Rainbow Labour Caucus Chair Louisa Wall has been working on a Private Member’s Bill which would amend the Marriage Act. In a guest post on the blog Whale Oil, she has stated she hopes it will be endorsed by Rainbow Labour and the Labour Caucus and placed in the ballot. “President Barack Obama’s support for same-sex marriage will hopefully inject momentum into the issue here,” she says. “I believe the experience of civil unions has resulted in what I see as a greater acceptance of same-sex marriage today,” Wall says. “Civil unions are a validly accepted institution amongst most people and one used by heterosexual couples as well. Essentially same-sex marriage along with same-sex adoption remain the issues that need to be addressed before we can say there is substantive equality in Aotearoa for the rainbow community.” Wall says what she admires about Obama’s public position is his ability to acknowledge that at a personal level, given his religious beliefs, it is not something that sits too comfortably with him but, at a moral level, and bearing in mind a commitment to equality and embodied in the constitution of the USA he cannot oppose same-sex marriage. “I believe we all need to consider this matter in terms of equality and not our personal beliefs. In doing that no rational person could in my view oppose all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, having the same legal rights and ability to choose for themselves how they express their commitment and love for another person,” she says.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 11th May 2012 - 11:55am