Thread: Same sex marriage

Look, I'm an ally for and believe in this whole equal rights for gays thing (or anyone for that matter) and am as pinko-liberul-commie as anyone...

But if you start up with that fucking song you can fuck right off! I have my limits!

Tony Abbott's sister Christine Forster marries long-time partner Virginia Flitcroft

"I now declare you partners, soulmates and lovers for life."



It's a moment that Christine Forster and Virginia Flitcroft thought might never happen. Christine in a pantsuit with long jacket, Virginia in a navy, 1950s-style frock — standing in front of a wall of flowers waiting to say "I do".

And there, sitting in the front row is a family member who spent years campaigning against same-sex marriage: Christine Forster's brother, Tony Abbott.

Christine and her long-time partner Virginia Flitcroft married today in a cocktail party-style wedding in the centre of Sydney, overlooking the harbour and Botanical Gardens.
Newlyweds



Photo: Christine and Virginia share a laugh with their celebrant Kathryn Breusch during their wedding ceremony. (Supplied: Dean Bentick)

The 200-guest wedding was attended by most of the Abbott family, including Tony and Margie Abbott, her mother Fay, sister Pip and nieces Louise and Bridget. Frances Abbott and bodybuilder fiance Sam Loch were unable to attend at the last minute.

Virginia's two children, Laura and Fraser Edwards, also attended.

In a show of support for his sister, the former prime minister mingled with guests, including many who were at the forefront of the Yes campaign.
Newlyweds
Photo: Former prime minister Tony Abbott joined his family on stage for group photos after the ceremony. (Supplied: Dean Bentick)

The crowd mingled in the ballroom amid dark blue decorative accents and plenty of floral arrangements before the couple made an entrance.

Christine and Virginia arrived down a curving staircase draped in flowers as a song composed for the occasion by close friend and Australia's Got Talent runner-up Greg Gould titled All I Never Knew I Wanted, played.

It was the first high-profile same-sex wedding since marriage equality law was passed in Australian Parliament on December 7 last year.

The bill was passed almost unanimously to allow two people, regardless of sex, to marry, making Australia the 25th country to recognise same-sex marriage.

Tony and Margie joined in a family photograph on stage after the ceremony was over, smiling for the camera in support of the newlyweds.

"It's a great family occasion, very happy for Chris and Virginia and I'm looking forward to having a new sister-in-law," Tony told reporters on his arrival at the wedding.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.
Video: Christine Forster and Virginia Flitcroft started planning their wedding once same-sex marriage was recognised in Australia in December. (Australian Story)

Politicians, drag queens join in celebration

Wedding guests included Liberal identities Dean Smith, who brought in Australia's same-sex marriage Bill, Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman and Victorian Senator Tim Wilson.

Well-known Sydney drag queens Candybox and Polly Petrie brought flair to the day while ushering in a new chapter for their friends Christine and Virginia who have been together for 10 years and engaged for four.

The nuptials kicked up a gear at the reception where iconic Australian comedian Bob Downe serenaded the couple during the bridal waltz with the song Love Is in the Air, the Yes campaign victory anthem.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.
Video: Christine Forster, Tony Abbott's sister, arrives for her wedding with partner Virginia Flitcroft (ABC News)

Christine and Virginia were at the forefront of the campaign that gave unstoppable momentum to the success of the Bill.

In stark contrast, brother Tony Abbott was a leading No campaign figure, labelling same-sex marriage as an attack on religious freedom.

More than 60 per cent of Australians voted Yes to recognising same-sex marriage — 7.82 million out of more than 12 million responses.
Tony Abbott
Photo: Tony Abbott sits alongside his mother Fay Abbott and wife Margie Abbott. (Supplied: Dean Bentick)

Members of Mr Abbott's electorate of Warringah were resoundingly in favour of same-sex marriage, despite their local MP's sentiments, with 75 per cent of respondents voting yes.

"Obviously I'll be voting no, but this isn't about politicians this is about the people, this is about your view," Mr Abbott told media in a press conference last year.

"If you don't like same-sex marriage, vote no. If you're worried about religious freedom and freedom of speech, vote no. If you don't like political correctness, vote no."

Christine and Virginia had planned to marry in the British consulate, but quickly decided to stage a full wedding as soon as marriage equality was recognised in Australia in December.

There had been some speculation as to whether Mr Abbott would be invited or attend.

Tony Abbott's sister Christine Forster marries long-time partner Virginia Flitcroft - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)


Classic wedding photo!

