Jon J, what is the fear you have that two same sex couples, will have the right under law to have their loving relationship recognised.
What affect will it have on your "Marriage or your "Relationship", as the argument that marriage is "Tradition"or an "Religous Act", has no historic base, other than tribal exploitation.
Your denial of this right, indicates that you accept gay people only on your terms, an attitude that is still reflected today in the world, with the stigma, brutality and murder that gay people live with daily

Jon J,
You say it’s a purely symbolic issue. Yet you also say this law reform requires a decision based on ‘logic, evidence and compassion’. I doubt it can be both. I suspect it’s largely symbolic, as I’m so far unimpressed with the logic coming from their side.

Traditional marriage in the West is based around an Old Testament precedent and ideal of the family construct. So those who want gay marriage must think highly of those “Bronze Age rules handed down by hypothetical deities” if they insist they wish to emulate them.

'Maybe it’s time to scrap the idea of marriage altogether in favour of Civil Contracts. '

Sure CHERFUL if you can't pervert it then scrap it. Makes a lot of sense.

Dan, do you want to explain how the legal institution of civil marriage with no-fault divorce, as practiced in 21st-Century Australia, has anything to do with Biblical strictures? It seems to me that it's merely an expression of the government's determination to meddle in the private lives of its citizens to its own advantage.

Well I for one don't "get it", Killarney.

>>Either people get it or they don't.<<

My understanding is not helped by sentences such as this one.

>>Once women have an equal say in, and control of, our means of cultural expression, I fully believe that this exploitation will greatly diminish.<<

How would you describe a woman's "means of cultural expression"? Could you give an example perhaps?

And in what sense do women not currently have "control" of it?

Any help you can provide would be most welcome.

And Dan S de Merengue, are you absolutely sure about this?

>>Traditional marriage in the West is based around an Old Testament precedent and ideal of the family construct.<<

Which particular precedent did you have in mind when you wrote this?

Polygamy seems to have been relatively common, as did concubinage. How is this an "ideal of the family construct"?

I can not see how any bloke who had been married for more than a couple of months, could even consider living with 2 wives. The mere thought sends shudders down any sane spine.

Hang on a minute, I recall a recent report on this. Our middle eastern breathern have the 2Nd, 3Rd etc "wives" claim single parenthood. This way they get a second & even a third lot of public housing, & even more welfare.

Hell, if I only had to visit then a couple of times a week, even I could handle it.

Roll on polygymy.