vanna,
I do Not demonise all fathers; I do Not demonise many fathers. I am one.

I just call a space a spade - I just call the deadbeats who ignore their kids .. deadbeats.

I do Not attack heterosexual marriage - I am in one.

Children are Not born artificially through IVF, though they might be conceived artificially. Do get your facts, terminology, context, and emphasis right, please.

CKMurray,
You make a lot of good points. However Gays want equal rights in acceptance by religious schools and Churches etc. To argue a case on discrimination and gain that right that they are equally married and can have children even as heterosexuals they can infiltrate such without being denied access.

The same-sex 'marriage' activists use the same tactics as the pro-anthropogenic-global-warming activists -- they loudly promote their assertions but deride or ignore the research that disproves their case.

Nothing new here and certainly nothing convincing. Tell me your opinion and I'll find the research to support it. The Google generation...

Some thoughts:
i) Just because someone believes something, it doesn't mean everyone else has to as well. Flowing on from that, it also doesn't mean that someone against it is automatically a denier, sceptic, " "aphobe, etc.
ii) Even among the homosexual community there seems to be differing opinions as to what people actually want.
iii) Marriage needs some definition, so we are all talking about the same thing.

My personal view is that I do not think same sex marriage is the right thing for children. From the fairly small sample of families I have seen in my role as an educator, the children are not as well adjusted as Mr Groome would suggest. Only a small sample, but interesting all the same.

Raycom you and vanna have ample opportunity to present links to credible research which proves your point.

Go for it. The not seen any reason yet to believe that same sex couples are going to do better or worse than most hetrosexual couples as parents. There are are advantages to having parents with different strengths and weaknesses but nothing about hetrosexual marriage requires one parent to be good at fixing things or being good in the kitchen or any other gender stereotypes nor is there any rule that requires either or both people in a same sex relationship to conform to their genders stereotypes.

None of the arguments I've seen against gay parents stand up against the real world. Great against some mythical 50's family image but not in the day to day lives of real people.

R0bert

As CKMurray points out, we have statistics to show that gay couples are just as good at parenting as heterosexual couples -- if not better, since they are likely to have given a lot more thought to the deliberate choice to have children. But where are the statistics to show that marriage is better than de facto coupling? Or indeed that coupling is better than tripling, or quadrupling?

I do find it a little sad that so many people seem to accept that the church and/or state has any legitimate role in our private lives whatsoever. Crimes against children (or anyone else) should of course be prevented; but to pretend that any one cohabitational arrangement will automatically achieve that and that all the others don't is simply nonsense on stilts.

Happier parents make for happier children. And people who are allowed and encouraged to live however and with whomever they want are generally happier, better-adjusted and a lot nicer to their children and everyone else. Let's fight for the government to pull out of personal relationships altogether.