Piers Akerman: Same-sex marriage survey result clouds more pressing issues
NOW that Malcolm Turnbull has celebrated the homosexual marriage survey results, he should address some more pressing issues, Piers Akerman writes, like the national government debt for instance.
Opinion
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NOW that Malcolm Turnbull and wife Lucy have celebrated the ABS release of its survey on attitudes to homosexual marriage, he might perhaps address some more pressing issues — the national government debt for instance, which is closing in on $600 billion.
Not to begrudge the homosexual community joy, but can the whistleblowing and bad disco music now stop?
The unctuous speeches made on Wednesday were concerning to many and not just those who live in the 17 electorates that don’t approve of redefining marriage. A number of homosexuals and high achievers said they found themselves cringing when some members of their cohort described the Australia they lived in as a society in which homosexuals were a victimised group forced to live in conditions akin to those in concentration camps.
Qantas boss Alan Joyce, who ponied up a million of his own money and made his airline into a giant billboard for the cause, hardly fits the picture of a either a victim or a concentration camp survivor but uber hyperbole was de rigueur for their piteous campaign.
According to the survey run by the longwinded ABS chief David Kalisch (to whom congratulations are due for bringing it in well under the $122 million budgeted), 7.8 million Australians said Yes to the proposition and 4.8 million said No.
Those who style themselves as progressives and whose default position is always to defer to minority views are not interested in minorities now.
They don’t want to know about the No voters. Labor MPs for Blaxland and Watson in NSW, in which almost 75 per cent of constituents ticked No, and seven other Western Sydney seats with large Muslim and Orthodox Christian populations have said they will ignore the views of those they were elected to represent.
Compromise? Forget it. That intolerance of the other was just as clearly expressed by prominent lesbian campaigner Dr Kerryn Phelps in an article which showed nothing but ill-mannered, brutish contempt for those holding strong religious beliefs reflected by their ticks in the No box.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, she said: “When the plebiscite was first announced, and then the postal survey, we were worried about the impact on the LGBTIQ community of people with hostile anti-gay sentiments being invited to ‘have their say’ about our lives and our relationships. On principle, human rights should never be the subject of a government-sponsored opinion poll. Yet, day after day during this campaign, the LGBTIQ community has suffered the disrespect, abuse and indignity we warned would happen.
“We predicted that the opponents of equality would make sure it would be a campaign of misinformation and fearmongering about ‘hidden dangers and unforeseen consequences’ of changing the status quo.
“Family relationships and friendships have been damaged or destroyed, as previously unspoken or unexpected prejudices were revealed. Nobody I know in our community has been immune to the expressions of anti-gay hostility on our TV screens, in our newspapers and on social media.
“To those who are trying to frustrate the will of the Australian people I have this to say: You can continue to disrupt the harmony of the Australian community by demanding so-called ‘religious freedoms’ which is Orwellian Doublespeak for a licence to restrict the rights and freedoms of others, specifically aimed at entrenching discrimination against the LGBTIQ community.
“Imagine if we started to see signs in shop windows or on company websites saying ‘Same-sex couples not welcome here’. That is not the spirit of equality.”
This is just hypocritical crap, like Bill Shorten celebrating what he had previously called “an expensive, divisive opinion poll” in the streets of Melbourne, following his outrageous and unfilled forecast that the survey would see a rise in suicides among the fragile homosexual community.
The LGBTIQ was not subjected to any vilification campaign matching that run by the acronymic people, who clearly are not as homogenous as their self-anointed representatives want us to believe.
But by denigrating support for long-held religious beliefs as “so-called ‘religious freedoms’ ” and then belittling them further by claiming they are “Orwellian Doublespeak for a licence to restrict the rights and freedoms of others, specifically aimed at entrenching discrimination against the LGBTIQ community”, Dr Phelps descends to a disgusting level of vile disrespect that should disqualify her from further comment — expect that No supporters genuinely believe in free speech. It might surprise her, but freedom of religion is actually a fundamental human right — homosexual marriage is not.
That’s why it is critical that the legislation enabling the state to tick the box on homosexual marriage must ensure that it enshrines protections for the man and woman in the street and not just those who hold religious office — as Turnbull concedes senator Dean Smith’s Bill would establish.
Less than total protection would see progressive zealots dragging citizens before state tribunals charged with hate crimes and rolling out the tumbrels in anticipation of the sort of mass executions which marked the mob embrace of past popular causes like the Inquisition, the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution a century ago. As we saw with the pursuit of cartoonist Bill Leak by the previous head of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Dr Gillian Triggs, it was either her view of human rights or excruciating punishment by process.
On the positive side, it is sincerely hoped that there may now be a reduction in the percentage of mentally unstable LGBTIQ people. According to the recent National LGBTI Health Alliance, compared to the general population, LGBTIQ people are more likely to experience and be diagnosed with a mental health disorder, specifically, lesbian, gay and bisexual people were twice as likely to have symptoms that (are) the criteria for a mental health disorder in the past 12 months and were twice as likely to be diagnosed and treated for mental health disorders
More than 40 per cent of homosexual/bisexual people aged 16 and over met the criteria for a mental disorder and had symptoms in the past 12 months and nearly 40 per cent (37.1 per cent) of LGBTIQ people aged 16 and over reported being diagnosed or treated for any mental disorder in the past three years.
May they find some mental relief in the survey result — and can the government now start dealing with real issues that affect all Australians like power prices, housing, transportation and jobs.