‘Yes’ or ‘No’: what will it be? The time has come.

​Way back in October last year, I posted a blog on the SSM debate and the proposed plebiscite. In the blog I wrote that, as it was ‘none of my business’, I would most likely just leave any voting form blank – that is, if it did come to pass that we, the populace, would get to vote on the matter.
My ideas have changed in the year since I wrote that. Although I still think that it is none of my business, I did come to see the need to vote.
And the need to vote ‘Yes’.
I learnt that there are more than a few people for whom this decision is very important; a vote in favour of SSM would give them a feeling of equality that they have missed out on and a feeling of inclusion instead of exclusion. 

In the past few weeks people have been willing to disclose how they voted.
I have not pressed people for their views but some have been offered.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised by my church-going Christian friends telling me that they voted ‘No’ because it (SSM) didn’t seem right and didn’t match their Christian views on marriage. I refrained from pointing out the obvious fact that this debate concerned civil marriage and has no effect on religious ceremonies at all. I also didn’t point out that the founder of their Christian Church maintained that the most important ‘law’ of all is ‘to love your neighbour as yourself’ as well as the so-called ‘Golden Rule’ to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’*. Surely that means (basically) to be kind and loving towards ALL people and not just the ones who subscribe to your personal beliefs.

So… anyway, here were a couple of ‘No’ votes.

Friends of this same couple also voted ‘No’. I was a little taken aback to hear that, as they have a gay son. When I stated my surprise I was told that the gay son also voted ‘No’, because he could see nothing good in marriage. Ah, so no thoughts of compassion for his gay comrades, then?

So… that’s another three ‘No’ votes.

A close relative told me the other day that she was ‘so sick of this same sex thing’ that she voted ‘No’ – just to ‘get rid of it’. She also filled in ‘No’ for her middle-aged son who was just too lazy to fill in his own form.

So…there’s another two ‘No’ votes.

Jeepers, did anyone vote ‘Yes’?

My 19 year-old grandson was one of the very few who asked me how I voted. At my answer of ‘Yes’, he had no comment at all. I didn’t ask him what box he ticked but I guessed it was the ‘Yes’ one.

So, that’s one vote for ‘Yes’ (mine) and possibly another from the grandson.

So… what will it be? A few weeks ago, I thought that the ‘Yes’ vote would romp in with a huge swell. Now I am not so sure.
​
But the time has come. Tomorrow the result of Australia’s public vote on Same Sex Marriage will be announced.
And then the ‘fun’ will start!
Give me strength!
 
*Do unto others as you would have them do unto you definition: A command based on words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount : “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” The Mosaic law contains a parallel commandment: “Whatever is hurtful to you, do not do to any other person.”