Local community members were disappointed by the comments from former tennis star and church pastor, Rev. Margaret Court who slammed efforts to introduce gay marriage.
Published in today’s West Australian Newspaper, Rev. Court said the country ‘needs to wake up as a nation to protect future generations’. In 2001, Rev. Court campaigned heavily against the WA Lesbian and Gay Law Reforms that ended discrimination encountered by gay and lesbian people in WA.
Read more about Rev. Court’s comments here.
Gay and Lesbian Equality WA spokesperson Kitty Hawkins (pictured) said Rev. Court shouldn’t be allowed to impose her religious views on others.
‘First of all I’d like to see where Rev. Margaret Court is getting any of her scientifically proven sources that shows homosexuality or same-sex families are in anyway endangering to anyone including children,’ Hawkins said.
‘I’d also challenge the motion that traditional families should and always have been one man [and] one woman and 2.5 kids.
Marriage has been and always will be a changing institution and she seems to forget in all her effronteries that this is still a secular country and marriage as a legal institution is secular, it’s a secular institution.’
‘She is free to have her religious beliefs but she should not have the power to impose those on other people, which is precisely what the marriage ban is.’
Pride WA spokesperson Alice Newport-Holden said the gay marriage debate was about fighting for equality and basic human rights.
‘With the discussion of marriage in the forefront of many minds, it is understandable that people who do not understand, or have not experienced a gay relationship, will retaliate in this way,’ she said.
‘Being gay, lesbian, straight, or any other sexuality for that matter is not a choice, it is who you are. A person’s ability to raise a child and maintain a stable, loving, caring and nurturing environment is not affected by anyone’s sexuality.
‘Although the upbringing of a child or children has a small relevance to the marriage equality debate, we live in a time where having children is not an integral part of marriage. Many couples get married and do not have children, or have children out of wedlock.’
Benn Dorrington
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