Australians are debating whether to legalize marriage equality, and just as we saw in our own country, religious people are coming out against it using the worst possible arguments.

Former tennis star and current bigot Margaret Court said back in May that the LGBTQ movement brainwashes children, just like Hitler did. Since that argument didn’t go over so well, she recently tried a new one:

Mrs Court, a Christian minister based in Osborne Park, said the consequences of a Yes vote would be severe. “It’s not about marriage. It will affect Christian schools, it will affect freedom of speech,” she said. “There will be no Mother’s Day, there will be no Father’s Day, there will be no Easter, there will be no Christmas.”

I don’t quite get the logic there. If gay people can get married, then Jesus didn’t rise from the dead? Will we not have parents anymore? Will people spend so much money on gay weddings that they have nothing left to spend on Christmas gifts? WHY CAN’T SHE EXPLAIN?!

Also, have any of those holidays been abolished in any of the countries that now permit same-sex marriages?

There was an even stranger argument coming from Orthodox Rabbi Moshe Gutnick. He plans to vote against marriage equality, but he wants everyone to know that he loves LGBTQ people.

… What someone does in the privacy of one’s own home is between them and God. Indeed, it is a fundamental principle of my faith, and the Judeo-Christian ethic, that all human beings are created equal in the image of God and therefore, have unalienable rights… … … I would always fight for LGBTQI rights. However, it is precisely this profound belief that makes me vote “no” for same-sex marriage. … A “no” vote is not a vote against love. It is not a vote for discrimination. It is not a vote against the LGBTQI community. It is not a vote based on misguided homophobia. It is simply a vote of conscience that marriage should remain as people of faith believe God intended it.

That’s one way of making the case against equality: Just convince people that voting for it actually hurts gay people. Somehow. You’re only voting against equality because you care so much about LGBTQ people.

His actual argument is that the Bible defined marriage as a union of one man and one woman, and the government should find another way to defend the rights of LGBTQ people without calling it “marriage.” But we know all too well that separate but equal isn’t really equal at all.

No one’s taking away the biblical interpretation of marriage from people who think that matters. This is all about the way the government treats those unions. Christians don’t get to set the definition of marriage for everyone else.

If the kinds of arguments offered by Court and Gutnick are the best ones the “No” side has to offer, it’d be a damn shame if the government plays into their hands. There’s just no rational reason to deny marriage equality. The people who oppose it are grasping at straws, and it’s pathetic.

(Screenshot via YouTube)

