More on same-sex marriage

Over on Public Address, Emma Hart comments on the Research NZ poll on same-sex marriage:

So given that in fact voters favour same-sex marriage by nearly two to one, why is this considered such an untouchably dangerous issue for any political party? It is, after all, what "we" want. (Yes, I know, on polling, "we" have wanted some pretty fucking insane things, but nobody's been arguing against, say, being "tough on crime" because it would be a vote-loser.)

[...]

I also think it's really important to let our politicians know that the 60% vote too. Given we outnumber them nearly two to one, why can't we get heard over the morally-conservative opposition? Why aren't we saying, very loudly and publicly, you know what? Yous were wrong about Homosexual Law Reform. Yous were wrong about Civil Unions. The sky didn't fall. In fact, nothing bad happened at all. You're also wrong about same-sex marriage. Our current marriage law is unjust, it's unfair, it's discrimatory and it needs to change.

She suggests emailing electorate candidates informing them of the poll and asking them whether they'd be willing to put up a bill, and if they would vote in favour if such a bill was drawn. I think this is a good idea. It raises awareness among candidates of what the 60% think, and may convince one of them to commit to action. It gives us more information about candidates, allowing us to vote accordingly. And it lets us "do the numbers" more accurately, and judge whether a bill has a good chance of passing next term. So, if you're wondering who to contact in your electorate, Wikipedia has a list here.