Comment: The time is now to take action for equal marriage!
Have you heard the news? Coalition for Marriage (C4M) has collected over 400,000 signatures for its petition to keep a restricted and homophobic (yes, homophobic) definition of marriage. Apparently, it is an institution only heterosexuals can and should enjoy. Meanwhile, how is the other camp, the Coalition for Equal Marriage (C4EM) doing? Merely a tenth of that number.
Now, you and I both know that these numbers don’t mean much. That the majority of Britons are probably on our side, or at least are indifferent. The polls, at least those that are impartial, seem to indicate the same thing.
But, as long as C4M keep building up those numbers, it won’t stop them from making noise. Yes, they have the money and the means, and they are annoyingly vociferous. But, such explanations don’t matter. They’ll continue to insist that the public is with them as long as they have ten times the number on their website. And that cannot be good.
For those of us who had problems trusting Mr Cameron’s rhetoric about marriage equality, his introduction of the conditional clause in his Easter message was worryingly familiar. Do you think he’s not beyond using such questionable statistics as those from C4M to retract the introduction of equality in marriage?
One cannot help displace the feeling that at the heart of this campaign by C4M lies a deep-rooted, religion-inspired homophobia. So, even as I was at first questioning Stonewall’s recent bus campaign as being somewhat confrontational, I changed my mind. If they are going to compare our innate nature to bestiality and paedophilia, to slavery and military dictatorship, the time for polite inaction and quietism is past.
So, here is my Easter Message. No, more than that — a call to arms.
If you haven’t signed the C4EM petition yet, do it now. Click here. And of course, perhaps more importantly, tell the Government how you feel, it is everyone’s duty to complete the official civil marriage equality survey run by the Home Office. We need to show to the Government that there is widespread support for its plans to allow gay couples to marry.
Don’t stop there. Tweet it. Re-tweet it. Everyday till the government consultation is over, and the number of signatures exceeds that of C4M.
Put it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or whatever else modern technology has introduced today. Create new pages, and spread the word.
E-mail your friends, colleagues, relatives, and their friends, colleagues and relatives. Educate them. Tease them. Bully them lovingly into signing the petition. Tell them what it means for you, and what it means for love.
Tell them why it matters. Tell them why love must prevail, and why love knows no boundaries.
The Home Office civil marriage equality survey can be found by clicking here.
