On Monday 16 August 2010 Opposition leader Tony Abbott appeared on the ABC’s program Q & A. He was asked a very heartfelt and personal question from a Mr Geoff Thomas, Vietnam veteran, plumbing contractor and father of a gay son. (See full video below)
He asked:
Thank you. I am a Vietnam veteran, I have been a plumbing contractor for 37 years and I support, with a social conscience, the Liberal philosophy. I have a gay son. When I was confronted with that situation in a very short amount of time and with due consideration I accepted his position and I overcame my ignorance and my fear of gays and the idea of gay marriage. When will you, Mr Abbott, take up the same - when will you, sir, overcome your fear and ignorance of gay people and give them the dignity and respect that you'd happily give to all other Australians?
Mr Abbott’s response was the usual political spin of – I respect gay people but I just don’t want to let them get married. What struck me as odd, (and I may be overreacting) was his choice of language when responding. He said the following line:
… I would always try to find it in my heart to give dignity and respect to people, regardless of their circumstances, regardless of their opinions, so that is absolutely my position but I think that there are lots of terrific gay relationships, lots of terrific commitments between gay partners, but I just don't think that marriage is the right term to put on it.
I found this comment odd. Why does he need to try to find it in his heart. Is it because he is still confronted by gay people. Like I said I may be overreacting to this turn of phrase but it struck me immediately when he said it.
My final point of disgust with Mr Abbott’s answer to this question was the part in the middle of his answer where he almost mocks gay people by grabbing the show’s host, Tony Jones’ hand and saying that he knows gay men. Although the crowd had a bit of a laugh it struck me as distasteful that the alternative Prime Minister would make a subtle joke about gay men in this way.
And don’t take this as a pure rant on the Coalition. I have previously expressed my disappointment with the ALP in this issue. See my previous blog post here.
I’ll give him some credit for trying to admit his failings on the subject by saying:
[Sometimes] our initial reactions to some of these things can be far from perfect and I'm sure that at different times I have reacted a bit poorly at first to things but I hope I would always find it in my heart to treat people the way everyone should be treated, with dignity and respect and I think that people who know me well who are gay would be only too happy to testify to that.
But I think the quote of the night for me was this, by Geoff Thomas when asked if Tony Abbott had answered his question satisfactorily:
Well, we all talk about it, don't we, but we don't get there. If I'm in a loving relationship, it's fundamental to me that I want to marry that person. I mean, I'm sure I listened to Graham Richardson on this program a few weeks ago and Penny Wong and I thought their comments were insulting. Graham Richardson said that gay people have to wait. They shouldn't have to wait. You're in the government; you should do something about it now. These are decent people who just want to lead decent lives like everybody else. That's it.
Definitely, could not have said it any better myself!
(Video of the Q&A on gay marriage via Q & A.)
See here for an article where Geoff Thomas is interviewed after the show. He is a very good man!
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