The marriage legislation amendment bill

Bill Muehlenberg

Both of the Government's Marriage Amendment Bills passed the House of Representatives. However, the first version, which also included a ban on overseas adoption by homosexual couples, was referred by the Senate to an Inquiry. The second simplified version of the Bill which dealt only with defining marriage, was not dealt with by the Senate. It is important that everyone write to the Senators in their own states asking them to support the Government Marriage Amendment Bill. Helpful information below.

QUICK FACTS ON MARRIAGE

• Almost every culture throughout human history has had a recognizable form of marriage.
• Marriages existed even before states acknowledged or regulated them.
• Marriage is both a public act and a social institution.
• Marriage is not just a purely private or personal arrangement
  The institution of marriage has always had two main purposes A public recognition and regulation of human sexuality between a man and a woman and a socially recognised means by which children are brought into the world and cared for.
• Marriage has always been about a sexual relationship between one adult man and one adult woman.
• Marriage discriminates: 7 year olds cannot marry; three men cannot marry; a brother and a sister cannot marry.
• Marriage confers tremendous benefits to the rest of society, so societies have always conferred benefits upon married
  couples.
• Married couples are subject to special favors because they bring to society special responsibilities.
• Other types of relationships are just liaisons.

Many others want the benefits of marriage without the corresponding duties and obligations.

• Marriage is not just about love between people. Love can exist outside of a marriage: a brother can love a sister, a son can love a father, a girl can love a cat. But marriage is a special kind of love: a life-long commitment, publicly acknowledged, with the possibility of procreation.
• Love does not keep a marriage together; it is marriage that keeps love together.
• When we demean or trivialise the idea of marriage, it makes it harder for individual marriages to last the distance.
• In some ways marriage is a fragile institution which needs constant social support and assistance.
• That is, while women tend to naturally bond with their offspring, men need more help bonding with their wife and their children. Marriage provides that help.

Homosexual "marriage"

By equating any and all types of liaisons with marriage, we effectively abolish both the idea and the meaning of marriage. The same arguments used to justify same-sex marriages can be used to justify polygamy, incest, bestiality, group sex, and so on. Once the fundamental idea of marriage as one man and one woman is tossed out, any and all types of sexual activity become permissible. Homosexuals comprise a very small portion of Australian society, and homosexuals who want to marry make up an even smaller number. The real aim of campaigning for same-sex marriage is the symbolic approval and social recognition of the homosexual lifestyle. Most homosexuals admit that their understanding of marriage differs from the normal heterosexual understanding, with the willingness to allow extra­ marital sexual outlets.

THE FACTS ON SAME-SEX ADOPTION RIGHTS

• It is abundantly clear from the social science research that children are best served when raised with their biological mother and
  father.
• For the best outcomes for children, no other parenting combination comes close to that of the mother-father union cemented by
  marriage.
• No one has a "right" to children.
• Every child has a right to a mother and a father.
• A child needs a father, not just "male role models".
• A child needs a mother, not just "female role models".
• A child needs to see how men and women interact and relate to each other on a daily basis.
• Long-term homosexual relationships tend to be very rare.
• In contrast, heterosexual relationships have a much better record of permanency.
• Most homosexual relationships allow for other partners and/or other sexual outlets.
• In contrast, heterosexual liaisons involve fewer outside partners and fewer outside sexual contacts.
• The fact that heterosexual relationships may not always last, or may not always be faithful, does not mean we should further harm
  our children by including homosexual couples. Two wrongs do not make a right.
• Studies purporting to show that children do OK when raised by same-sex parents have been criticized for many methodological
  shortcomings. Studies also exist showing the harm children experience when raised in same-sex households.
• These studies also show that children raised in same-sex house­ holds are more likely to become homosexual themselves.
• The rights of children should always come ahead of the desires and whims of adults.
• Children should not be treated as guinea pigs in grand social experiments.
• Many other groups are denied adoption rights: those who are too young or too old, those with criminal records, etc.
• The family unit of mother-father-child has been the norm through­ out human history and should not be jettisoned for radical alter­ natives.
• For the sake of our children, we should reject same-sex adoption rights.