DREADTALK: 'Is Gay Marriage A Human Rights Issue?' John Heard - Sydney Mardi Gras, Law Society Of NSW Young Lawyers - Remarks
:: Update ::
DREADNOUGHT delivered the following prepared remarks before participating in the NSW Law Society - Young Lawyers panel discussion in Martin Place, Sydney.
:: Is 'Gay Marriage' a Human Rights Issue? ::
-- Introductory Remarks --
John Heard *
When I was asked to participate in today’s event, I said yes immediately. I did so, because it is always a great honour, a distinct privilege, to speak on human rights. Plus, I love Sydney.
But I must admit that I come here today a little sorry.
You see, I’m not sure we’re here for the right reasons.
It seems ‘gay marriage’ has become a human rights issue, but not because it is a human right. Rather, all this talk might actually harm the progress of human freedom.
Why? The topic for discussion IS SAME SEX MARRIAGE A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE? Provides us with a quick answer.
That question mark, right at the end, certainly alerts us to the fact that people are uneasy. No one, not even its loudest advocates and careful, sympathetic bodies like the Young Lawyers, seems to be convinced that ‘gay marriage’ really is a human right.
That doesn’t go down well.
Did good people ask Barack Obama, the black US presidential candidate, whether racial equality was a human rights issue? No! Anyone in his or her right mind, listening to the inner voice of conscience and compassion, knows that it is.
Human rights are irresistible.
Would the venerable Law Society of NSW have asked the millions who suffered in the past under tyranny and those who continue to cry out today for freedom of association, of religion, for the right to free speech, would anyone dare to ask these people if their precious freedoms are real?
Absolutely not.
Human rights are unmistakeable.
If a vast majority of serious and compassionate people still doubt whether or not ‘gay marriage’ is a human right, then the answer is no. If all the major social institutions, both major political parties and every mainstream religion condemns 'gay marriage' then the answer is no. We wouldn’t be up here – G-d forbid – arguing about whether or not anti-Semitism were okay.
It is not.
So the fact that we are gathered here today under this banner indicates, right from the start, that no one really believes that ‘gay marriage’ is like racial equality, it is not a human right like freedom of association or free speech. Good people are right to doubt; it is not any kind of human right at all.
However, 'gay marriage' seems to have become – sadly – a human rights issue.
Certainly, it distracts us as a community from more urgent problems.
Because, as we come here today to debate a half-forgotten topic that the vast majority of Australians reject, in a city where Mardi Gras shrinks and HIV/AIDS infections too often rise, in a world that faces many serious, pressing challenges, these other problems go untouched.
What is worse, I’m concerned that by dragging the name of human rights into the midst of the so-called culture wars, ‘gay marriage’ events like this one do nothing to help real human rights advocates.
The conflict between ‘gay marriage’ and the advancement of human rights is enough to make anyone wonder. Indeed:
We can do better.
Today, if we put aside our minor differences and embrace a more humane vision, this becomes a space where peace begins to make sense. Where hope reigns.
Imagine if [the homoactivist speakers] used their talents to save the lives of same sex attracted men sentenced to hang in Iran?
Imagine if Christian conservatives and ‘gay rights’ activists worked together on teen suicide, drug addiction and HIV/AIDS? Imagine, my friends, if all the effort wasted on ‘gay marriage’ were channelled instead into strengthening personal relationships? In ensuring that the ‘gay’ community is no longer a place of ridicule and division, but a true family characterised by compassion, solidarity and hope.
Perhaps then the understandable longing some people feel for acceptance and legal recognition would find a better target than ‘gay marriage’. Real love, not mere tolerance, would be available.
After all, human rights belong to people because we’re human beings. Our humanity does not ask for permission, rather it demands recognition and dignity.
The question mark over this entire event – organised by a serious and compassionate group like the Law Society of NSW - demonstrates neatly, why ‘gay marriage’ has, unfortunately, and dangerously, become a human rights issue.
And also why it is not, indeed, a human right.
- Friday February 8, 2008
* B.A., LL.B (Hons) Melbourne.
[1] Pope John Paul the Great, Memory and Identity, 2005.
:: No Thanks, We're Australian ::
As expected, turnout was very low. For reference, Martin Place is like the Times Square of Sydney. Thousands of people streamed past, workers on lunch-break, shoppers, tourists, etc. and the vast majority saw the rainbow flag and 'gay rights' sign and kept right on walking. The organisers, an earnest and helpful bunch of young lawyers, plied them with prizes and cupcakes, but that didn't take either. It didn't help when some homoactivists on-stage (and a few hecklers in the crowd) slandered 'heteros' and ordinary families, something I'm sure the Young Lawyers did not anticipate.
:: The Upshot ::
I felt sorry for them, but the unimpressive turnout was a telling demonstration, a powerful visual metaphor, for the widespread opposition to 'gay marriage' that continues to characterise the responses^ of ordinary voters in Australia, the United States and most of the rest of the world.
^ (And, indeed, has characterised the response of the vast majority of voters for most of the last decade. The issue is effectively decided at the political level and the cultural debate has become decadent. Time to move on together).
NB: DREADNOUGHT is aware that some people and some institutions have opposed some human rights in the past (slavery is often mentioned - Andrew Sullivan got there first - and one attendee mentioned Nazi Germany) and that some people still persist in racism, etc. However, throughout I speak of 'good people' and the level of opposition to 'gay marriage' is neither random, nor confined to 'redneck' pockets - it is near universal - in NYC, LA and Sydney as well as more traditionally 'conservative' areas.
DREADNOUGHT delivered the following prepared remarks before participating in the NSW Law Society - Young Lawyers panel discussion in Martin Place, Sydney.
