Fine, Gary. I won't call your opposition homophobic. I'll just call it C*^&servative and tyrannical. Because that's what policies and people who only care about their own civil rights genuinely are.

There is no such thing as “same-sex marriage”, just as there is no such thing as “carnivorous vegetarianism”. Claiming gays are discriminated against because marriage has one meaning and not another is as silly as claiming that funerals discriminate against the living because you have to be dead to have one. That opinion polls show such support for “same-sex marriage” show how easy it is to manipulate public opinion with a few well-chosen slogans, such as “marriage equality”, lies, such as the claim that gays are not already allowed to marry, and phony framing of questions, such as should same-sex marriage be legalised, when it is not illegal but non-existent and therefore cannot be legalised. The media and corporate worlds have fallen into line. Labor has caved in despite being totally in favour of marriage in 2004 when it supported the insertion of the common law definition into the Marriage Act to forestall activist judges redefining the word. The High Court, even though it was not asked to do so, has amended the Constitution by deciding that the word “marriage” in it does not mean “marriage” as it did for the 113 years it had been in there but something else entirely. Those who speak up are called names and abused in order to intimidate them into silence. Those who did not give a damn about the non-issue in 2000, 1990, 1980, 1970, 1960 or 1950 and who joined the bandwagon only last week freely condemn those who have not. In case all these manoeuvres do not work, the would-be word thieves drag the logical thinkers before thought police tribunals. The whole thing is the most absurd non-issue to be taken seriously in my lifetime. It proves you can con people into anything at all if you put it the right way.

Wow, Chris. I guess by that logic, cancer patients get special rights since you aren't allowed to have chemo or radiation therapy without the dreaded Big C.

Besides, marriage is a civil institution as much as it is a religious one. And in modern society, we should learn to live and let live.

Your hypocrisy on this issue is as heinous as that perpetrated by the anti end-of-life choice community. To be consistent, we would have to deny all their members access to pain relief, INCLUDING sunscreen and surgery.

The takeaway is that in increasingly diverse countries, centralised programs on health, education and social issues don't seem to work.

Strage? Safe schools was perfectly fine when rolled out and fully funded by the (inclusive, ha, ha, he, he, ho, ho, oh my aching ribs) Abbott Government!
Rhrosty.

AyameTan:

"Besides, marriage is a civil institution as much as it is a religious one. And in modern society, we should learn to live and let live."

Marriage is not an institution at all - it is a relationship. You can be married without having anything to do with government all you have to do is change the definition of marriage to make it a private agreement between the two people involved. Many people have this type of relationship and are quite content for it to have nothing to do with institutional government or religion.