Marriage - We won!

On Friday August 13, the federal senate passed into law the Marriage Amendment Bill 2004. Now our courts cannot change the definition of marriage away from "a man and a woman". We have been looking forward to this day.

.12, 500 or more submissions were received by the senate inquiry into the slightly longer, slightly older Marriage Legislation Amendment Bill 2004, most submissions for the heterosexual definition of marriage.

Well over a thousand people attended a National Forum in Canberra on August 4, visibly moving John Howard and Labor's Nicola Roxon.

PM announced at the National Marriage Forum that he intended to re-introduce the shorter marriage bill within two weeks and opposition attorney general Nicola Roxon stated that Labor would support it.

"Twenty-one Reasons Why Marriage Matters" booklet was launched.

Our efforts to get a marriage bill introduced and passed began last year with great insights and thoughtful negotiations, particularly by Richard Egan, Western Australian President of the NCC. The pace over June and July, the letters, phone calls, submissions and the National Marriage Forum, the refusal to accept politicians' promises, only delivered results, has paid off.

On the forecast are a possible High Court challenge and moves to legislatively create "civil unions" to give homosexual unions the analogous recognition of marriage.

Legislatively creating "civil unions" is one step short of changing the definition of marriage, and would achieve much of the same damage.

Socially, Australia is seeing a process of making homosexuality acceptable and glamorized in the media.

However, as with the Northern Territory euthanasia victory, our political success puts us in a place where we can, much, much better combat moves to pull down marriage legally and socially.