It’s been a big week for the same-sex marriage debate in Australia. With votes going down in the House of Representatives and the Senate, there have been some clear winners (the anti same-sex marriage lobby(for the moment)), some clear losers (Cory Bernadi) and a movement that now stands in a little bit of no-mans land.
Within all of this however, two people have managed to skate through, receiving little to none of the attention they deserved. Whilst Cory Bernadi has been sacked for his comments linking homosexuality to bestiality, ALP Senator Helen Polley, and Nationals Senator Ron Boswell have had just as offensive statements basically ignored.
Polley took to the debate on the same night as Bernadi. In her speech she said that two-thirds of the correspondence she had received had asked her not to support the bill. She then read out a number of letters from her constituents. Here are a couple of corkers:
“From D and AO: ‘Those who seek to change the definition ignore the impacts on children and the potential to create another stolen generation by putting an adult desire above the needs of children.’”
“From JS: ‘Marriage is a very ancient and important institution in our society…History shows that the homosexual groups always have another issue that must be addressed. After same-sex marriage, what will be next?”
Boswell’s comments came the night before, and took a more sexist approach. Talking about the impact same-sex parenting may have, Boswell stated:
“Two mothers or two fathers can’t raise a child properly. Who takes the boy to football? Who tells him what’s right from wrong? What does he do? Go along with mum, or two mums? How does he go camping or fishing? It won’t work, it’s defying nature!”
I’m not going to go into the details of why I think Bernadi has fell victim to his comments, whilst Polley and Boswell are skating through (although it’s probably to do with the relative positions they hold). The reality is though that if you were disgusted in Bernadi’s comments, your outrage at these two Senators should be just as high. I know mine is.
Whilst neither Boswell, nor Polley, hold the sorts of positions that Bernadi held, their statements deserve just as much condemnation, and their party leaders should be called on to do so.
Cory Bernadi’s comments rightfully showed this week that you can and should no longer be able to spout disgusting homophobic views without facing some form of consequence. Whilst the pressure placed on him has been great, we can’t let people like Polley and Boswell continue to skate through.
Ps. Want another great take on Polley’s remark. Check out Clementine Ford’s post.