Kristy Moyle doesn’t want young LGBTIQ going through the pain she experienced growing up.
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“What really troubles me and what really makes me fearful… is that there are quite a number of vulnerable young LGBTIQ people who are watching the discourse unfold,” she said.
“When I feel sadness it’s because of the impact it’s having on them.”
“Although they represent only a portion of the community, they have exceptionally high rates of suicidality, and for me there’s no question, there’s a moral imperative to protect them.”
Even though as an adult she herself can hold her own in a debate, she has found the postal survey process emotionally draining.
“I’ve broken down in tears a number of times over the last couple of months as a result of the things I’ve been told directly and indirectly,” said Ms Moyle.
Engaging in the debate, she has been hurt by offensive comments predominantly online.
While these represent the extremes of what she has heard, she thinks the buffer of online gives people the courage to voice their deepest darkest thoughts.
“Those few comments are more than sufficient to have brought back for me a past, and particularly an adolescence that was full of fear,” Ms Moyle said.
“Having it brought back to the fore again is very very hurtful.”
“Overwhelming though, people who know me and with whom I have the privilege of company, are incredibly supportive.”
Her story
Ms Moyle lives in Braidwood with her wife Jo and young daughter Indigo.
She and Jo were married in 2013, in a ceremony in New Zealand.
At the wedding she gave what she thinks may have been one of the least romantic marriage speeches ever made, but she feels a bit teary thinking about it.
The outcome of the postal survey directly to me is of absolute importance, but not for my happiness, not for my well being, because I fought and won that battle.
- Kristy Moyle
She spoke about about the importance of socially binding commitments, and public recognition of a relationship, in allowing it to flourish, Ms Moyle says.
“Married couples enjoy a whole bunch of things that aren’t able to be captured in legislation,” Ms Moyle said.
“I think everybody deserves to be happy.”
Whose rights?
To those voting no, she asks that they consider whether it is within their right to tell others how to live.
“I most definitely disagree with casting a no vote personally on the basis of faith, because I personally have beliefs that guide my behaviours, and first and foremost amongst those is not to impose those values and judgments on other people,” Ms Moyle said.
While the results of the postal survey hold huge significance for her, Ms Moyle is not letting it get to her, because for her, the battle has already been won.
“The outcome of the postal survey directly to me is of absolute importance, but not for my happiness, not for my well being, because I fought and won that battle,” she said.
Why I’m voting no
Members of the gay community have always been welcome in Reverend David Jones’ churches. He has ministered at several large churches, with attendees from all walks of life, including LGBTIQ people.
“Churches ought to be open to anybody who wants to come,” Reverend Jones said.
“My attitude has always been that every church ought to guarantee to its community…to love, to forgive, and not to condemn.
“I don’t want this to be a demonising of same sex [attracted] people.”
He will be voting no in the postal survey however.
For him, marriage is a divine relationship ordained by God in the scriptures to be between a man and a woman.
“I believe that God lays down in the Scriptures a divine order and that divine order is marriage between a man and a woman,” Reverend Jones said.
“That’s God’s divine order throughout the whole of scripture, and it’s repeated a number of times in the Old Testament, but also again by Jesus and into the New Testament by the apostle Paul.
“So for me it’s marriage is a divine relationship between a man and a woman.”
Whose rights?
As a person of faith, the scriptures are particularly important to Reverend Jones, and he respects that they do not hold the same meaning for others.
“The mail survey is simply asking me, what I think,” Reverend Jones said.
“I will vote no in the survey, because for me scriptures guide my directions and decisions that I make. For somebody else, they will make a decision based on other considerations.
“According to what the government said, the law will reflect what the majority of Australians say. I’m happy with that.
“I’m just expressing my view and I think what is the view of most Bible believing Christians.”
I will vote no in the survey, because for me scriptures guide my directions and decisions that I make. For somebody else, they will make a decision based on other considerations.
- Reverend David Jones
Marriage aside, Reverend Jones does think, that the law should be changed so that those in de facto relationships, same sex or not, have the same social and economic rights as married couples.
“When it comes to wills, when it comes to superannuation, when it comes to assets and property et cetera, [for] those who are in a lifelong permanent relationship, whether it be man and woman married, whether it be male and female de facto or whether it be same sex, there ought to be a commonality, a fairness about that,” Reverend Jones said.
“For me it’s an issue with marriage, that covenant relationship that I see as only between a man and a woman.”