New Zealand Minister Delivers Stirring, Hilarious Marriage Equality Speech [Video]

We reported earlier on how New Zealand has become the 13th country to legalize same-sex marriage but felt this speech by Kiwi MP Maurice Williamson deserved a post of its own.

With the new Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill already passed, Williamson opens by attacking opponents of marriage equality. Referring to the words of a local priest who suggested the “gay onslaught will start the day after this bill is passed,” the MP quips:

“We are struggling to know what the gay onslaught will look like. We don’t know if it will come down the Pakuranga highway as a series of troops, or whether it will be a gas that flows in over the electorate and blocks us all in. I also had a Catholic priest tell me that I was supporting an unnatural act. I found that quite interesting coming from someone who’s taken an oath of celibacy for his whole life.”

Williamson follows this with a witty takedown of a letter he received asserting he would “burn in the fires of eternity.” To much laughter in Parliament, he says:

“That was a bad mistake, because I’ve got a degree in physics. Using thermodynamic laws, I put in my body weight and my humidity and so on, I assumed the furnace to be at 5,000 degrees and I will last for just 2.1 seconds. It’s hardly eternity.”

There’s also a stirring section where Williamson expresses confusion over people’s anger with the decision to let two adults who love each other marry:

“We are not declaring nuclear war on a foreign state. We are not bringing a virus in that could wipe out our agricultural sector forever. We are allowing two people who love each other to have that recognized, and I can’t see what’s wrong with that for love nor money.”

“I give a promise to those people who are opposed to this bill right now. I give you a watertight guaranteed promise; the sun will still rise tomorrow, your teenage daughter will still argue back with you as if she knows everything, your mortgage will not grow, you will not have skin diseases or rashes or toads in your bed. The world will just carry on.”

The MP wrapped up his speech by revealing how another letter he received said the marriage equality bill had caused a recent drought in the Auckland suburb of Pakuranga. Williamson, who represents Pakuranga, noted:

“In the Pakuranga electorate this morning it was pouring with rain. We had the most enormous, big gay rainbow across my electorate. It has to be a sign!”

You can watch Maurice Williamson’s superb speech in full below: