, if not in fact, that such and such a person has a legal claim to property, and more often, that some pother person doesn’t.
‘Traditional’ marriage is notat all about society doing the right thing by children, but about defining which children are, to use the delighfully horrific and literally inhuman term, ‘illegitimate’.
“in order to raise children”
Agreed, PB. And also, in Africa, eg for Dahomey women, there has been a long tradition of women marrying one or more women (as at the link below), and sometimes such marriages have been for the purposes of the women raising children, eg
http://www.gendercentre.org.au/9article7.htm
Clare what efforts have you made to end our stupid separate but equal laws?
Will you introduce a private members bill to change the discriminatory law Labour passed?