Redefining marriage in NZ: lessons for Oz

Friday, August 23rd, 2013

Yesterday new legislation redefining marriage as the “union of two people regardless of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity” took effect in New Zealand, and 31 officially recognised weddings of same-sex couples took place. Some of them, predictably, were media events sponsored by radio stations and public institutions.

A lesbian couple had their ceremony on board a flight from Queenstown (where else?) to Auckland after winning a competition run by New Zealand’s largely government owned national airline. Jesse Tyler Fergusson, a gay advocate and cast member of television show Modern Family was flown in from the US for the occasion.

Paul McCarthy and Trent Kandler from Newcastle, advertising themselves as the beginning of a wave of Australian same-sex couples wanting such rituals, had a ceremony hosted by Tourism NZ at Te Papa, the county’s national museum. The government tourism agency paid for eight guests as well for the do, and burbled about boosting foreign weddings in this country by a 1000 or so.

I suppose the main lesson of the day for Aussies is that if your country changes the definition of marriage to accommodate same-sex couples, things will move quickly from accommodation to official promotion, albeit with a commercial motive thrown in. It’s legal, and if it can reap a few million dollars it’s, well, patriotic. Think about the implications of that.

Last time it came up for a vote in the national legislature Australian politicians rejected by a large majority the attempt to mess with the meaning of marriage. But the return of Labour’s Kevin Rudd to the job of Prime Minister has seen him making a bid for the pink vote, promising to introduce a federal bill to do just that.

Australians who accept that gays, like everyone else, should be able to live and love as they choose, but who wish to keep marriage as the institution that binds fathers and mothers to their own children, need to learn from New Zealand’s experience if they want to win this culture war. Here are a few points. Continue reading

Image: Feminspire