:: Is 'Gay Marriage' a Human Rights Issue? ::
-- Introductory Remarks --
John Heard *
When I was asked to participate in today’s event, I said yes immediately. I did so, because it is always a great honour, a distinct privilege, to speak on human rights. Plus, I love Sydney.
But I must admit that I come here today a little sorry.
You see, I’m not sure we’re here for the right reasons.
It seems ‘gay marriage’ has become a human rights issue, but not because it is a human right. Rather, all this talk might actually harm the progress of human freedom.
Why? The topic for discussion IS SAME SEX MARRIAGE A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE? Provides us with a quick answer.
That question mark, right at the end, certainly alerts us to the fact that people are uneasy. No one, not even its loudest advocates and careful, sympathetic bodies like the Young Lawyers, seems to be convinced that ‘gay marriage’ really is a human right.
That doesn’t go down well.
Did good people ask Barack Obama, the black US presidential candidate, whether racial equality was a human rights issue? No! Anyone in his or her right mind, listening to the inner voice of conscience and compassion, knows that it is.
Human rights are irresistible.
Would the venerable Law Society of NSW have asked the millions who suffered in the past under tyranny and those who continue to cry out today for freedom of association, of religion, for the right to free speech, would anyone dare to ask these people if their precious freedoms are real?
Absolutely not.
Human rights are unmistakeable.
If a vast majority of serious and compassionate people still doubt whether or not ‘gay marriage’ is a human right, then the answer is no. If all the major social institutions, both major political parties and every mainstream religion condemns 'gay marriage' then the answer is no. We wouldn’t be up here – G-d forbid – arguing about whether or not anti-Semitism were okay.
It is not.
So the fact that we are gathered here today under this banner indicates, right from the start, that no one really believes that ‘gay marriage’ is like racial equality, it is not a human right like freedom of association or free speech. Good people are right to doubt; it is not any kind of human right at all.
However, 'gay marriage' seems to have become – sadly – a human rights issue.
Certainly, it distracts us as a community from more urgent problems.
Because, as we come here today to debate a half-forgotten topic that the vast majority of Australians reject, in a city where Mardi Gras shrinks and HIV/AIDS infections too often rise, in a world that faces many serious, pressing challenges, these other problems go untouched.
What is worse, I’m concerned that by dragging the name of human rights into the midst of the so-called culture wars, ‘gay marriage’ events like this one do nothing to help real human rights advocates.
The conflict between ‘gay marriage’ and the advancement of human rights is enough to make anyone wonder. Indeed:
“it is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if ‘gay marriage’ is not perhaps part of a new ideology…insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man.”[1]There’s also the bullshit factor. Rather than a debate on the merits of competing ‘climate change’ policies or the plight of the long-suffering first nations and how Australia might apologise to the Stolen Generation, we’ve been gathered instead – and at great cost - to talk about whether or not Elton John can ‘marry’ his boyfriend.
We can do better.
Today, if we put aside our minor differences and embrace a more humane vision, this becomes a space where peace begins to make sense. Where hope reigns.
Imagine if [the homoactivist speakers] used their talents to save the lives of same sex attracted men sentenced to hang in Iran?
Imagine if Christian conservatives and ‘gay rights’ activists worked together on teen suicide, drug addiction and HIV/AIDS? Imagine, my friends, if all the effort wasted on ‘gay marriage’ were channelled instead into strengthening personal relationships? In ensuring that the ‘gay’ community is no longer a place of ridicule and division, but a true family characterised by compassion, solidarity and hope.
Perhaps then the understandable longing some people feel for acceptance and legal recognition would find a better target than ‘gay marriage’. Real love, not mere tolerance, would be available.
After all, human rights belong to people because we’re human beings. Our humanity does not ask for permission, rather it demands recognition and dignity.
The question mark over this entire event – organised by a serious and compassionate group like the Law Society of NSW - demonstrates neatly, why ‘gay marriage’ has, unfortunately, and dangerously, become a human rights issue.
And also why it is not, indeed, a human right.
- Friday February 8, 2008
* B.A., LL.B (Hons) Melbourne.
[1] Pope John Paul the Great, Memory and Identity, 2005.
:: No Thanks, We're Australian ::
As expected, turnout was very low. For reference, Martin Place is like the Times Square of Sydney. Thousands of people streamed past, workers on lunch-break, shoppers, tourists, etc. and the vast majority saw the rainbow flag and 'gay rights' sign and kept right on walking. The organisers, an earnest and helpful bunch of young lawyers, plied them with prizes and cupcakes, but that didn't take either. It didn't help when some homoactivists on-stage (and a few hecklers in the crowd) slandered 'heteros' and ordinary families, something I'm sure the Young Lawyers did not anticipate.
:: The Upshot ::
I felt sorry for them, but the unimpressive turnout was a telling demonstration, a powerful visual metaphor, for the widespread opposition to 'gay marriage' that continues to characterise the responses^ of ordinary voters in Australia, the United States and most of the rest of the world.
^ (And, indeed, has characterised the response of the vast majority of voters for most of the last decade. The issue is effectively decided at the political level and the cultural debate has become decadent. Time to move on together).
NB: DREADNOUGHT is aware that some people and some institutions have opposed some human rights in the past (slavery is often mentioned - Andrew Sullivan got there first - and one attendee mentioned Nazi Germany) and that some people still persist in racism, etc. However, throughout I speak of 'good people' and the level of opposition to 'gay marriage' is neither random, nor confined to 'redneck' pockets - it is near universal - in NYC, LA and Sydney as well as more traditionally 'conservative' areas.
by DREADNOUGHT at 9:59:00 PM
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