“I want to reflect for a moment on the message this will send, in particular, to young gay people. To the boy or girl who senses a difference from their friends, which they find difficult to understand and impossible to deal with. How many hundreds of thousands of young Australians have known that fear? How many have lived with it, silently and alone? How many have failed to come to terms with it, and been overborne by it?
“By passing this bill, we are saying to these vulnerable young people ‘there is nothing wrong with you’. You are not unusual, you are not abnormal, you are just you. There is nothing to be embarrassed about, there is nothing to be ashamed of, there is nothing to hide: you are a normal person, and like every other normal person, you have a need to love. How you love is how God made you. Whom you love is for you to decide, and others to respect.
“Australia may have been slow to reach this day. But when that day did come, it came triumphantly, it came joyously, and most importantly it came from the Australian people themselves.” – Australian Attorney General George Brandis, speaking before the marriage bill passed its second reading without objection.
“We are saying to those vulnerable young people – there is nothing wrong with you. You are not unusual, you are not abnormal, you are just you,” Attorney-general George Brandis tells the same-sex marriage debate. pic.twitter.com/SNv3Mn0SWX
— BuzzFeedOz Politics (@BuzzFeedOzPol) November 28, 2017
Everyone loves George Brandis, the loveable politician who gives moving speeches about LGBTI kids. Five minutes later … .we regret to inform that George Brandis wants to introduce secular conscientious objection to LGBTI people.
— Pauline Pantsdown (@PPantsdown) November 28, 2017
Shorter George Brandis: You may think the amendment I’m moving is strictly unnecessary, and you would be right, but because of the “no” campaign’s lies it has become a bit necessary #auspol
— Michael Koziol (@michaelkoziol) November 28, 2017
An attempt by George Brandis and Matt Canavan to let celebrants refuse to marry same-sex couples has been overwhelmingly defeated in the Senate #auspol
— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) November 28, 2017
Same-sex marriage bill passes first parliamentary hurdle. #SSM #9News https://t.co/sEnz0uVTMN pic.twitter.com/EwbM2l0XvT
— Nine News Gold Coast (@9NewsGoldCoast) November 28, 2017