Recent News Demonstrating Same-Sex Marriage for Australia

To start with The American Psychological Association has recently released a press release that addresses concerns I have seen been raised in some debates on voting against marriage equality for same-sex couples;

“There is no scientific basis for the assertion that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons are not fit to marry or to become parents of healthy and well-adjusted children (Herek, 2006; Kurdek, 2004; Peplau & Fingerhut, 2007).”

“Children raised by same-sex couples are equivalent in their psychological adjustment, cognitive abilities, and social functioning to children of heterosexual partners (Fulcher et al., 2006; Tasker, 2005).”

These families with same-sex parents deserve the same social, legal and religious protections offered to them that other families have access to, and it is the current laws that deny them these same rights which creates and enforces inequality on these families. As demonstrated by the APA, same-sex couples are just as capable as raising children as every other family out there.

And it’s not just for children with same-sex couples. My mother wants to see all her children be treated equally – just as she raised us – but the current laws deny her the chance to see all her children being given the opportunity to marry. As the law currently stands her son is seen as inferior in the eyes of the law compared to her other children as he is not allowed to marry the man he loves.

The APA findings also makes comment about the emotional, mental, social benefits that legalising and recognising same-sex marriage would provide, and that current laws are harmful to gay and lesbian couples, families and individuals because of the inequality it creates. If you’d prefer to read the APA press release directly I have included the link.

Also important are the religious freedoms of churches that are also currently being restricted and denied to support and solemnise these unions. The current law as it stands denies these groups those rights, whereas legalising same-sex marriages allows groups that support or oppose it the religious freedom to decide whether they want to or not, as per the suggestion of Federal MP Andrew Wilkie.

Reverend Bill Crews of the Uniting Church in Sydney summed the issue up better than I can;

“It seems to me that in a secular and non discriminatory society gay couples should be as free to marry as any other human couple,” he adds. “If people wish to be married within a religious or spiritual institution’s framework then they should accept the rites and rules of that institution. However it is the state that legitimises all marriages.”

Independent polling continues to find that the majority of Australians support marriage equality, with the latest Herald/Nielsen poll this month showing that “62 per cent of voters support legalising same-sex marriage.”

ALP member and MP Penny Wong wrote a great editorial of why marriage equality is important and why a conscience vote doesn’t fit with the ALP Party;

“Our party’s belief in justice and fairness was forged in the experience of working people, but has grown to encompass the aspiration of equality for so many Australians. It is Labor governments which finally abolished the White Australia Policy; which legislated against discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, age and disability; and a Labor prime minister who first spoke to both the men and women of Australia. It is this Labor government that removed discrimination against same-sex couples in more than 80 areas of the law – reforms of which I am deeply proud.

This heritage is consistent with my view that a conscience vote should not be Labor’s answer to the calls for equality within the party and the wider community.”

Laws changed to ensure marriage equality would have a wide range of benefits to the community, particularly the legal, social, and religious protections that come with it to the couples (and extending to their families, friends, and children), and to deny it seems unfair particularly when public opinion, a growing number of religious organisations, scientific, medical, and social studies continue to demonstrate that there’s nothing wrong with same-sex couples and their families.

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