Saturday 21 September 2013

Review Sites That Pay For Written Reviews


The following article is a short list of the most popular and the best review sites that actually pay writers money to their Paypal accounts for writing and sharing reviews. Some of these sites are much like affiliate selling, particularly Favourite Thingz at the end of this article, you choose your favourite products on the site and if a customer makes a purchase you get part of the sale.
Epinions is probably the most popular and has been around the longest. Review Stream and Shared Review are newer or so I am assuming as I only discovered them a little while ago. Favourite Thingz is a new site, as far as I know as I have never heard of this one until I did some research for this article. Have a look at the short descriptions below:
Get $10 for every 10 reviews you write, this is truly an easy site to write for. You write a comprehensive review, say around 400 words and you share in the revenue. If you are really good at reviews then it can work out to about one dollar per review.

Review Stream
This site is the only place on the Internet you can earn some cash just for writing the reviews! You are able to write a review about any topic you like, it could be anything, you best friends new fishing tackle box or your uncle's cat. Write about hotels you have stayed at or stores you have shopped in. Make it around 300 to 400 words and you could do well at this site. This site will pay you for every review.

Shared Reviews
This is a community site that empowers people to connect with others and share in the profits. Many website owners are understanding more and more that we writers don't need to write for free and quality content is worth paying for. Help generate profits at Shared Reviews and get paid for it.

Favourite Thingz
All that one needs to do here is choose favourite things on the site, when somebody purchases one of your favourite thingz, you earn from the sale. It kind of reminds me a little of affiliate selling but with a difference. I cannot seem to find a link for this site, so perhaps they are not in operation at present. I will get back to everyone on what I find out regarding this site.
So I have saved the best till last, as I love music and I adore this site. There is a trick to this site that someone on Teckler shared with me tonight. If you are a fast typist you can do quite well here. You will listen to a song, while you are listening, write what comes into you head. Do not censor your thoughts or typing, plenty of time to edit later; just write. You need to write a decent review of the song, about 150 – 200 words, and if you love music and you can type at around 80 words per minute, this should not take you long to write several music reviews per day. I am not sure what one review pays as I have only just signed up there; however I highly recommend this site and so do many other people out there earning online.
Personally folks, I would sign up for all of them and work slowly for a while until you start to build a reputation on the site. I love them because I love to write reviews, in-fact most of my private clients ask me to write reviews, so it's something I have become quite good at.
It doesn't hurt to sign up and try them all out and if you are not happy with one of two of these sites, then close your account; but I am sure if you like to write reviews then you will enjoy these sites.
Previously published on Teckler

Do you Need an Excellent Writer who writes outstanding content to write for you. Hire me to write for you.

Copyright © 2013 Janelle Coulton
This article may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from the writer. A partial reprint of this article is permitted with a link back to the original work.



If you would like to exchange links with me, please leave me a message via the comments or contact me via email, which you will find on my Hire me page.

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Make Money Proofreading Or Transcribing For Scribie



Scribie is an online transcription site and is one of the most popular transcription sites out there at the moment. The only experience you will need is to be able to type at a reasonable pace; you will also need to have good written communication skills. There is also an option to obtain proofreading or review work once you have transcribed ten files.


The process is that you sign up and take a short test, which is not difficult. Shortly after you will receive an email with your results and an invitation to join up. Scribie always seem to have plenty of work available, so it's just a matter of logging in and choosing a file to transcribe. Once you choose a file, you have two hours to complete the file, since the files are only six minutes long, this should be relatively easy for someone who types at a good speed.





All the files are in English, so you would need a good command of English grammar and spelling. The files are six minute recordings, that you type up. For each completed file you receive $1. So if you spend a few hours each day on this, you could be earning $40 - $50 per week or more, and this translates to about $200 per month. A nice little addition to your other streams of income. There is no limit to how many jobs you can accept and once you have done three hours worth of tapes, you will get a $10 bonus. If you really wanted to go hard at this and do an hour of tapes per day, you could be getting the bonus every three days. And another big bonus is that you can cash out whenever you like and your money will be in Paypal the next day.






