cornflake's 6b-a1

congratulations to mr sean penn for his second oscar. you gave a magnificent performance in "milk" as harvey and you deserved it. but the best moment of the night was the speech given by dustin lance black who wrote "milk" 's screenplay. in case you missed the oscars, here it is :

"i heard the story of harvey milk and it gave me hope. it gave me hope to live my life openly as who i am, and that one day i could even fall in love and get married ...

if harvey hadn't been taken from us 30 years ago, i think he would want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, or by their governments, or by their families, that you ARE beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, god DOES love you."

i was just about moved to tears by these words. being a young bisexual person hearing these words has a profound effect.

as is the norm in english literature, today, we ended up talking about nothing to do with our text. somehow we got onto the topic of gay marriage. the four of us got every into it (with 2 of us accidentally coming out in the process) and i realised something. 2 of the people in our discussion come from very religious families who both said that they'd kill themselves before admitting to their family if they were gay. we know definitely that they aren't, and it felt good that they didn't run screaming from my friend and i after our announcement. they aren't the products you'd expect coming from such upbringings. sorry for buying into stereotypes, but it helps to believe them sometimes if you think you'll be persecuted by them.

so, it's not just the homo-loving commie son-of-a-guns that think gays, lesos and bis are ok. we've finally reached a point where what we're taught by our surroundings doesn't always influence exactly how we think. and i'm so grateful. i know i've still got highly conservative grandparents that won't be too thrilled if i bring a girl round on christmas for a family barbie, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

so if this mindset exists, why is the ultimate level of commitment a homosexual couple in western australia can attain is to be in a de facto relationship? if you're really desperate, you can go to victoria and enter into a civil union which is a fancy way of pretending that the powers that be are giving you the same rights of a heterosexual couple by letting you have a ceremony but if you break up you're up shit creek without a paddle.

people have said "we've got nothing against gay couples. you can live together, we don't mind. you just can't get married. it's no big deal."  if it's not big deal, i'd love to see the stink that would get kicked up if someone suggested outlawing straight marriage. if it's no big deal as they tell us, why do they bother to go through with it? it'd be so much simpler if no one was allowed to get married.

i don't give a fuck what how you try and justify it - not allowing gay and lesbian couples to get married is discrimination, and discrimination is wrong. it's fucking illegal. you can't fire someone because they're chinese. you can't have a different entrance for a shop for aboriginals. but you can outlaw a man marrying another man and a woman marrying another woman. is it just me or is this not making sense??

legislation to overturn over 100 anti-same-sex couple laws will be introduced into parliament in may. fingers and toes.

i leave you with 2 quotes :

"i don't want to live in a country that takes away my right to marry who i love if they happen to have the same junk as me."

"marriage is about love, not gender."