There is a great deal of pain and hurt being so unnecessarily revisited and reawakened within the LGBTIQ community as a result of this postal survey.
In many cases the trauma of a lifetime long experience of discrimination and vilification that many would've hoped was 'well behind them' is being brought back so quickly and so cruelly.
Make no mistake, two men need to be condemned for this: Tony Abbott for proposing the original ridiculous plebiscite concept and Malcolm Turnbull for continuing with the dopey concept culminating in the farce that is the postal survey.
This should always have been a vote in Parliament.
The LGBTIQ community warned of the problems the 'vote' would bring, but their warnings were ignored.
If you think I am overstating the hurt being revisited have a look at these comments on the hashtag on Twitter #Theygettovote where people are telling of their shocking experiences.
I've listed a few examples below:
my extended family found out i liked girls and called me a genetic deformity and kicked me out of the house #TheyGetToVote
"As soon as you're 18, I'm kicking you the f*** out, Poofta." - My Father. #TheyGetToVote
A 20 yo man found bloody & beaten & unconscious outside my apartment building after being beaten to a pulp by homophobes & #TheyGetToVote
I recall a random stranger on a tram proudly telling me "I put one of you in hospital last week." #theygettovote
First & only time I held another boys hand in public I got bashed by a group of guys only the security guard stopped them) #TheyGetToVote
#Theygettovote i had rocks thrown at me, knocked down beaten and pissed on. Had a dead rat put in my school bag
Having drinks poured on me in disgust the first time I made out with a boy in a club #TheyGetToVote
I could leave hundreds of tweets on #TheyGetToVote, but it's too painful to relive the past homophobic attacks. No homophobia huh Lyle??
last week i heard a gaggle of middle-aged women lecturing a lesbian couple on 'why they should be embarrassed in public' #TheyGetToVote
Coming out of a gay bar, some guy came past me on his bike, spat at me and yelled 'DYKE'. #TheyGetToVote
I held a boys hand at school and was pelted with rocks then they threw me in the urinal. Teacher told me to, "be more aware." #TheyGetToVote
Head shoved into toilet wall, called a faggot and stalked by threatening school bullies who wanted to beat my brains in. #TheyGetToVote
Mardi Gras morning, I see car stop on oxford street-4 men jump out. Push a gay to the ground, break his teeth. They drive off #TheyGetToVote
#TheyGetToVote All those who hid the details of Dr George Duncan's drowning in the River Torrens for so many years
My classmate who wrote "Faggots deserve death" after I was outed in High School #TheyGetToVote
My ex was afraid to hold hands in our neighbourhood because he'd previously been assaulted for being gay. #TheyGetToVote
At 14 I came out to close friends, but the first guy I ever came out to rounded up his mates to bash me on the street #TheyGetToVote
Stories that are real and heartbreaking. This tweet sums up the feeling:
Today 'no' voters are saying the #TheyGetToVote stories are invented. Show any gay person the feed, watch the clouds form in their eyes.
And, yes, many in the LGBTIQ community are angry. Very angry about it all.
Can you blame them?
They are so deeply hurt, not only by what has happened to them their whole lives just for being who they are, but because their government and their leaders have let them down so terribly badly.
The government is so callous, so lacking in empathy, so lacking in compassion, that it deems it appropriate for the entire Australian adult population to "have their say" on whether an already marginalised section of our community should have equal rights under the law.
Turnbull and Abbott read those tweets and hang your heads in shame.
"Only those who have known discrimination truly know its evil." Noel Pearson.
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