Once you have transcribed ten files; you are then eligible to do reviews and proofread work from other transcribers, which is easier to do and pays the same as transcribing. Once you have worked at this for a while, your typing speed will increase and you will also be able to apply for other transcription jobs that require experience.






Scribie is open to people from most countries, however they do not accept applications from countries that do not support Paypal. The files are all in English, so anyone who speaks English as a second language may find it challenging, however there's no harm in trying it out. Take the test and see how you go.




There are many other transcription sites online, however this is the first one I have encountered where you don't need much experience. Once you get your feet wet here, you may want to sign up for other sites that pay more. The site that pay more generally want their applicants to have skills in certain areas; like a legal background or an understanding of medical terminology.

So, there you have it. Another way to make a little income online. If you are interested, then go check out the site.


Check out Scribie for yourself.



For more information about Freelance Writing visit my website. If you would like to hire me to write for you, you can contact me via my Hire Me page.





Photo Credit - Flickr.com



Copyright © 2013 Janelle Coulton

Saturday 10 August 2013

People Need To Be Right


The Need To Be Right. We all have this need, and sometimes it is better to tell a person they are right, rather than argue with them.


Recently I got into a big fight with my partner, who is no longer my partner, but that's another story. 

Anyway, he got himself into a little hot water at work. Something that was totally his fault and he would not take responsibility, just kept blaming the other person. His boss was cranky and the whole thing could have resulted in him getting fired as what he was accused of doing was over the line. I told him it was his word against the other persons' and to let it go. He did not appreciate that. I am guessing he was after sympathy because this person was picking on him and telling lies.

Once he got home that night I realized just how angry he truly was and instead of giving him comfort, I told him he has quite a reputation for doing stupid things. He and I did not speak for a few days. So was it worth it to throw the truth in his face like that? Probably not. But it's what I do. Ask and you shall receive is my motto, ask me a question and I am not gonna lie. So if you don't want the answer, then don't ask and this is exactly what I said to him.

I was pretty upset about his attitude and it all calmed down, until he came home again in a really foul mood and began to take it out on me. It was a Friday night and I did not want to put up with his dark mood all weekend, so I asked him what was up?

After the last few days of the silent treatment and him snapping at me every time I opened my mouth, I was on my guard. 'Here we go again' I was thinking. Instead he just said that the girl at work that was giving him a hard time had reported him for harassment and he was being investigated and had to do mediation. Instead of berating him for being an idiot, which he probably was. I told him I was sorry this was happening and was there anything I could do. He smiled and thanked me, and asked if we could go get pizza for dinner. We ended up having a great weekend and when he went to work on Monday, I wished him luck and said that it's her word against yours. He said nothing and off he went.

When he returned home that evening he was in a good mood and told me that this girl had fallen flat on her face, apparently she had lied about this sort of thing before. He was in a happy mood and I truly think it was because I let him feel that he was right in this situation.

And the moral to this story is, sometimes we may disagree or believe another version of the truth, but people need to be right.

This guy and I are no longer together, but he is an awful flirt and it would not have surprised me one bit if he did make a move on this girl. But at the time it was easier to let him be right. Perhaps that was wrong; well no, not really I know it was wrong to let him get away with it, as he has said really discriminating things regarding women and disabled people for as long as I can remember and I have been warning him for years that he will get into trouble. He was damned lucky to get away with that, and in the end the girl quit working there. Hmmmm. Gotta make you wonder.


The previous article is a re-write from Bubblews; Write you Way, Share Your World - Write for Bubblews and earn: Sign Up Here and Start Earning Today 



Janelle started writing as a content writer for Suite 101, you can see her work here. She now write for private clients, Helium, Expert's Pages', Full of Knowledge, Hub Pages, Triond and a few others. Janelle write and creates her Grey's Anatomy Addicts blog, and maintains several other websites. She is a expert in content writing of all topics and can turn her hand to write almost anything, having recently ghost written a series of articles about Adjustable Dumbbells, which she has absolutely no interest in what so ever and did not even know what they were until a week ago. You can get more information about Janelle at her profile page or on Google+.



