At some point in our lifetime, gay marriage won’t be an issue, and everyone who stood against this civil right will look as outdated as George Wallace standing on the school steps keeping James Hood from entering the University of Alabama because he was black.
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_ George Clooney
On Wednesday, November 15 at 10 am Australia will find out the result of the postal poll on marriage equality.
It will hopefully end what has been an at times bitter and divisive debate which will leave a scar on the surface of Australian history.
Yet be assured of one thing.
Marriage equality will happen in Australia.
It may happen as a result of what is handed down at 10 am on November 15 or it may not.
Be under no illusion though, one day a man will be able to marry a man or a woman a woman in Australia.
If Australia wants to remain considered a progressive, developed and inclusive society, it simply will happen.
As the famous actor states in his quote referencing the American politician George Wallace’s attempt to stop the enrollment of black students, the world moves on from the issues that have divided us in the past.
There are those who say “over my dead body”.
Well that’s kind of the argument as crass as it sounds.
You might not like it but that’s where sayings like “move with the times” were born.
Society simply moves on.
Regardless of the expensive exercise this postal poll has been and regardless even of the result, we as a nation will one day accept marriage equality and generations of the future will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.
So at 10 am, the nation will stop to see whether we can indeed move on as a nation.
Hopefully we can then move on and put this issue behind us once and for all.
If marriage equality is accepted there is nothing that will happen other than two people who love each other can confirm that love in marriage.
The economy won’t stop, the seas won’t swell, the sun will set and the moon will still rise. Society as we know it won’t crumble and fall.
Marriage equality is only a matter of time.
Australia, it’s time.