Hey you! Yes, YOU!
Are you a young progressive-type fretting over your impending family Christmas obligations?
Do you spend most of your year living in a pleasant bubble of like-minded individuals, talking frankly about politics and lamenting your country’s backwards attitude to its LGBTIQ community?
Well, we’ve got some good news.
The Australian Greens have launched a Marriage Equality Holiday Helpline to guide you through those tricky conversations with conservative relatives this festive season.
It’s essentially a ‘textbot’ that will send you counter-arguments to common misconceptions about same-sex marriage.
Picture this: You’re sitting opposite your auntie Jude and she’s just spouted some daft thing about Safe Schools breeding tiny Marxists that she read in The Australian last week.
Now, instead of flinging your turkey across the table in frustration as one is usually wont to do in such a situation, you calmly place your fork on your plate and reach for you smart phone.
You shoot off a single text saying “#SOS” and suddenly you’ve got an arsenal of facts at your disposable and you and Jude have quickly gone from mutual eye-rolling to a constructive chat on the merits of marriage equality.
The idea is to help transform the public debate, one chat at a time, by changing the minds of those closest to you.
As Greens senator Janet Rice explained to BuzzFeed News:
“We’ve all been part of a conversation that very quickly takes a turn that’s not very joyful – and often we’re caught off guard.
“This way, if you end up at an event with a rello who’s channelling Andrew Bolt, at least you’ll have someone on your side!”
The Holiday Helpline launches Wednesday and you can sign up here.