Copyright © 2013 Janelle Coulton

Wednesday 17 July 2013

How To Make Money With Paypal - Guest Post by Omoscowonder




Do you need to Make Extra Money?


Would you like to know how to make money in your Paypal account easily, on a daily basis?

Well, I have some good news for you.



Even a newbie can come on the internet and set up a quick system that will make money online today to your Paypal Account.

You just have to know what to do, This article will briefly outline what to do for you.

One of the quickest and easiest ways to make money online is by finding an affiliate program that pays directly and immediately into your Paypal account.





There are digital products and e-books that anyone can sell online immediately without the need for a website. Just sign up with the largest and most well known affiliate processors, like Click-Bank, Commission Junction and JVZoo and you actually get paid.


Pay To Post

But there are other online products you can sell and actually get the commissions into your Paypal account immediately, yes even with these programs you truly can make money via Paypal easily through several Programs! Are you a blogger or writer? You can make money blogging for advertisers and get paid straight to your Paypal account.


Contributor Network

Contributor Network is an online opportunity for people just like you and me to write for an esteemed and well established company.

It is free to sign up, and you can have your first article published within minutes. All you need to do is sign into Yahoo!, navigate to the Contributor's Network, and submit your content. This site only pays US residents for content, however there are plenty of other sites that will accept content from anyone in the world. At first, you will get very little compensation, but after writing and accepting assignments, you will be offered more and more money to write specific articles! It truly is a great way to make money online with Paypal.


Online Surveys

There are some things that you can do to make sure that you are getting legitimate cash through PayPal through online surveys!

There are some paid surveys that will require your “PayPal” address, and once you get past the “threshold”, or the minimum amount of cash, you will either be sent a check, direct deposit, or cash straight to your PayPal address!


Here are Some Quick Facts You Need To Know About Surveys.


Paid surveys are the most time tested way to make money on the internet

You can expect to make $3 - $10 per survey


It is recommended by survey experts that you should have a separate inbox to receive the survey opportunity, because you could get a lot of email.


On the “demographic surveys”, it is important to know what a demographic surveys is actually to see what surveys will suit you. Demographic surveys normally cover a certain age group of people, women or men, or both and location.

Giving answers that are more general might help you qualify for more offers, but always be truthful when doing a survey.



After reading this article, you will now have some great ideas on how to make money straight to Paypal.



For more information visit: Make Money Online



This article is a guest post and is written by Omoscowonder at Make Money Online










Photo Credit: Flickr.com



Janelle Coulton has been writing for over thirty years, most of her friends call her Jel. She started writing and earning online at Suite 101 in 2011, (before that Jel was writing for free building her blogs and websites) she left in March 2013 when the website closed to go and write for private clients and other content sites. Janelle has just applied to Skyword, Textbroker UK, and many other Freelance exchange sites. She writes mostly for upfront pay at Helium and Full of Knowledge. Jel is currently re-working all of her sites, adding content, sprucing up old pages and monetizing her sites, she hopes that one day all of her writing work will be limited to her sites and private clients. Jel is also working on three book with more ideas in the works. If you would like to find out more go to Janelle Coulton Suite 101 or her profile page on Google+. You can follow Jel on Twitter or Facebook too.


Anyone who would like to post as a guest on Janelle Coulton, Freelance Writer can contact Jel by Email




Copyright © 2013 Janelle Coulton

Thursday 11 July 2013

What Do you Trust - Fear or Love?


I write this essay in the hope that people will not close out love because of their fear. Unfortunately so many of us do and I find 

this very sad.

Most of us are more afraid than we think, the following essay discusses how we can cheat ourselves out of so many wonderful things because of fear. Worth thinking about.









