Legalising same-sex marriage won’t take away free speech: O’Brien

POSTAL ballot laws won’t take away your right to free speech. Rather, they outlaw hate speech, so the new laws are really protecting both sides of the same-sex marriage debate, writes Susie O’Brien.

POSTAL ballot laws don’t outlaw free speech; they outlaw hate speech.

Gay marriage doesn’t make dissent a crime, as some are claiming today. It makes bigotry and discrimination a crime, and that’s just fine by me.

Any suggestion that making same-sex marriage legal would lead to new laws against free speech are, in my view, ridiculous.

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Same-sex marriage ballot papers have started to arrive, with this voter saying “yes”. Picture: File

Free speech in this country has never been an unfettered right — our right to speak has always been tempered by our responsibilities to others.

This includes the need not to discriminate, abuse, harass and threaten.

So new laws brought in to protect both sides in the debate are nothing outrageous. They merely mean that there is a ban on vilification, intimidation and threats, and anyone who is found to have breached these laws can sue for up to $12,600.

The fact that Attorney-General George Brandis — famous for speaking up for the right of people to be bigots — must approve any such claims offers significant protection from those seeking mere nuisance.

The laws are needed because the same-sex marriage postal ballot — which is now well underway — isn’t covered by similar electoral laws that govern other similar processes.

They were pushed by Labor and the Greens, but supported by the Coalition and are expected to pass in the House of Representatives this week.

The Senate’s special laws don’t outlaw free speech, only hate speech. Picture: AAP

Given the behaviour of both sides, this move was clearly needed.

On the left we had Benjamin Law, whose excellent piece in Quarterly Essay on Safe Schools was undermined by his tweets saying he wants to “hate-f--k all the anti-gay MPs in parliament”.

And on the right we have had Senator Cory Bernardi who once compared same-sex marriage to bestiality, not to mention the Australian Christian Lobby who called children from gay partnerships the “Stolen Generation”.

Acting Special Minister of State Mathias Corman has made it clear that merely expressing an opinion about the impact of same sex marriage will not be enough to trigger the law.

He told the Coalition party room Senator Brandis would no doubt approach the issue of “with a bias toward freedom of speech”.

Senator Bernardi has spoken against the postal ballot laws. Picture: AAP

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For instance, the laws aren’t going to stop former Prime Minister Tony Abbott from setting out his “no” argument which basically says gay couples with children aren’t families.

“Marriage is the basis of family; and family is the foundation of community,” he wrote this week.

It may be offensive to many, but it shouldn’t be illegal.

To those who oppose this measured, reasonable law I say: why are you standing up for the right of some people to be hateful and malicious?

This isn’t free speech, it’s hate speech, and that rightfully should be outlawed in any context.

The latest polls suggest that seven out of ten people support gay marriage.

Let’s get this ballot over so we can get one step closer to equality for all.