Australian Attorney General Gives Impassioned Speech On Marriage: You Are Normal, You Have A Need To Love

“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.