OPINION: The irony of Valentine's and marriage equality

It is quite a kick in the teeth to publicly celebrate your marriage when you are the one standing in the way of others’ marital bliss.

AS A holiday built off an act of defiance against the "sanctity of marriage", one would think Liberal politicians would see the irony in their celebration of Valentine's Day.

Quick wiki history lesson: Saint Valentine of Rome was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire.

From this, we get the idea that the Valentine's Day celebration was created after someone decided he did not want to conform to the restrictive and oppressive wishes of his conservative rulers.

These days, not allowing soldiers to marry would be ridiculous.

If we were to draw a parallel from this to the marriage equality movement of today... well, let's hope there is an element of foreshadowing.

Anyway, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was yesterday blasted for his party's views on same-sex marriage after he posted a photo of himself and his wife Lucy to commemorate Valentine's Day.

Mr Turnbull wrote: "When I first asked Lucy to marry me, she said, 'Let's wait until we grow up.' Well, we didn't wait long and now it is almost impossible to imagine, let alone remember, what it was like not to be together."

The post, predictably, received a lot of backlash from the public, particularly from those who cannot marry their partners due to the Liberal Party's conservative stance on same-sex marriage.

It is quite a kick in the teeth to publicly celebrate your marriage when you (I am aware our PM is personally in favour of SSM, but he leads a party that clearly is not) are the one standing in the way of others' marital bliss.

Times have changed, and people are frustrated.

Marriage equality isn't even a discussion anymore, it is going to happen, the only thing you can change is which side you wish to take in the history books.

Currently, some are on the wrong side, and a plebiscite is not the right way.

In the celebration of Valentine's Day, some politicians are ironically rejoicing in the demise of conservative control over love and marriage.

Originally published as OPINION: The irony of Valentine's and marriage equality