New Zealand gives me hope

Last week New Zealand's House of Representatives passed approval for same-sex marriage in that country, to take effect on 19 August. That's encouraging in its own right, but there have also been a couple of awesome videos to come out of the process.

The first is of National Party MP Maurice Williamson giving an impassioned and funny speech on why the bill should pass:

Wikipedia refers to it as the "'Big gay rainbow' speech," which is awesome. From what I've read the National Party seems to toe a pretty similar line to Republicans in the US, and yet here's one of their MPs fervently advocating marriage equality. It at once gives me hope for politics on the whole and makes me even more weary of how things happen here in the States.


The second video comes from after the bill passes, and is even more remarkable. It may sound like something out of a movie (and a rather cheesy one at that) but the chamber honestly erupts into song after the final tally is read. And outside of a movie it becomes really quite moving rather than cheesy:

The song is apparently Pokarekare Ana, a hundred-year old Māori love song that's well-loved in New Zealand. According to Wikipedia, the lyrics are:

The waves are breaking, against the shores of Waiapu,
My heart is aching, for your return my love.
Oh my beloved girl, come back to me, I could die of love for you.
I have written you a letter, and enclosed with it my ring,
So your people could see how much I'm troubled for you.
Oh my beloved girl, come back to me, I could die of love for you.
My poor pen is broken, my paper is spent,
But my love for you endures, and remains forever more.
Oh my beloved girl, come back to me, I could die of love for you.
The sun's hot sheen, won't scorch my love,
Being kept evergreen, by the falling of my tears.
Oh girl, come back to me, I could die of love for you.

I wish that politics in the United States had anywhere near this amount of passion and humanity.