I write this essay in the hope that people will not close out love because of their fear. Unfortunately so many of us do and I find 
this very sad.

Most of us are more afraid than we think, the following essay discusses how we can cheat ourselves out of so many wonderful things because of fear. Worth thinking about.


Whitney Houston portrayed her meaning of real love when she sang the words “I’ve found the greatest love of all inside of me.” When that song was released almost twenty years ago, I barely understood what these words meant. Today however, I truly understand the concept of these words. Whitney Houston was telling us through her music, that there is no higher love than loving yourself unconditionally. When a person trusts love, they are able to love themselves. When it is fear they trust, the opposite is true. Until we can love ourselves with no strings attached, flaws and all, then we will never be able to love another human being unconditionally, and without fear.


Part of loving ourselves is letting go of the fear that we are not good enough or unlovable. On an unconscious level, many of us believe we are not worthy of love. We don’t know what it means to love and appreciate ourselves. We will constantly put ourselves down, not realising how damaging this is to our self-esteem. We often treat ourselves with disrespect, make decisions and react to emotions that are completely fear based.


We don’t often think to commit our spare time to learning about our feelings and emotions. Who has the time? However this kind of attention to ourselves is time worth spending. Learning to take care of ourselves in this way will allow us to grow and change as individuals and become more confident, loving and more importantly, more emotionally intelligent and fearless. Spending time on ourselves can be extremely revealing and can be like opening up the proverbial can of worms. Feelings and emotions that have been bottled up for years can come pouring out, in a torrent of tears or anger. This process can also be challenging, exciting, sad, scary and very revealing.


Doing this kind of work allows us to learn how to deal with our emotions and feelings in a more constructive way. Because we are not taught how to deal with our feelings, we will act out what we have learnt and seen as children and what we have experienced in previous relationships. Emotional intelligence classes were not offered at school (perhaps they should be, given the rising divorce rate). It is possible that when many of us were growing up, we were taught that anger, fear, anxiety and sadness are bad feelings and bad feelings should not be expressed. We feel what we feel, and we deal with our feelings in a way that is comfortable to us; however this is not always the healthiest or best option for us to take.


Stepping outside our comfort zone feels scary and at the same time it can feel uplifting. Taking a risk to stretch a little and move beyond our comfort zone is definitely an exercise in self-love. With every situation in life, every action we take, every thought we have, we will either react from a place of fear or a place of love. So, I will ask the question again: What do you trust, fear or love?


Reacting from a place of love takes immense courage as we are programmed to listen to our fears, and act with caution and safety. It is possible to feel love and fear at the same time, for instance; when we meet someone that we are really attracted to, we may fear that they do not feel the same way. This can then lead us to behaving self destructively by not being ourselves and tying to impress this person all because we want this person to like us. The tricky part is moving past the fear, being authentic, loving ourselves, no matter what the object of our affection thinks of us.


Letting go of the fear and practising self love enables us to love others. We cannot do any of our relationships justice if we are stuck in fear. When we become stuck in fear we remain powerless to move forward in our relationships and carry a loving attitude. Our fears arise from something within ourselves. Many of us believe fear comes from outside forces operating against us; this is not so. Fear is something unresolved that lives inside of us. Circumstances in our day to day lives could trigger our fear, but it is our hearts and minds that build it up and keep it going. Letting go of fear is hard, as our feelings and emotions seem so real. What we are really doing is attempting to cover whatever it is that we don’t want our loved ones to know about us. Interestingly enough our perceptions of ourselves are usually way off. We may, for example; feel unworthy of someone’s love, however that someone quite often knows better. This is an example of fear running our lives. We are all worthy of love, every single one of us.


Most people have a primary fear; for example, a fear of rejection or abandonment. Something will usually trigger that fear and if we can identify the trigger that activates our fears, then we can work towards de-activating it. Otherwise we can get caught in a vicious circle that will lead to self destructive patterns of behaviour. Fear will block our feelings of love and we will feel stuck and be unable to adopt a loving attitude.


