Thank you, Mr President

"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law - for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,"

I only wish that when I first began to realise I was gay, back in the late 50's and  early 60's, there had been similar statements from at least one of the world leaders of that time.  Instead in those days I read that my basic feelings were criminal and unsocial and would lead to a life of misery and depravity, difficult to accept for a boy who was otherwise law abiding and lived a rather sheltered life mixing in Church circles.  I was told by a psychiatrist that I should not become a school teacher as it would be too dangerous.  I was 40 years old when my love affairs became legal in NSW.  I remember how wonderful it felt to be legal when I visited the UK in 1974. 

As we campaigned for legalisation it was beyond our wildest dreams that one day we would be campaigning for same - sex marriage.

Here in New Zealand the law to allow gay marriage is progressing slowly through government committees in which the  usual people are taking their chance to spread hate. One guy tonight was on TV saying only a man and a woman were natural.  He should visit some of the albatrosses nesting here in Dunedin.  Another man who stated gay marriage would lead to incresed crime. That at least has led to an avalanche of  ridicule.  

While I have little to agree with Prime Minister Key on economics, he at least is onside here.

Unlike the Prime Minister of Australia.  Back in the 50's & 60's her living arrangements would have been described as "living in sin".  It was unthinkable that a woman would be prime minister. The few women in politics could not aspire to much more than Minister of women's affairs.  If anyone did entertain the idea of a woman becoming prime minister it would not have been a woman living with a man out of wedlock. 

Prime Minister Gillard will go down in history as a woman who was only interested in her own position, unwilling to risk her career for the rights of gays.  And note that President Obama came out for gay marriage rights BEFORE his recent re-election as President.