Dear phanto,

Same-sex couples have been "fighting" the good fight
for decades but the odds against them winning remain powerful
after centuries of their not being accepted being the
social norm.

Paul1405:

“By your participation in the survey you are giving tacit approval to the governments involvement.”

How can you tell the difference between tacit approval an attempt to limit the damage done by government involvement? A NO vote could be interpreted either way. It would be rather illogical if you were given the chance to prevent the situation from getting worse not to take it. It is not necessarily a sign of approval at all.

Foxy:

The thing is that they are not fighting the good fight. They are fighting to be like heterosexual couples who also refuse to fight the good fight and who also acquiesce to the government’s conditional distribution of rights. Anyone who accepts the government’s conditions lacks dignity.

The good fight would be to stand up to the government and demand your rights unconditionally. Anything else is cowardice.

Dear phanto,

Most people just want to get on with their lives.
And standing up for wanting to have the same legal
entitlements as the rest of society is by no means
cowardly - on the contrary the abuse that people
have to take - is bravery and nothing less.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
- United States Declaration of Independence

I voted about 3 days ago. 'Tis now in the hands of the Gods (and Australia Post and the ABS).

I voted yes.

It's really simple, there's only one question:

Do you think the law should be changed to allow same sex marriage?

And then two boxes to mark, for 'yes' or 'no'.

And that's it! Just mark your box, stick it in the envelope and off you go.

There were no other boxes to fill in. There wasn't one to tick for or against Safe Schools, there wasn't one to tick against gay parents, there wasn't one to tick for or against free speech, there wasn't one to tick for or against religious freedom, and there wasn't one to tick against the whole institution of marriage.

If you wish to stage your own little private protest, feel free to go ahead and spoil your ballot: nobody is stopping you. Go ahead and write 'Hah! More like Unsafe Schools' or 'Not Big Brother's Business who gets married!' or 'Screw the State! Screw Marriage!' or just draw a big cock & balls on the thing for all I care.

Or, if you prefer, vote 'no' and hope that the ABS employ a mentalist with powers approaching that of the legendary Amazing Phanto, who will be able to discern each man's motives for their vote by mystically fondling their surveys and pass that information along to the relevant channels of government. But I reckon that's a tall order... nobody is as psychic as the Amazing Phanto.

Or, Toni Lavis, my favourite one that's become popular of late:

"I was going to vote 'yes', but then I saw all the bullying from the Yes campainers.'

Yeah, right. Just admit you were going to vote 'no' all along and do it already.

It's the lie that reveals itself.

Actually, I think that one deserves its own meme:

http://i.imgur.com/6rJ3EnF.jpg