It’s not often that I read news coming out of Australia and feel proud to be Australian. Mostly, I cringe. But not this week. The results of the same-sex marriage vote were released a couple of days ago and it’s a 61.6% majority vote for YES. Yay, Australia!
What does this mean now? Unfortunately it doesn’t mean that homosexuals can get married. Not yet, anyway. However it is a foundation stone which will lead the way to that outcome. The referendum was a non-binding plebiscite. No, a plebiscite is not a sexually transmitted disease, but a direct vote to all members in an electorate which in this case was the whole country. The government doesn’t have to do anything with this information but now that they know a majority of Australians support a law change it’s unlikely they’ll ignore it.
The current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, supports same-sex marriage but there are deep divisions in his party over this issue. Having the results of the plebiscite will hopefully give him the authority to push it through despite the internal party conflict. Malcolm Turnbull leads the Liberal Party of Australia but don’t be fooled by the word “Liberal” in the name – the Liberal Party of Australia is conservative in every sense of the word.
It’s starting to feel wintry here and I love it. I love being all rugged up and feeling the cold, cold air against my cheeks. It’s also getting dark which makes it feel Christmassy. Consequently I’ve started playing Christmas music already. Is that bad? I took the kids to Food Story for cake this afternoon. If you visit Aberdeen you must go to Food Story. It’s the best.
rachel.blog 
I continue to wonder how many countries it will take – or how many years it will take – until sexuality is a “non issue”. Maybe it might take a couple more generations. Or perhaps organised religion to decrease in influence futher (which, to be fair, has been going on for decades already). Still great news though.
Good question. I suspect that humans 100 years from now will look back on us and shake their heads in disbelief just as we do now with slavery. I wish it was a non-issue now.
At first it seemed like upside-down cake, but on further examination apparently not.
Yeah, I’m not sure why the video is upside down. I think I might have had my phone at a funny angle when I took it but it corrects itself when played so I left it as it is. I think it makes it more interesting 🙂