To use the example of fear of rejection or abandonment; suppose we feel ignored by someone and this feeling triggers our fears of rejection or abandonment. It is not just a feeling of rejection that comes up, our emotions may snowball and other fears might be activated. In our minds we will build evidence against the person we feel has rejected us and then we build evidence against ourselves. We might feel unlovable, worthless, helpless, angry or inadequate. That’s a lot of negative emotions just snowballing all around us, a very, heavy dose of fear indeed.


So how do we eradicate fear once we become stuck? To put it simply by being ourselves, by loving ourselves for what and who we are. Sounds very easy, but it isn’t when we are stuck in a cycle of fear and negative emotions. Identifying our main trigger that activates our fears will enable us to recognise fear and attempt to switch gears. We will not succeed every time however, but if we are aware of our thoughts and feelings, most of the time we will be able to feel these feelings and then move past the fear.


Another method for deactivating our fear is asking ourselves what sort of qualities we admire in others. We can paint a mental picture of our heroes, people whom we admire and list their qualities, qualities that we ourselves would love to possess. Guess what happens? We become aware of some of those qualities within ourselves. What we see in others is also within us. We could look at the qualities that our parents have. If our mother is an honest and loving person, then we are honest and loving also. If our father is a kind and considerate person, then we also share these gifts. We may not see it, but others can, our loved ones know what qualities we possess, which is why they want to be around us. We are able to claim these wonderful gifts as part of our inner self.


Being honest with ourselves and with others is another step towards eradicating fear and creating self love. Being authentic and true to ourselves, showing love and compassion to others are all ways in which we can get free of fear. Be proactive and make time in our day to carry out things that allow us to express and get in touch with our positive attributes. Make a list of actions that feel good to us and take steps to do a few of these things each day. This could mean writing in a journal, or expressing our compassionate selves by helping a friend in need. We could send our partner a love note, and thus allow us to express our loving side.


As we take these actions we will dispel our fears and eventually feel a sense of peace, joy, self confidence and self acceptance. It isn’t easy to get out our own way and be proactive. We all experience bad days, filled with those negative, fearful thoughts, however it is how we react to those thoughts and feelings that matters. Start out slowly and build it up, by monitoring our feelings and thoughts and doing simple things that make us feel good. Some people may feel this is selfish. These are not selfish actions, keep going. The more we can love ourselves, the better we can love our partners, families, friends, children and the like. The more we focus and practice dealing with fear the better at it we will become. Believe it or not, fear handled in a wise and proactive manner will eventually become our friend. Fear will tell us that there is work to be done. Managing our fear will lead us back to a place of love, and love is really where we all want to be.



Copyright © 2007 Janelle Coulton


Link to this article on Bubblews




Read more articles or E-books on this subject at: Triple O Relationships Network






To read more of Janelle Coulton's articles go to Community Pages, Suite 101



Copyright © 2012 Janelle Coulton

Article Writing For Revenue Share


There are no two ways of looking at it, good quality content will make or break you as a writer. It’s the same thing with the website you write for; good content will make or break the site. If the site you write on does not have a strict policy on writing excellent content then you don’t really want to be writing there because when the next Google algorithm comes in, sites like this will be blacklisted, Google will rank them lower in search results.

There is a lot of speculation about what Google likes and does not like when it comes to content and sometimes I think Google like to keep this a secret. It is clear however that they will not rank any website high in quality if it does not contain good quality material for the reader. Their reputation as the number one search engine depends on it.









So when it comes to writing articles online for revenue share, chances are that revenue share is coming from Google Adsense. And if Google are not seeing profits coming from their Adwords campaigns that website owners buy into then they will likely penalize that site. As usual, with anything in business it comes down to the mighty dollar.

