One of the biggest opponents of same-sex marriage in Australia, a politician who has frequently touted the importance of “traditional” unions, just left his wife for his pregnant girlfriend. So much for tradition.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Barnaby Joyce, has always opposed gay marriage because of “the children!” Broken homes always make for broken families, says the hypocrite initiating a divorce to be with his much younger, pregnant staffer.
As the country considered legalization, Joyce argued that such unions are wrong because marriage is a process “inherently there for the support of, or the prospect of, children” and because “every child has a right, an absolute right, to know her or his mother and father.”
His own marriage was struggling, he acknowledged at the time. But that didn’t stop him from taking a stand in support of the traditional family…
Now, though, gay rights activists are questioning Joyce’s devotion to his values after it came out that he was divorcing his wife of 24 years for a former staff member who’s pregnant with their child. The staff member, Vikki Campion, 33, is a former media adviser and nearly two decades younger than Joyce. The unmarried couple are now living together.
In case you’re keeping track, that last line is another talking point for the Religious Right and the “traditional marriage” crowd gone up in flames. How could they have even gotten pregnant? After all, isn’t sex before marriage itself a sin and therefore not a traditional part of the institution of marriage?
To make matters worse, Joyce is abandoning his own four daughters by moving in with his staffer, something he was worried about with gay couples. He has said in the past that allowing gay marriage would actually damage his family.
I think he did that well enough by himself.
For years, Joyce campaigned against same-sex marriage by arguing it would fundamentally degrade an institution founded on traditional notions of love and partnership. In 2011, Joyce told attendees at an anti-marriage equality rally (organised by the Australian Christian Lobby and the Australian Family Association) that same-sex marriage would negatively affect his four daughters.
“We know that the best protection for those girls is that they get themselves into a secure relationship with a loving husband,” he said, “and I want that to happen for them. I don’t want any legislator to take that right away from me.”
I don’t know if Joyce thinks legalizing gay marriage will force people into gay relationships, or if he believes it will actually make his daughters gay, but I do know he’s a hypocrite who has no problem destroying his own family. As long as gays and lesbians can’t get married, he’s happy.
At least all his talk of “traditional marriage” has now been exposed for the nonsense it always was.
(Screenshot via YouTube)