When the Marriage (Same Sex) Bill was past to the House of Lords, it became apparent that there was a small handful of individuals who were set out to try to ruin the bill. One individual that stood out the most for me with his absurd comments; that was Lord Dear.
His comments at the 2nd reading made me write an email to him (below). Surprisingly, he didn’t have the guts to respond. Maybe it’s because I openly accused him of discrimination and a heterosexist.
Lord Dear,
I am not going to pretend that this will make any change in your opinion of the same-sex bill, because let’s be honest your relationship with LGBT voting show that your views can be narrow-minded. However, as a gay man I wanted to let you know from my perspective how I feel about the same-sex marriage bill.
I believe in equality and diversity. I believe everyone should be treated equally; relevant of their skin, age, religion or heavens forbid, their sexuality. Having two forms of civil union (marriage and civil partnerships) is a blatant attempt at segregating and treating people differently.
I have been in a loving relationship with my partner for nearly 10 years, and we plan to get ‘married’ next year. We’ve been in a longer relationship than many opposite sex couples. We’ve paid our taxes, worked all our lives and have been part of the community, yet by law we are still not deemed as equal.
You’ve argued that if the bill goes through then kids will have to pretend to get married at school. Really? Where is your evidence of this or are you just scare-mongering like the good old Westboro Baptist Church?
I don’t believe that the this bill will automatically mean kids will start to re-enact an “Adam & Steve” wedding, however I do hope that it will open the door to educating kids about the LGBT society. It’s well documented that the most common school ground name calling/bullying is the use of homophobic slurs. I am sure as a respectable member of the Lords, you would want to try and eliminate bullying of any sort. However it does feel that your comments is just adding fuel to the fire.
So if the bill went through, and the kids were educated on all forms of relationships (don’t read this as brainwashing – because believe it or not you can’t turn someone gay, just as you can’t turn someone straight), I would see this to help reduce this form of language on the school playground (and out).
Kids are not born with prejudices, they are developed from adults like you. And while I can’t rid you of your 75 years of prejudices, I do hope that you find it in yourself to make sure that you don’t create the next generation of haters.
I am not going to accuse you of being homophobic, because I wholeheartedly believe that you do not have a phobia of LGBT individuals. Additionally, calling you homophobic would put the onus on homosexuals to be the blame for your views, and this isn’t correct.
However, I will call you hetereosexist, and your history of LGBT voting shows that you cannot deny this label. You believe that as a “human” that only heterosexual relations are the norm and superior to anyone else. Your views are anti-discriminatory and prejudice towards me as a gay man.
All that I am asking, is that before you let your narrow-minded views cloud your judgement, meet up with some LGBT groups such as Stonewall and get to know about the LGBT society. You will learn that we are all the same and should be treated the same.
Yours Sincerley
Mike
You’d think, that having his amendment squashed at the 2nd reading, he would bow down and wipe the egg of his face, but yet he still continues to try and have the Bill scrapped. I can’t wait (while biting my little fingernails nervously) for further eggs to be thrown at his mug when his new amendments are thrown out too.
Filed under: Equal Marriage, Equality, Homophobia, Politics, Rant | Tagged: Adam & Steve, civil partnerships, Civil union, Equal Marriage, Equality, Gay, Homosexuality, House of Lords, LGBT, lgbt society, Lord Dear, marriage bill, Same Sex Marriage | Leave a Comment »
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