A lesson in democracy from New Zealand

Some inspiring news from New Zealand today - it has become the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to approve gay marriage. The bill was passed with a wide majority, with 77 votes in favour and 44 against. Let me break that down for you into percentages. That is 63.6% for and 36.4% against. As long as there is a majority, the minority will just have to shut the hell up and accept that most of the community around them feel differently about the issue.

My readers will know how strongly I feel about the issue of equality when it comes to gay marriage. Most of the time, the argument against gay marriage is that the religious people would be upset and offended - but the news from New Zealand shows that these religious people are increasingly in the minority in these modern Western democracies and that those religious people will simply have to accept that they live in an increasingly secular society where they cannot impose their religious doctrines on non-religious people like myself. Have a watch of this inspiring speech by Maurice Williamson MP in the NZ parliament and oh boy, I would vote for this man. What an inspiration.

Whilst I am a proud atheist, I have nothing against religious people - I simply ask that they acknowledge the fact that they do not deserve any special treatment under the law and they they recognize that they exist within a democracy. Religious people often demand that the law protects their right to religion - likewise, it is also my right as an atheist to demand protection from these religious people in a secular state. You can never have 100% consensus in the democratic process and New Zealand has shown us a brilliant example of how democracy ought to work. I don't expect the religious nutters to be reasonable (just hear some of the crazy bullshit they told Maurice Williamson) - but the law is there, in NZ, to put those nutters in their place.

You know what irks me the most? Those bigots who have the cheek to claim that they are not homophobic but they want to protect the institution of marriage. Are you fucking kidding me you assholes? If you hate gays then be up front and honest about it and I will respect your honesty at least (but still fucking hate you for being a homophobic bigot). But don't you dare talk about the sanctity of marriage when it has been manipulated beyond recognition from the Bible definition in our modern world. Marriage as an institution was around long before Christianity - so don't you Christians dare to lay claim to marriage. It belongs to us humans as a society, as a civilisation - pagans, atheists and secularists alike. So you Christians can keep your hands off marriage and fuck right off, thank you very much.

For my Singaporean readers, I will leave you with a very Singaporean analogy. I have fond memories of visiting the hawker centre with my friends when I was growing up in Singapore. Ah yes, the great Singaporean culinary institution. One could get a wide array of local dishes at the hawker centre and invariably, we would often all end up eating different dishes - it was the kind of venue which was great for gatherings because you don't have to all agree to eat the same dish or even the same kind of cuisine and still hang out with your friends.

Now my Malay friends were all Muslims and thus do not consume pork nor alcohol - yet they had no qualms about coming to the hawker centre with the rest of us as long as there was a halal option available to them at the hawker centre. They understood that we had no issue with the consumption of pork and alcohol and would not object to us choosing a dish which did include pork like yong tau hoo, char kway teow or wantan mee. By the same token, we would be respectful of the fact that they would only consume halal foods - hence there was this mutual understanding and tolerance that existed amongst us. My Muslims friends never demanded that we didn't eat pork or stop drinking alcohol in their presence - no, they respected our right to make that choice for ourselves.

If we could achieve that level of mutual respect, mutual understanding and tolerance on the issue of food consumption, why can't we apply the same principles to the issue of gay marriage? If you do not approve of gay marriage for religious reasons, fine - then don't have a gay marriage, but why stop others from doing what they want to do? Why not simply respect their right to make that choice for themselves on the issue? Could we please apply a bit of hawker centre common sense to the issue please?

Brilliant. Bravo New Zealand. I salute you. May other countries follow your fine example in endorsing gay marriage, in embracing equality and telling the religious nutters to stuff it in a secular state.