Is It Time For Marriage Equality?

On the 26th of June, I remember opening up Facebook to find my feed bombarded with rainbows, as well as news articles announcing same-sex marriage was now legal in the US.

I was extremely happy for two reasons: one, because the world was getting closer to international marriage equality, and two, because of my friend.

I've always accepted marriage equality but I hadn't truly given it much thought until my friend came out. Honestly, I was a bit weirded out at first, mostly due to the fact that it was the first time I had seen a same-sex couple in public. But I came to terms with it, noticing that this was the happiest I'd seen her in the six years I've known her. And I'm very happy that she's found someone who's just as crazy and fun as she.

On June 26, rainbow filters and posts starting and ending with #LoveWins were spreading rapidly throughout all my social media feeds. It was another crazy viral trend running through all these social networks, but this time it ran with deeper meaning rather than the usual shallow celebrity scandal gossip (although I suspect some may have used it just for likes and re-tweets).

However, through all the hype, I suddenly realised I was living in a country where same-sex marriage was still yet to be legalised. It's frustrating to watch other countries gradually come to terms with same-sex marriage, whilst waiting for your own country to slowly catch-up. It's even more frustrating to be in a place where they say we have total freedom, but we don't. If we truly lived in a country where freedom existed, people would have the freedom to choose between having a heterosexual or a homosexual marriage.

Religion should definitely not be an excuse to prevent marriage equality. There are so many Australians who choose to devote to religions beyond the denominations that oppose same-sex marriage. In some form, this is an act of discrimination.

Marriage equality shouldn't be something that takes a while to consider: it's something that should be accepted instantaneously. The reason why it was unusual for me to see a same-sex couple was because of the inconspicuous stigma that had been ingrained in our society since ... forever? Marriage equality should not be considered a privilege or an option; I see it as a human right. We are free to love whomever we want and thus, should be allowed to marry whomever we want.

So yes, it is most definitely the time for marriage equality. In fact, we are quite late. The US was the 21st country to achieve marriage equality. I am hoping Australia will be the 22nd.

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