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Age divide on gay marriage should really be an ignorance divide

In my teenage years, I was your very typical, rebellious, indoctrinated Gen-Xer. When I left college, I didn't believe in marriage, had met lots of cool people who didn't seem to either, including quite a number of gay and lesbians. My hairdressers were gay men, and I deliberately sought them out as hairdressers, for they created more interesting haircuts than young women the same age. I was even a hair model in the local competitions in Wellington for a gay hairdressing couple in the late 80's. Those two men are both dead from AIDS, by the way.

When I moved to Sydney in 1990, I found myself another gay hairdresser and reacted with, oh how wonderful to a friend that came out gay to me. That same friend, a year later, I stayed up with all night trying to get him to see reasons to live as he admitted that his plan was to come over and then go kill himself.

Earlier this year, when I visited my sister and her husband in Sydney, I met up with a lesbian friend and her sister (I don't know if the sister is a lesbian as well), that I'd known from Wellington. They told me that a long-time friend of ours who married another long-time friend had separated from his wife and came out as gay and is now living with a man. Everyone was shocked, apparently, though the kids are dealing with it fine, and he was so supportive when his wife came down with cancer. Damn straight, he should have been.

As most readers of this blog now know, I have changed massively in my outlook on life. I ended up getting married to my boyfriend because I wanted children. I had this thought that no matter what I felt, it would be better for my future children to at least have married parents. After having my first child, when my gay suicidal friend told me he wanted to find a surrogate to have his baby, I tried to talk him out of it. I knew too much about what a drastic change a baby can have in your life, and it really makes a difference having a man and a woman looking after that baby, as we are both so different. All that crap about gender being just a construct kind of goes out the window when your body produces a baby, and both parents react differently to when that baby cries, for instance instant splurge of milk in the early days. I soon learnt to wear breast pads.

Anyway, having babies and needing the support of a husband really changed my ignorant theories on how life should be. It's easy to think that gay relationships are the same as straight relationships when you don't have children, when you don't know what that is like. Any studies that show that people are behind legalising gay marriage, should also differentiate between those that are married and those that aren't, and between those that have had children and those that haven't. Therefore, Louisa Wall's finding below is really based on ignorance and naivety of the mostly childless, rather than the coolness factor of being young.

Labour MP Louisa Wall, who is behind the bill to legalise gay marriage, said studies out of universities had found even stronger support among young people, above 80 per cent.

You might as well just say the young and/or ignorant support the bill to legalise gay marriage.

Related link: The age divide on same sex marriage ~ Kiwiblog

Comments

  1. Whaleoil would be first to agree that the poll was meaningless. Here's what he said about a poll on David Bain getting compensation:

    "All that poll/survey shows is how susceptible people are to long term persistent PR campaigns..."

    Exactly.

    ReplyDelete

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