This is the first time I think I've ever read IPA actually follow through on the social aspects of libertarian ideology, albeit with some timidity, and not just the economic ones. Social progressivism is usually the first causality in the usual Faustian bargain that goes on between ancaps/libertarians who support reactionary social and religious conservatives in order to get their economic prescriptions through.

Bravo!

I would like to see more of this, and in more visible fora too and maybe IPA can be taken seriously.

Mr Howard is right in not encouraging a lifestyle that is unhealthy, harmful and often ends in disaster. The hospitals have many people practicing this lifestyle with infectious diseases. Mr Howard should be applauded for his courage in trying to normalize something so abnormal. These people need help rather than encouragement to spread their message through society.

Runner. " These people" are first class Australian tax payers, why should they be treated as second class Australian citizens.

You appear not to be living in civilised Australia, but in a vacuum of ignorance!

Would you care to break with tradition, Runner, and offer some evidence to back your claim? Do you have any basis for stating that there are more homosexuals than heterosexuals in hospital with infectious diseases?

If John Howard thought it would help him get re-elected he would pass legislation to legalise gay marriage tomorrow.

Unfortunately he needs the 8-9% runner vote.

"The hospitals have many people practicing this lifestyle with infectious diseases."

Where did this get this amazing statistic from Runner? And exactly which infectious diseases are you referring to?

From my experience within the health care system, the majority of people in hospital suffering infection have, in fact, become infected with hospital born bacteria such as Golden staph.

Perhaps Runner, you're reliving the past where gay patients suffering full blown AIDS were (mainly through ignorance) keep in isolation wards at certain hospitals. This was in a time when the virus causing AIDS was not fully understood. Since then, it's branched into the general community who continue to pass it on through infected syringes and poor sex health standards and I'm not talking about gays and prostitutes either.

Runner, do you believe that only gay people are capable of transmitting infectious diseases? Ok, they're both of the same biological sex, but otherwise, how is their lives different from heterosexual couples? Perhaps you mistakenly believe that heterosexual couples are not immune to having affairs behind their partners backs?