Half of you reading this have come here because you’re curious to see what I think on the topic of same-sex marriage. The other half, you’re at your desk or holding your phones, hands jittery, already itching to reply and tell me I’m wrong … that same-sex marriage is wrong. Wrong, wrong, fucking wrong!! You probably don’t even have an argument, other than saying … “it’s wrong.”

Well, I’m about to tell everyone the two reasons why it isn’t wrong. I’m going to explain two incredibly simplistic reasons why we should embrace it. Are you ready for this? Hold onto your seats and prepare to have your mind blown!

Wow … that might be building things up a little too much … anyway, here we go.

Reason #1   Economic Growth

What the Fuck am I on about!?

Yeah I know. It’s not the reason you were expecting, but hear me out. We, especially here in my home state of Tasmania, could really do with extra growth in our economy. Tassie is doing is pretty tough and has done for decades, so why not find a simple solution to throw extra dollars into the market.

The average cost for a wedding in 2012 was $36,200. Holy Shit-Balls, Batman!! Now I know you’re reading this and saying, “Troy. You’re full of shit. My wedding didn’t cost that much,” but remember this is an average cost. So … some only costed out at thousands, while others were in the hundreds of thousands. Also, that average would now, four years later, will be thousands higher than that figure.

Imagine for a moment, how many same-sex couples want to get married. Census information from 2011 tells us that there were 33,700 same-sex couples in Australia (I’m sure that numbers has increased significantly as we now live in a more accepting age and I’m sure many people weren’t comfortable admitting that information). Not everyone wants to get married, obviously, so how about if just 6,000 couples would get married if they were legally able to. That’s a low number, but fair for this discussion.

6,000 x $36,000 =  $217,200,000 … yep … that’s over  TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS being spent locally on venue hire, caterers, musicians, florists, decorators, alcohol, churches, celebrants, accommodation and more. And this aren’t things you order online so nearly all the money will be spent with local people who NEED the business.

And that figure doesn’t even include the engagement or wedding rings. So, let’s be realistic, and say that all the rings come to a total of $2000 for each couple. That’s 10,000,000. Another ten million!!

Then, and here’s the kicker, if the government decides to legalise it instead of spending (wasting) a quoted $160,000,000 on a plebiscite, not only do we gain close to quarter of a million dollars of local spending, we also save a hundred and sixty million that can be better spent on more important things such as health and education.

Plus, with the rate of divorce these days, imagine how much extra money lawyers will make. They must be secretly hoping for same-sex marriage more than gay couples.

If I had a mic right now I’d drop it and leave the stage. BOOM!!! But I’m at a laptop and not onstage so let’s just move on, shall we.

Legalising Same Sex marriage is financially smart for Australia!

Reason #2    The World Needs More Love

How simple is that? And guess what … you can’t argue it, can you? Not with any actual valid points, that is.

Humans aren’t the smartest creatures at times, but one thing we do well is we learn and change and grow, looking towards a better future for us and the generations to come. History is littered with terrible mistakes and we can’t escape that, we can only be better going forward.

It was that long ago that there was slavery.

Woman couldn’t vote and stayed at home looking after the children and the kitchen was their place.

Girls couldn’t play cricket or football.

Having black skin made you a lesser being (there’s still a long way to go there).

Only men held high paying or important jobs.

Same-sex couples couldn’t marry.

Oh, sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself there. Same-sex couples still can’t be married, though the thought seems as archaic as the others listed.

If you want blatant proof of how quickly the world changes around us, this is what a standard vagina looked like in the 80s …

This is what your everyday vagina looks like now.

Okay … not the best representation, but you get the point.

Seriously, we live in world that has come so far, but still has a very long way to go. There’s so much pain and segregation and war and hate and a little bit of love can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Now … I’m a 43 year old, divorced, straight, white guy. What the hell do I really know about marriage equality? To be completely honest with you, I don’t understand why people are against it, other than the fact that they just don’t like change. From a religious point of view, I was married next to a beach and God wasn’t mentioned once so it’s no longer a religious ceremony, which means that argument is void … and most of religious history is fiction anyway (waits for religious friends to text me).

I don’t believe same-sex couples want to steal anything from us. They just want their relationships to be as relevant as others – it’s like wanting to be able to vote. Until that happens we are judging same-sex relationships are second-class and not equal. A friend recently said to me that it wasn’t right for same-sex couples to be able to marry because they can bring up children who will only see a gay environment and be swayed that way. Anyone who thinks this is a valid argument for not legalising same-sex marriage obviously has no idea of how world-wise children are now. Kids know more, are able to discover more information than ever before, and are more acceptable of people than you or I will ever be.

And here’s one more thing for you … gay couples are already having sex with their two penises or their two vaginas and doing cute relationship things around you all the time anyway and have been for decades. They are in the house next to you, sitting in the next row in the cinema, snuggled up on the couch watching TV, holding hands and walking on the beach, making out in clubs, eating dinner across from you in your favourite restaurant, and doing anything else that you normally do. Why? Because … now keep this a secret because we don’t want everyone to know … because they’re just the same as you.

The world needs positive energy. Love all people, no matter what sexual orientation, religious belief, gender, or race.

Let love win.

After all … what can go wrong? It’s not like men and women living together and getting married works out perfectly.