October 27, 2016
To Be Free To Marry, We’ll Need A Free Vote
Love - it's a wonderful thing. And whether you love ice cream, or another human being, it's still a fundamental human right.
At Ben & Jerry's, we believe that every Australian should be free to marry the person they love, in the country they love, surrounded by the ones they love. Quite frankly, it's long past time that Australia joined the US, the UK, New Zealand, Canada and many more countries - and allowed everyone the right to marry.
Bye Bye Plebiscite!
This has been a great week for marriage equality. The plebiscite – the planned public vote that would have cost Australia at least $160 million and would involve nasty, homophobic campaigning that put those in LGBT community in danger – was shot down!
When over 70% of Australians already support marriage equality, a plebiscite wouldn't just have been hurtful: it would have been a total waste of time. We joined our friends at PFLAG, Australian Marriage Equality, and thousands of Australians by speaking out against the hurtful plebiscite. This swelling of grassroots support helped us avoid what was sure to be a wasteful public vote.
One Key Action To Achieve Marriage Equality
One important thing needs to happen to make marriage equality law - Parliament needs to be given a free vote to change the law.
We’re no mathematicians, but let’s look at the numbers. The leaders of a number of major parties support marriage equality. So do over 70% of Australians. So do most of our representatives in parliament. The numbers don’t lie - if our lawmakers secure a free vote on marriage equality, it’s highly likely that LGBT Australians will win the precious freedom to marry who they love.
It should be that simple! But right now the government is threatening to take marriage equality off the table altogether – until the next general election, way off in 2019. Why would we prolong the fight for equality for another two years?
Demand Marriage Equality Now!
If we keep the pressure on, all Australians could be free to marry before the end of the year. That's what our friends at Australian Marriage Equality want. And, of course, it's what we want too.
So if you, like us, believe that love is for everyone, let's make our voices heard. Head on over to Megaphone and sign this great petition to support a free vote for freedom to marry.