Street Maryan: Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStreet Maryan: Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9494. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour): I love my job but every now and then it really rocks. This is one of those moments that every now and then we have in this House when I know in my very being that I am doing something good something right something life changing. Tonight is one of those moments.I too would like to acknowledge the former MPs who are in the House tonight—Marilyn Waring Katherine Rich Georgina Beyer and Tim Barnett—each of whom in their time in this House has supported the values that this bill the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill represents. It is good to have you here all of you on this occasion and I pay tribute to you.In my inaugural speech to Parliament in 2005 I railed against our tendency as a nation to drive some people to the margins of our society and then despise them for being there. I talked of the lazy notion of political correctness and of how that label was used dripping with sarcasm to denigrate and destroy anything that was inclusive compassionate tolerant or forward-looking. Tonight I am here to help include the marginalised equalise the law for the outlaws and put one more nail in the coffin of legal discrimination in New Zealand.I want to thank my colleague Louisa Wall for the opportunity to do this. I pay tribute to her for her courage her strength and her leadership throughout this issue. She has been supported by a large team of enthusiastic supporters and helpers both inside and outside this House and I thank them all as well from the bottom of my heart.I come at this issue from a simple starting point. There are no grounds in this country on which discrimination under the law should occur on the basis of one’s sexual orientation or gender identity. We all sit somewhere on the sexuality continuum: some closer to one end than the other some in the middle and still others at one point at one time in their lives and at quite another point at other times in their lives. I have seen examples of all of these up close and personal.The injustice of discriminating before the law against someone because of who they are—not because of what they do but of who they are intrinsically—is wrong and we are past it in 2013. Those famous words of Shylock inThe Merchant of Venice come to mind: “Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands organs dimensions senses affections passions? fed with the same food hurt with the same weapons subject to the same diseases healed by the same means warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? if you tickle us do we not laugh? if you poison us do we not die?”. And I would add: “And if we are not equal before the law are we not lesser beings?”. So I come at the issue of marriage equality simply on the basis of equality before the law.I am gay but I do not wish to get married. I have never wanted to get married. It does not mean that I do not cherish the relationship I have with as much ardour as any married person. But I do not want not to be able to marry because the law discriminates against me—that is the point for me.This position has been driven home for me by working closely for years with a group of young people in Nelson called Q-Youth. This is an alliance of straight gay and transgender young people and adults who began at Nayland College many years ago to build a safe and supportive environment for young people who were questioning or wrestling with their sexuality. It includes adults who are parents teachers counsellors professional people—and me—who all want the same thing which is for these young people to grow up in safety free from discrimination free from bullying and free from violence and unsafe practices so that they can be who they truly are. I want to acknowledge in particular Seb Stewart who was a mentor to many of these people and Tabby Besley and Joseph Habgood who are in the gallery tonight and who have offered much in the way of leadership along with numerous other wonderful clever and brave Nelson young people.Through that work I met many questioning young Nelson people who had all suffered to a greater or lesser degree because of being made to feel like an outcast—an outlaw. Some had cut themselves. Some had punished themselves with drug and alcohol abuse. Some had become mentally unwell. Some had attempted suicide. Some were hugely supported by their parents; they were the lucky ones. Some were rejected by their parents; they were not so lucky.Equality before the law is the start. If there is a benign legislative regime there will be over time different behaviour and greater acceptance. Laws alter only behaviour not attitudes but attitudes come eventually when people see that the sky has not fallen and that their own rights are not diminished by extending them to others. But when one is growing up like these young people in Nelson from whom I have learnt so much one can sense discrimination and a lack of acceptance at 500 paces. It sits on your shoulder like a vulture waiting for you to fall and to be pecked to death. Little by little stroke by stroke young people are diminished and reduced unless they can find a safe place to be.So this law is not really about me as a lesbian woman at all. It is about creating a just and tolerant society which is safe for our young people to grow up in. For those who have a different world view from mine can I simply say that I would stick up for your rights to equality before the law as well.Finally I return to my inaugural speech in this House. At the end of it I referred to my daughter and said that I hoped that whenever the time came to leave this place I would leave our society improved in some measure for her sake. She was born to two mothers and two fathers. She has never lacked for love support guidance and care. In fact it is possible that she has had twice as much of it than most children in a two-parent family have. She has been and remains a great joy to all of us. She deserves a world where her family is as accepted as anyone else’s. She said to me of course as she was proofing my speech tonight that her world would have been very different growing up if there had been social acceptance around our family. She does not regret it for herself but she does wish it for other people—she is a good girl.Our actions here must always be about the future. We leave this world to others especially our young people. Let us make it a better fairer kinder place than we found it. Let us pass this bill.