Always remember when you submit articles to submit your best work. Be sure to proofread it and just make sure that your article has substance, that it is entertaining, or funny or informative. If the reader is likely to get something good out of your article, then it’s very likely what Google is looking for. It’s the same for anything we do, if we don’t do it well then we will have regrets on how we could have done better. So do the best that you can in the first place.





There are many sites where you can apply for your own Google Adsense account and get your hands on some of that revenue, however in my experience many writers tend to have problems getting an Adsense account in the first place, as they are very strict these days and then low and behold, Google Adsense can cancel your account without even giving you a reason. This puts me off getting an account in the first place as I would not want to be getting good earnings via Google Adsense, only for them to just cut if off for no good reason and take my money, which has been the experience of many Google Adsense account holders.

Always keep in mind that great content will bring visitors and visitors will help you to earn revenue.




Also post at Post Any Article - Article Writing for Revenue Share





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Micheal Jackson's Medically Prescribed Drugs on Triond










To read more of Janelle Coulton's articles go to Janelle Coulton at Suite 101





Photo Credit: Flickr - Creative Commons





Copyright © 2013 Janelle Coulton

Monday 1 July 2013

How To Make Money Freelancing Online - Guest Post By Ceejay

Article writing is one of the best ways to make money from the internet, a lot of freelancers have been working from the comfort of their home for years now and what they do is write online!

It does not matter if you know how to write, you can do research on any topic by searching Google and other search engines, but if you don't have passion for writing, then this is not for you.

Below I will let you know different ways writers earn cash online. WE share lots of ways to make money from the internet on our
blog www.moneyhomeblog.com, so even if you don't know a thing about writing articles, then you can explore other opportunities to make an income that are available online.

Getting back on track, most writers get paid by clients for writing specific articles on a specific topics for them.

Example: If I need someone to write for me on this topic: Payday Loans. You as the writer will do your research and then send the articles to me, the better your writing skills, the higher your pay. The article costs from $3 to $50 for 500 words. And there are lots of websites that pay you to write online, you can check them out here: Get Paid for Writing

Where you come from does not matter, you can be from any part of the world,so long as you can write clean, original articles, you will get paid.

From the above, you get paid a one time fee for writing, but you can choose to also get royalties from your articles and for me, this is the best choice, one single article can earn you money over and over again. How this works is; if you submit an article, you get paid for every ad impression you generate.

There are many Article Writing Sites that you can join to start working from the comfort of your home.








This post is a guest blog by Ceejay from MoneyHomeBlog



















If you would like to place a link to your site when commenting, I would be happy to link-share or back-link from my site to yours and vice-versa. Thanks for visiting today.  





To read more of Janelle Coulton's articles go to Community Pages at Suite 101 




Copyright © 2012 Janelle Coulton

Saturday 29 June 2013

What Happened to Decency?

Where did all the decent people go? What has gone so wrong in society that common decency has gone out the window? Common sense, respect for others and their feelings seems to have disappeared right along with it.


Back in the not too distant past, people had respect for each other. People actually cared about their neighbors and co-workers, friends and family. Now it seems that political correctness has destroyed peoples values and standards.





We all share different opinion in life and people’s opinions should be respected. But there should be limits to what we tolerate or find acceptable. It seems as though we are supposed to condone other’s behaviour no matter how awful or inconsiderate it is.

When did it become acceptable to tolerate words and actions that are reprehensible? Especially some actions violate the rights of others and basic human rights or laws. Why is it okay to condone bad behaviour when the person is a member of a minority group? These same deeds would not be acceptable in a mainstream society. There should always be standards of conduct and dress that should not be tampered with.





Many people will say that it is not important how one dresses or speaks to others. Apparently it what is in your heart is the only thing that should matter. This might be true, but don’t get caught up believing that how a person appears on the outside is a direct expression of who they are. What about a person who goes to church dressed up in a skimpy crop top and shorty shorts? This shows disrespect to not only God, but the church and what it stands for and other patrons who worship in that church. Go back thirty years and you will remember that attending church meant dressing in your nicest dress or your best suit.

