There is a pattern to this behaviour; first, claim to be protecting an institution, often “marriage” or “the family”, then attack a reform designed to protect actual people from exclusion, prejudice or a denial of equal rights.
This practice has a history in Australia. Rightwing politicians and some conservative Christians opposed no-fault divorce laws in order to protect the social value of the family unit. Fringe Christian groups resisted attempts to reform marital rape laws in this country – as did conservative MPs who cited defence of the family as their motivation – ensuring it took approximately 22 years for change to be fully implemented at a state level.
Not coincidentally, it took approximately the same period to decriminalise homosexuality across our nation, a process that was not completed in Tasmania until 1997. Again, rightwing politicians and conservative Christian groups delayed the process and battled against the reform, increasingly using language adopted from the religious right of the United States – note how the nebulous, and rather American, use of the word “freedom” has increasingly entered into the Australian conservative religious lexicon. [...]
Religious freedom in this nation will not be destroyed by marriage equality. “Family values” – at least those modelled by the Jesus of the gospels – are more than safe. This open letter is religious assault on another reform that is designed to advance marriage and family as protective institutions in our society. We are used to Christian conservatives opposing reform in this country. The tragedy is the way this adds harm to the already hurt and excluded that Christ invites us all to protect and include as he did.
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