Tony is looking pretty relaxed and in the spirit of jollity. Good on him

This article or the related ones in it would make for a good thread on Thaivisa, they banned me for a similar one, no sense of humour. Still time to get cured before marriage.

Protest after Vue cinema cancels 'gay cure' film screening - BBC News

...one day, Christians and other ignorami will wake from their fear and hatred...perhaps when God whispers a revelation into their cauliflower ears...

This one's from the 'Nowhere Else To Put It Files'...

NZ Police cars, officially gay:

^ Shouldn't the number plate begin with LGBT...

Well spotted, it should!

Maybe it's a bisexual police car?

Originally Posted by happynz

^ Shouldn't the number plate begin with LGBT...

LGBT 69






























Hail Mary

Hail Mary

Hail Mary

...and it's a Holden (no surprises there).

This news story seems to have received very little coverage in the main stream media.

In December Bermuda reversed an earlier SSM law in favour of retaining marriage as between a man and a woman while supporting other types of partnerships using separate legislation.

An eminently sensible approach IMHO.

Bermuda reverses same-sex marriage decision

Politicians in Bermuda have voted to abolish same-sex marriage just months after it was legalised following a landmark Supreme Court ruling, the Royal Gazette reports.

Marriage equality has been dumped in favour of The Domestic Partnership Act of 2017—which grants some legal rights to same-sex couples but ensures those unions are defined differently from heterosexual marriages.

Progressive Labour Party backbencher Lawrence Scott supported the bill, saying that it gave “the LGBTQ community the benefits it has been asking for” while retaining “the traditional definition of marriage”.

“As it stands now, they can have the name marriage but without the benefits. But after this Bill passes, they have the benefits and just not the name marriage. The benefits are what they really want.”

Same-sex couples will now be unable to obtain marriage certificates, although the new law will not affect those who tied the knot in the last six months.

Jordan Sousa from Bermuda's Gay Straight Alliance told Yahoo News that the decision was a "national embarrassment turning Bermuda - who bills itself as a 21st-century place to do business - into a theocracy."

Australia has finally achieved marriage equality, but there’s a lot more to be done on LGBTI rights
Marriage equality has passed, so what’s next?

24 Bermudian members of Parliament voted in favour of the Act, while 10 refused to support the new bill.

Shadow home affairs minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said she could not support the changes to same-sex unions, “having given a community something only to take it away”.

“I don’t like to accept that it is OK for us to treat our sisters and brothers differently, whether fair or unfair, to treat them differently under similar circumstances.”

Home affairs minister Walton Brown said he introduced the bill because, otherwise, there would be a risk that same-sex marriage would have been banned altogether.

“We need to find a way in Bermuda to fully embrace greater rights for all members of the community,” Brown said.

“But the status quo will not stand. On the ground, the political reality is that if we do not lead we would have a private member’s bill tabled to outlaw same-sex marriage.

“That bill would pass because more than 18 MPs are opposed to same-sex marriage. If that bill passes same-sex couples have no rights whatsoever.

“This is tough for me. But I don’t shy away from tough decisions.”

https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/sexual...riage-decision

Originally Posted by tomcat

...and the way to do that, apparently, is to remove rights already granted to a minority: organized Christian pursed-lip smugness in trampling on "the other"...I hope US tourists, Bermudans main supply of money besides Britain, help the islanders rethink their folly: nothing clarifies the mind more quickly than an unexpected fall in profits needed to pay civil servants and elected officials...

The jesus wheezers are probably the only ones who can be bothered running for office, so it's not a surprise that the little curtain twitchers have got all indignant about this, really.

Milo is my hero...

...breeder hypocrisy to the fore:

One of Australia’s staunchest opponents of same-sex marriage just left his wife for his pregnant girlfriend

By Amanda Erickson February 8
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has argued against same-sex marriage. (Mick Tsikas/AAP via Reuters)
Until this week, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was probably best known as a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage. As the country considered legalization, Joyce argued that such unions are wrong because marriage is a process “inherently there for the support of, or the prospect of, children” and because “every child has a right, an absolute right, to know her or his mother and father.”
His own marriage was struggling, he acknowledged at the time. But that didn't stop him from taking a stand in support of the traditional family. (Joyce also argued that legalizing same-sex marriage could hurt Australia's cattle trade because business allies in southeast Asia might find the position “decadent.")

