“Why can’t gay people just shut the hell up!” …

“It’s starting to feel like a broken record – from every angle we are constantly bombarded with our need to recognise and incorporate minorities into our society. Speeches, rallies, constant media coverage, never ending polls, protests… the list goes in. It seems to be a never ending cycle that is starting to wear pretty thin, surely enough is enough. If these people made more effort to fit in, to be normal, there wouldn’t be an issue!”

I’m not quoting anyone in particular, it’s more a mishmash of comments I regularly hear in opposition to equality. Not just in regards to gay people – but women, refugees, religious minorities… the list goes on.

The funny thing about opposition to equality is, there is absolutely no legitimate reason for it. Here are some examples:

“But statistically _____ people are more likely to…” - Men who drive yellow cars are also more statistically likely to be pedophiles - whats being done about this?

“In <insert religious manuscript> it says…” – Religious manuscripts need to stop being used as instruments for war and hate. They were, on the most part designed to be used to spread love and peace. Leave the judgements to the dieties, (Like they bloody well say to do and like 99% of the other religion’s followers do!)

“There are more important things to focus on” - I agree, so lets pass laws to legalise equality and move on. Dealing with issues like this and other more important issues aren’t mutually exclusives, politicians are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, surely they can tackle more than one issue at a time?

“But public support says that…” – Bullshit, public support never, EVER is in favor of discrimination. (In modern Australia).

“But this <insert notable minority here> supports <insert contentious view>, so surely they all must…” C’mon, seriously? Do you think that one person, one book or one rumour can speak for millions, thousands or even hundreds of people?

I agree that we’ve come a long way in equality, and I agree that it’s starting to sound a bit repetitive! We’re a few steps away from the finish line but there are people out there who can scream so loudly, write so many letters and spread so much hate that we run the risk of being pulled backwards.

We can’t let them.