People walk around in public dressed in skimpy clothing that show off their tattoos, and it would seem that they dress this way in defiance of people who look at them. Or perhaps it is all about gaining attention because they look different to most average people. To dress like this in church is outrageous and completely unacceptable, yet we are supposed to put up and shut up so that individual people can freely express themselves.





Another group of minority people seems to have it backwards too. When gay members march for Pride or are apart of Gay Festivals, why is it that they have to dress so inappropriately. While it’s certainly a wonderful thing that gay people get to celebrate their rights in the community, do they really need to parade around the streets in thongs and other skimpy garments. How do you explain this to your children? Straight people certainly do not do this. While most of us are very accepting of gay rights and the like, the problem is having it rammed down our throats. We have come a long way in terms of people accepting that some people have different sexual preferences and this is a good thing. And when it comes to celebrating these victories, it would be nice to see these celebrations without all the half naked people and outrageous behaviour.



Gay and Lesbian Festival - Flickr.com


The older generations, and baby boomers in society would be mortified to be asked about their sex lives. It is nobody’s business what a couple do in the privacy of their own bedroom. It is also no-ones business what you do in your bedroom. Keeping that part of your life private seems decent to me. We have become to free and easy as a society and it’s ruining people.

Have we become that lazy in society that we don’t care about dressing decently, so as not to offend certain people? Do people not have a positive opinion of themselves and because of this they no longer care what other’s think of them? What people think of you is important, no matter what you’ve been told, however worrying about what people think can get out of control. Have we gotten to a point where we just don’t have opinions anymore? Perhaps because we have been brainwashed by society to not care what others think and to not be judgmental, because those things are bad.






Do we not see that society is falling apart? How can we teach our children right from wrong if they are subjected to behaviour that says otherwise? Our kids will grow up without any moral high ground, no standards to live up to or solid values to hold onto. The hope is that the parents of today are onto what society teaches our kids and that parents do their best to instill decency in their children. It is clear to many of us, that society is not going to go back to the good old days anytime soon.


Original Article on Triond



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All photos are from Flickr or WikiMedia and all contain a Creative Common's Licence.





To read more of Janelle Coulton's articles go to Community Pages at Suite 101 



Copyright © 2013 Janelle Coulton

Marriage Equality - It Is Time To Make It Legal


Recently news came from New Zealand that same sex marriage has been legalized. Many same sex marriage supporters feel it's high time Australia got on board with this too.







It is looking like marriage equality is on the table for discussion again. A few days ago in Australia, citizens saw a change of leadership come down and Ms Julia Gillard outed as the Prime Minister. It was an event that Australians knew was always going to take place at some stage, because in 2010; right before the election Ms Gillard did the same thing to Mr Rudd who was Prime Minister at the time. Politicians in this country have always played the back-stabbing game. 

The good thing to come out of this is the possibility that this arguing back and forth about same sex marriage and the legalization of it may come to an end. Many Australian are sick of it and the lesbian and gay communities are more than fed up. With the news coming from across the Tasman sea regarding New Zealand giving same sex couples the right to marry has been seen as hopeful for the many supporters of this legislation. 

Mr Rudds sudden revelation that he wants to discuss same sex marriage rights could very well be a political stunt and a way to bribe voter in September to vote labour. Ms Gillard refused to consider legalisation of same sex marriage, which surprised many, as her partner's daughter Staci supports gay marriage. With Ms Gillard out of the top job, Mr Rudd has the chance to make many same sex couples in Australia very happy. The general consensus is that Mr Rudd needs to make a decision and get his people on board with this. What the public are annoyed with is constantly arguing and debating this is a total waste time. It is clear to everyone in this country that change will come. Several states in the US have legalised same sex marriage and others are planning to follow suit. New Zealand, who are one of our closest neighbors have passed this legislation. Why are the government stalling on an issue that is going to happen one day anyway?

