14-year-old boy with two mums asks Australians to vote for equal marriage
A 14-year-old boy with two mums has urged people to help make sure his parents are allowed to get married.
As voting begins in Australia’s equal marriage postal ballot today, Labor Party leader Bill Shorten held a press conference – but he wasn’t the star speaker.
Mr Shorten, a passionate supporter of equal marriage, gave over his platform to a 14-year-old boy, Eddie Blewett, who had come to Parliament to ask Australians to help make sure his parents can get married.
Eddie said: “People who know my family know that there’s nothing wrong with us. We play soccer in the winter and volunteer for the surf club in the summer.
“I have two parents. They love me, and the love eachother. All couples and all families deserve the same respect and value.”
Addressing some of the homophobic hate speech about same-sex parents from the No campaign, he said: “”People are saying stuff about my family. They’re saying that they’re not normal.
“They’re saying that they’re second rate. Don’t listen. Be yourself.”
Eddie warned against anger at the public vote leading to a lack of turnout for the Yes campaign.
He said: “I feel like people aren’t going to vote, like they’re going to throw their ballot papers in the bin.”
“To hear they were going ahead with the postal survey was pretty disappointing. I don’t think we can change the fact it’s going to go out but we can change how people vote.”
The young campaigner encouraged people to make sure to Vote Yes.
Sharing the clip, Bill Shorten wrote: “Two mums had a son. This is how he turned out.”
One commenter wrote: “Your parents would be very proud of you! I’m not surprised you want to stand up for your family. Well done! ”
Another added: “Just another reason why this whole process [of a public vote] is a disgrace.
“But since we have to do it let’s stand with him and mark YES on the survey.
“If he is an example of what same sex couples parent we need more of them.”
The teen and his mothers Neroli Dickson and Claire Blewett previously appealed for equal marriage in Parliament.
Instead of putting the issue through Parliament, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has opted to put the issue of same-sex marriage to the people in a contentious and controversial public vote.
The public vote, which is non-binding and advisory in nature, has no legal power – but the result will likely be taken into consideration by the country’s lawmakers.
The country’s anti-LGBT lobby has nonsensically taken to branding the same-sex marriage proposals ‘transgender marriage’, in a bid to adopt US-style ‘wedge issue’ tactics.
In a release this week, the Australian Family Association took the claims to a bizarre extreme – using their falsehoods to try and convince lesbians to vote against equal marriage.
The group asks: “Is this the sort of ‘equality’ Australians want to impose on women and lesbians?”
