That is one fine article and should be read by all. My only slight complaint was about the many benefits of marriage. Could be true but there are other ways of viewing that when there is a very high percentage break down of marriages as no doubt there is with de facto relationships. This is too messy an area and not really pertinent except as a general statistic.

The idea of the bolstering of self-esteem that the availability of marriage to same-sex oriented people brings is the most important part of the same-sex marriage debate. It is often underreported, understated and hidden in rhetoric about procreation etc.

It is so easy to deny equality to others when not affected oneself.

Politicians should see the wrong being perpetrated in the name of religious scaremongering and change the laws immediately.

David

I wonder about the mental health effects on innocent children who now have to deal with adults telling them that they can marry a person of the opposite sex as well as a member of the same sex. They must be bewildered. How can they work out which is right for them?

Once upon a time it was easy. Most kids had a Mum and Dad, one female, one male. Now a small pressure group is trying to suggest that couples of the same sex can be married AND beget children and they are determined to change all the rules in society to suit them!

Spare a thought for children who learn in the first instance by imitation and don't have the intellectual skills or maturity to work out when they are being fed misinformation which could ruin their lives.

You forgot to mention that it should help bring down the cost of AIDS drugs.

You know, economy of scale, the more produced the cheaper each dose gets. The cheaper each dose of AIDS gets too, for the general community too I suppose

...Herein is more obvious diatribe from another neat and tidy homosexual pressure group, sprouting disproportionate noises, and intent on destroying an essential social norm which , as time passes, truth becomes obvious, the small pressure group disagree amongst themselves to the long-term benefits that are prescribed as essential by them, namely, marriage of homosexuals to each other.

...Homosexual marriage makes no sense to intelligent and honest folk, who find this whole gory subject too embarrassing to discuss, and consider themselves as correct to date in making concessions for homosexuals in main stream society, by giving them rights which ARE due to them in areas of employment equality and many other concessions, which flowed automatically from equal opportunity legislation of the recent past.

...What galls most descent folk is calls by organisations such as the AMA which put the medical profession generally, in a position to back-up nonsense being sprouted in this article by a very small group of homosexual activists, representing a minuscule 1% of the medical profession! The AMA should present data for public perusal, if they consider themselves to be expressing a representative view of the medical fraternity they purport to be representing overall!

...This group of overactive homosexuals reminds me of a time not too long ago, of another group who also sprouted nonsense to convince the majority of sensible Australians, that a republic was inevitable. They also proffered faulty data from suspect “polls” as evidence to their holy correctness. We are all very aware of the results of their gross lie!

...I am personally over this “lot” of overactive homosexual misfits, and wish them and their over-represented filth gone

Diver Dan,the republican referendum as you know, did not ask the populace of Australia to answer Yes or No to a Australia becoming a republic. Your hero John Howard just put forward a filibuster question.
Back to the essay, which you disagree with and that is your perogative, you may dislike gay people, though vitrolic comment towards gay people only demeans yourself.

>>I wonder about the mental health effects on innocent children who now have to deal with adults telling them that they can marry a person of the opposite sex as well as a member of the same sex. They must be bewildered. How can they work out which is right for them?<<

How can any of us work who is the right person to marry? I think you've just got to trust your heart on this one. I haven't found the right woman yet but I can't say I'm bewildered or mentally ill as a result.

>>Now a small pressure group is trying to suggest that couples of the same sex can be married AND beget children<<

Fail. A large section of the Australia is saying couples of the same sex should be able to get married. They already have equal rights when it comes to 'begetting' children :-)

>>Spare a thought for children who learn in the first instance by imitation and don't have the intellectual skills or maturity to work out when they are being fed misinformation which could ruin their lives.<<

If children learn their sexuality by imitating their parents then how is it possible that all these straight couples keep on having gay kids? Something else must be happening: the existence of gay children of straight parents proves that sexuality cannot be learnt through imitating parents. Maybe sexuality is just innate like eye colour and left-handedness. Maybe if straight parents can produce gay kids then gay parents can produce straight kids.

Cheers,

Tony