Imagine sitting in your lounge room with your best gay mates sharing a few drinks. The music is playing, one of your mates tells a funny joke. The room is full of laughter and you glance around the room contentedly. Life is perfect. Suddenly the front door bursts open and about ten police charge in and the room erupts with screams and shouting. You find yourself pushed to the ground with a boot digging into your back and a gun pressed to the back of your head. Frozen with fear, you watch, helpless, as one of your friends is pushed to the ground screaming as boot after boot is kicked in. You scream out for them to stop, but something hits you from behind and everything goes black.

Your eyes slowly adjust to the bright light that shines on your face in the interrogation room. Searing pain shoots through every inch of your body, your jaw is swollen and the taste of your own blood fills your mouth. The handcuffs that restrain you to your chair are clasped so tight that they cut into your wrists. You ask pleadingly why are they doing this and they reply with ‘You are charged with the crime of homosexuality.’ The interrogator replies and then pauses, ‘The penalty is death.’

The horrific truth is that this actually happens in some countries. We are very fortunate to live in a country where following our natural desire of being gay is not illegal. Some of you may remember in 2005 when the Iranian regime attracted worldwide attention with the public execution of two gay teenagers. According to horrific statistics, in Iran alone since the Islamic revolution of 1979 over 4,000 gays and lesbians have been executed and the number is steadily increasing.

What outrages me is it is 2008 and punishments as extreme as this are still being dealt out against the act of homosexuality, and it’s not just Islamic countries that this is happening in. Seriously, what I want to know is how does someone sleeping with someone of the same sex deserve the penalty of death?  It has been said that homosexuality is an attack against the traditional family morals and values, that it is human nature to reproduce and homosexuals do not.

I have a few things to say about this, other than, what a load of bull crap. First of all, breeding is an animal’s natural instinct not a human one. I believe the value of human life goes beyond that of mere cattle reproducing. Honestly, every time a heterosexual couple have sex are they doing it with the purpose to pop out a baby? I don’t think so. They are doing it purely for physical pleasure or to share a connection with someone they are attracted to.

Hearing about the persecution towards the homosexual community has made me realize this: the world we live in is not as safe as we would hope to think. The Rudd Government is opening up new doors of equality in Australia. But we must remember not to be ignorant or frightened of acknowledging that both men and woman just like you and me are not as fortunate to share the same rights we are so privileged to have and instead are enduring such horrific experiences.

I am not suggesting that we fill ourselves with hatred, because fighting hatred with hatred will get you nowhere. I am suggesting that we acknowledge how lucky we are, but also to be mindful of how much we risk losing; and to remember the many men and woman who have lost their lives for the simple crime of being themselves.