Joyce, 50, was one of the sponsors of the national vote on the issue, designed to slow the process of legalization. (Instead, the national referendum found a majority of voters in support.)
Now, though, gay rights activists are questioning Joyce's devotion to his values after it came out that he was divorcing his wife of 24 years for a former staff member who's pregnant with their child. The staff member, Vikki Campion, 33, is a former media adviser and nearly two decades younger than Joyce. The unmarried couple are now living together.

Rumors of the affair have been flying for months, but the story was broken by the Daily Telegraph, which ran a photograph of a pregnant Campion on its cover Wednesday.

Joyce's wife, Natalie, said she was “deeply saddened” by the affair, and that Campion had once been a frequent visitor to the Joyce family home. “This affair has been going on for many months and started when she was a paid employee,” Natalie Joyce said in a statement. “Naturally we feel deceived and hurt by the actions of Barnaby and the staff member involved. ... This situation is devastating on many fronts.”

The Joyces have four daughters together.

In a television interview after the story broke, Barnaby Joyce called the end of his marriage one of the “greatest failures” of his life. He also denied allegations that he used public money to conduct the relationship.
But Joyce's harshest words were reserved for the tabloids that exposed the affair. On ABC-TV, Joyce said, “I can’t quite fathom why basically a pregnant lady walking across the road deserves a front page. ... I think once we start going through this salami-slicing of a private life, where does it end?”

He cautioned Australians against going down the same path as the United States, where politicians' private lives are routinely reported on.

But gay-rights campaigner Rodney Croome pushed back on those claims. “You can’t put the lives of tens of thousands of your fellow citizens under the microscope and then expect to avoid scrutiny yourself,” he told AAP. Croome said the scandal exposed what “traditional marriage” means for Joyce. “It is not a set of standards for heterosexual couples to live up to. It is a euphemism for prejudice against LGBTI people and our exclusion from the core institutions of society.”
Although most Australian politicians have declined to comment on the affair, the country's parliament is considering a ban on relationships between politicians and their staff members. “Good workplace practice includes clear expectations about behavior,” Cathy McGowan, a member of parliament, told reporters.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/08/one-of-australias-staunchest-opponents-of-same-sex-marriage-just-left-his-wife-for-his-pregnant-girlfriend/?utm_term=.7e3dd09629f1

I believe he's saying that if you're going to be campaigning for the 'sanctity of marriage' as being between 'a man and a woman' then you're going to look like a bit of an arse goblin when it transpires that you've been diddling one of your staffers behind your wife's back.

...^surprised my post needed translating...but: whatever gives the masses (looking at you, David) insight into screaming double standards is welcome...

I don't really understand this criticism of BJ.

The idea of traditional marriage is that it binds a man to a woman in a mutually beneficial trade deal. He gets exclusive access to her reproductive resource. She gets the bacon he brings home to feed the sproglets.

BJs kids from his first marriage are now grown up so the first marriage's original function is now satisfied.

He has now blown his beans up his staffer and she is heavy with child.

He is now marrying her for the traditional purpose: as an asymmetric trade deal between a man and woman revolving around the support for offspring borne by the woman.

Originally Posted by Looper

I don't really understand

...I believe you...

Originally Posted by tomcat

...^surprised my post needed translating...but: whatever gives the masses (looking at you, David) insight into screaming double standards is welcome...

No need to look at me TC ... I'm taken

Said all I needed to say in my original rebuttal post.

Ant was just trying to be helpfull.

Originally Posted by David48atTD

Ant was just trying to be helpful.

...and if the clouds have dissipated, he has been successful...

Originally Posted by tomcat

...breeder hypocrisy to the fore:

Wow, shock and shame.. the guy that is against legalizing gay marriage and proposes to believe in the sanctity of marriage yet is having an affair with an employee.. wow!

Originally Posted by tomcat

He cautioned Australians against going down the same path as the United States, where politicians' private lives are routinely reported on.

Isn't this true the world over? I mean, if you are in the public eye, like politics, then your life will be under a microscope by the press.. sadly, but truly.

Originally Posted by Thailandbound

Isn't this true the world over? I mean, if you are in the public eye, like politics, then your life will be under a microscope by the press.. sadly, but truly.

Not so common in France, at least until quite recently.

Originally Posted by Thailandbound

Isn't this true the world over? I mean, if you are in the public eye, like politics, then your life will be under a microscope by the press.. sadly, but truly.

Which is all the more reason not to be a lying fucking hypocrite.