Letter to the editor

I was compelled to take angry fingers to increasingly yielding keyboard this week upon reading a letter to the editor from one of the many right-wing bigots I am unfortunate enough to share my part of Australia with.
Here, first is the letter and below is my reply, which appeared in today's paper.

Legislation for same-sex marriages has been tabled in parliament. This is a recipe for disaster that will have far-reaching consequences.
The strength of society’s fabric is to large degree in the strength of the family unit.
The homosexual community would like to redefine society to suit their self-interested agendas which will be to the detriment of all that we value dearly – family and marriage.
Our government is based on the Westminster Legal System which is based on the 10 Commandments of the Judeo-Christian Faith. These laws are the foundation to a society that works well and has the blessings of the Almighty God. Marriage between man and woman has long been God’s idea, as has been procreation.
Shall we also toss out our current legal system one brick at a time and have the homosexual community rewrite it their way.
I certainly won’t be silent as they steamroll their way under a thin guise of “tolerance”. They are certainly not tolerant of anyone who has a difference of opinion.
Do we really want homosexuals running Australia when the majority of us value marriage and family as it has always been known?
I’m certainly not homophobic and I for one understand the sexual brokenness that underpins the choices they make. For many of them their brokenness is too painful for them to even contemplate.
All the same, I am a mother and I also have the right to advocate for what are better choices for our children. Same-sex marriages are certainly not about children and the children’s needs. Hence I will protect the values I hold dear to – marriage between a man and woman to the exclusion of all others. This creates a solid foundation for a stronger society in which to raise children.
What the homosexuals do in their private lives should not become a public endeavour for all to accept their choices by legislation. Let it remain as a private matter and let the definition of marriage remain as that of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. Our children deserve the best.
I strongly urge all citizens who value family and marriage to speak up about these attempts to redefine who we are in Australia.
Together we can avert this disaster and protect what we value dearly - marriage and family.
LEA JOHNSON, Noosa Heads.

Now, I could have gone for the throat, I really could have...but decided against vitriol.

So Lea Johnson believes marriage between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others “creates a solid foundation for a stronger society in which to raise children”.
Not sure what planet she is living on, but I don’t particularly see marriage working brilliantly out there in the community.
So, the “majority”, she says, value marriage and family “as it has always been known”.
Not sure which majority she is referring to, especially when current data proves a lot of people don’t in fact value it at all.
Ever heard the oft-quoted “one in three marriages ends in divorce” line?
There were 120,118 marriages registered in Australia in 2009, according to the ABS.
In the same year, there were 49,488 divorces. Almost 50,000 people who clearly don’t value marriage as highly as you naively do.
You claim you are not homophobic in the same panicked breath as declaring some rot about a homosexual movement steamrolling its way into “running Australia” and daring to be treated the same as everyone else.
News flash, Lea, we are all human. No other person, church, authority or state has any right whatsoever to decide one person is more entitled than another. Unless of course a crime has been committed, and last time I looked, homosexuality was not a crime.
“The strength of society’s fabric is to a large degree in the strength of the family unit.”
I couldn’t agree more. So why deny two people who love each other? Why deny two people who want to make a commitment to having a go at creating their own family unit?
Some might not get it right, like those 50,000 others, but some might do it well and stitch a defining thread in that social fabric of which you speak. You know the one, it changes all the time, to reflect the colours and textures of each generation.
This is not a self-interested agenda. This is an attempt at equality. An equality that has been enjoyed and sometimes destroyed by heterosexual couples for hundreds of years.
Why not let them in? Who knows, that divorce rate may actually decline...