At times it almost feels like the fight for marriage equality in Australia is a hellish carousel that we’ll never be able to get off of; constantly going around in circles without it ever getting anywhere.
As the new Parliament officially sat for the first time yesterday, Bill Shorten, Tanya Plibersek and the Labor party announced they would be introducing a private member’s bill into Parliament aiming to push same sex marriage into law, despite the fact that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would have to be about fifty shades of dead before he let an Opposition Leader’s social progression legislation through the lower house.
Hardcore punk icon Henry Rollins, a man who comes from a country where same sex marriage has been legalised, appeared on ‘The Project‘ last night ahead of an extensive speaking tour of the country scheduled to run throughout September, including a stop at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
Among the many topics covered in the chat with hosts Carrie Bickmore and Waleed Aly, Rollins was prompted about the issue of same sex marriage, and in particular the on-going debate in Australia.
He did not pull any punches in responding.
The former Black Flag frontman asserted that the whole hullabaloo is “beneath” Australia, a country he has a visible fondness for, and that we should be legalise it and move on as quickly as humanly possible for the good of us all.
The good gear begins at about 1:50 in.
“I love your country very much, you have a beautiful patch of land and the Australians I’ve met are just amazing.”“This marriage inequality flap you’re having is below your country, it is below your conversation. You should just get rid of it, let two men get married. You’ll wake up tomorrow morning, everything will be fine. You keep on going.”“This is really below the intellectual quotient of the conversation that Australia should be having, now and forever. It really is below you.”“It makes you look bad. In my country, those people who hate two men getting married… makes my country look bad. You should squash it and move on, as fast as you can.”
Rollins also touched on a raft of different hot-button issues like gun control, Donald Trump, and just how in the hell a man so full of fire manages to unwind. It’s a shitload of ground covered in a mere 5-minute interview, and Rollins is, as he always is, intelligent, thoughtful, and exceptionally engaging to listen to.
If you feel like getting a bigger dose of the big man himself, all his upcoming tour dates can be found here.
Source: The Project/Facebook.
