Same Sex Marriage Should Be Legalized

Could you imagine if you had met the ideal person you wished to share your entire life with but the law would not allow you to? That is the position that many homosexual Australians have been in since the settlement of this country. Same sex marriage is currently not allowed in Australia but I and a proven 60% of other Australians strongly believe it should be. Gay people pay taxes, serve in the military, participate in the workforce, are our neighbors, friends and family. Logic and decency would suggest that they should have the right to marry, just as any heterosexual couple can. However, there are people who disagree with this belief, take for example the government, namely Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard, several religious groups who believe marriage should be kept between a man and a woman and those who simply wish to deny the happiness of two people in love because of their anatomy.
According to new research, Australia’s ban on same sex marriage is bad for the economy and could collect $750 million for the nation. A paper released by the Australian Marriage Equality Group argues that estimate could be brought in by spending on weddings alone. The paper also says that legal discrimination against gay and lesbian people has been shown to have an adverse and costly impact on mental and physical health. Allowing same sex marriage would also boost the economy through expenditure on weddings and an increase in overseas visitors coming to Australia to marry or to honeymoon will have a positive effect on tourism. So what reason could Julia Gillard possibly have for personally opposing same-sex marriages? She is in a serious relationship so it can’t be because she opposes recognizing different types of relationships. She is the first female leader of Australia, so it can’t be because she believes that discrimination in the past justifies discrimination in the future. She is an atheist, so it can’t be because she believes God ordained marriage as a holy