The Rainbow Connection

By Rupert Truscott-Hughes on August 13, 2015 in Other

Last month, an overwhelming number of my Facebook friends (yes, I’ve joined Facebook) ‘rainbowed up’ their profile pictures in support of gay marriage after the monumental announcement in the US Supreme Court that gay marriage would now be legal in all 50 US states. I chose not to.

Besides taking over Tamarama and generally looking significantly better than me at the gym, I have nothing whatsoever against the colourful community. In fact, I support gay marriage wholeheartedly; though after three failed marriages I have absolutely no idea why they want the ‘right’ in the first place. Maybe the gay community will be better at it than me – at least the gay men won’t have to put up with a nagging wife!

Getting back to the fruity Facebook phenomenon that swept the country (and undoubtedly large parts of the world) recently, while I didn’t change my profile photo, I was quite surprised by the sheer volume of my friends who did.

Yes, I live in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs where homosexuality has become part of the fabric of our society, but it was still a bit of a shock that some of my older and more conservative friends were happy to publicly announce their support for gay marriage. I was even more surprised that they knew how to change their profile pictures (you’d be surprised by how many of us oldies have adopted social media – I believe it’s good for keeping tabs on the kids).

Unfortunately, there are still plenty of people who are rallying against gay marriage, and more often than not for reasons that they’ll no doubt be embarrassed by in five to ten years time. The bestiality reason is my all time favourite, and I figure that most of the nitwits trotting it out are the ones we should be most worried about in the presence of our pets.

The other thing that I find amusing in this whole debate is the arrogance of some heterosexual couples when they suggest that gay couples shouldn’t be afforded the opportunity to raise a family because, you know, Adam, Eve, school bullying, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Yesterday I read a story in the newspaper about an ice addicted man somewhere in the deep void that is Sydney’s south-western suburbs who shook and beat his girlfriend’s toddler so violently that the poor child will never be able to walk again – and you’re telling me gay couples couldn’t do a better job than their straight counterparts? To that I say ‘f**k you’.

And the whole bullying argument is akin to rape victim blaming. If the child of a gay couple gets bullied in the playground, it is not the fault of the child, or his or her gay parents. The blame sits squarely on the shoulders of the bully, and to some extent the parents who have raised the bully. A little bit of tolerance, education and understanding goes a long way.

So in summary, we no longer need to fear the gay community. Let them get married. Let them raise children, and for f**k’s sake, let them be equal.