If the opposition leader; Tony Abbott wins the election, he will not support the marriage equality bill. Voters have been aware of this for a while. Tony Abbott's two grown daughters are strongly supportive of marriage equality, however their father will not budge on the issue. Tony Abbott is not a stupid man, he's actually very smart and he must know that the legalization of same sex marriage is going to happen one day. He only has to pay attention to what other Governments all over the world are doing. Tony Abbott also does not need to consider the legislation at this time. In many political journalists' opinions' Australian citizens are far more concerned with the economy than same sex marriage. 

Voters know that Tony Abbott's main concern is getting Australia out of debt, which is what most Australians want. Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd have put Australia into billions of dollars worth of debt because this is what the Labour party do. Tony Abbot and the Liberal/National party will get Australia back in the black. This is what has always happened and this is probably why Tony Abbott will be Prime Minister in September. If Kevin Rudd could get off his backside and show that he is supporting same sex marriage rights and really fight for this legislation to go through, then he may have a chance of winning the election. 

Supporters of marriage equality are sick and tired of all the back and forth, especially when it's clear to everyone that passing this legislation is inevitable. It will happen one day. No one can say when or give a definitive time frame, but it will happen. Washington State recently legalised same sex marriage, so didi Canada and recently New Zealand jumped on the band wagon. Why delay this any longer? Australia should just make it happen.





Most voters cannot stand stand political stunts, however the lesbian and gay communities are kind of hoping that this one works. As much as they may not want another three years of a Labour Government, they want marriage equality even more and voting for Tony Abbott essentially means this arguing and debating will go on and on. This is about human rights and same sex couples should get the same rights as heterosexual couples. Love is love in whatever form it comes. 

The other hypocritical decision our wonderful Government made years ago was; if a same sex couple live together in a common law relationship, in the eyes of Centrelink, (which what Australia's Department of Social Security call themselves) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO); they are treated like a couple. So if one or both partners are receiving Centrelink benefits, those benefits are adjusted and paid to the couple, not the two individuals living in under the same roof.  When a same sex couple lodge their tax return, they are treated as a married couple for taxation purposes. When a same sex relationship ends, providing the couple have lived together for over two years; if a property settlement is necessary or their are children and custody issue, the couple are allowed to file in the Family Court in the same way a heterosexual couple would. It would seem the next step would be to let these couples legally marry, but no; that is not allowed. Seems very hypocritical to have these laws and not give same sex couple the right to marry.




City Hall somewhere in California, the day same sex marriage was legalised


So it would seem as though supporters of marriage equality have a long wait, especially if Tony Abbott wins the election. Perhaps his daughters and his gay sister can convince him to re-think his stance on this issue. 


Update: On the 29 June 2013; Kevin Rudd has announced that the topic of same sex marriage go to a referendum. Whether this will happen or not remains to be seen, but if Mr Rudd were to push harder to get the Same Sex Marriage Equality bill through Parliament, this may help the Prime Minister win the upcoming election in September.

Update: August 11th, 2013The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott face off in their first debate, Kevin Rudd pushes hard on the issue of same sex marriage legislation and announced his support for marriage equality. Will this seemingly, strong commitment win Kevin Rudd the election?


Now it's your turn, tell me what you think is going to happen and whether you agree with my little rave above: Express yourself by hitting the comments or catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter.


Sources:

Article in The Australian - Kevin Rudd Debates Gay Marriage

Article in The Guardian - New Zealand Same Sex Marriage Legalised

Article about Gay Marriage Rights in Washington State in the US
Same Sex Marriage Legal in Washington State US

Article in The Age
Kevin Rudd Talks About A Referendum


Recently I posted a rant on Bubblews about Same Sex Marriage and how I believe it is inevitable that it will be legal someday regardless of all of the arguing back and forth.



Further Reading: 

All Photo are from Wikimedia Commons, or Flickr and contain a Creative Common's Licence



Copyright © 2013 Janelle Coulton