These quotes sums it up
'Paula Ettelbrick, the former legal director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, has stated, "Being queer is more than setting up house, sleeping with a person of the same gender, and seeking state approval for doing so....Being queer means pushing the parameters of sex, sexuality, and family, and in the process transforming the very fabric of society."

'Former homosexual William Aaron explains why even homosexuals involved in "committed" relationships do not practice monogamy:

In the gay life, fidelity is almost impossible. Since part of the compulsion of homosexuality seems to be a need on the part of the homophile to "absorb" masculinity from his sexual partners, he must be constantly on the lookout for [new partners]. Consequently the most successful homophile "marriages" are those where there is an arrangement between the two to have affairs on the side while maintaining the semblance of permanence in their living arrangement.[56]
The evidence is overwhelming that homosexual and lesbian "committed" relationships are not the equivalent of marriage. In addition, there is little evidence that homosexuals and lesbians truly desire to commit themselves to the kind of monogamous relationships as signified by marriage. What remains, then, is the disturbing possibility that behind the demands for "gay marriage" lurks an agenda of undermining the very nature of the institution of marriage.'
http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=18936

I agree with the author's comment that 'the Rudd Government should stop pandering to them [the religious right] and do what is morally required and legally mandated under international human rights law by providing a national civil union law ....'

Here is a real leadership test for our Prime Minister. Rudd can take heart from the Spanish people who re-elected a Prime Minister who recognised the need to assert human rights over religious dogma based on ancient superstition and delusions. Despite the vehement opposition of the Pope and churches around Spain, the Spanish people have shown everyone that they were ready to move on from dogma and support gay marriage. Israel's Knesset recently a passed an anti-discriminatory law on adoption rights. Both countries leaders have courage and principle. Rudd would find the same reception in Australia, given the overwhelming public support.

By way of contrast, look no further than George W Bush and his socially conservative fellow travellors in Australia: Howard, Andrews, Abbott, Heffernan and their conservative counterparts in the Labor Party. Their goal is to give respect and deferance to the biblical sanctions in the Holy Books, imposing unchanging BC values on the modern era (lest God smite our God fearing people with the same fate as the good folk of Soddom and Gommorah who had the double misfortune of destruction by seismic action, and perhaps a worse fate, forever blamed by orthodox Jews, fundamentalist Muslims and Christians for stirring God's wrath over their divergent but amorous physical activities). The true believers use the same holy text to justify extreme violence from stoning gay people to savage beatings and imprisonment.

We saw Rudd's somewhat understandable me-tooism to avoid another desperate Howard wedge. But that era of opposition politics is thankfully over. Now is a perfect time for Rudd's own statement of which principles are prime.

Does Rudd subscribe to the basic principles that underpin international human rights law by providing a national civil union law or equality under the Marriage Act, or will he be keen to pass the biblical litmus test of the religious right?

Runner,how many heterosexual partnerships do you know of where their is no infidelity.Have a look at the divorce rate for goodness sake.I know of none.Why do you assume that gay marriages would be any different?I know of gay relationships that are still going strong after 30 years or more.We are all human and all have the same desire,just some of us fancy different or the same sex partners.I have been married three times to members of the opposite gender.Leave others to sort out their sexuality and don't pass judgement.If society wasn't so judgemental maybe some of these same sex marriages or partnerships would last longer.Until you have walked a mile in their shoes etc, etc.

Why does it always have to be 'religious nuts' who are against homsexuality and other sexual perversions?

I am not the slightest bit religious, but I am very much against the unnatural behaviour of homsexuals and totally against same sex 'unions', as I have made very clear in the past.

Runner and Leigh. My partner and I of 33 years, see that neither of you make comment that my partner and I financially subsidize both of you.

As we do not receive near 100 government benefits that you can enjoy.

You both make out to be moralists, surely even you two must see the immorality there!

I'm past trying to argue with the sad homophobes of this forum - religious or otherwise. They're annoyed that they've totally lost the battle, which was never worth fighting anyway. They'll go the way of Howard and the dinosaurs soon enough.

I think Wayne's unstated point is that marriage is a rather ridiculous idea these days. People don't have to marry to live and be together, and as they get all the attendant rights, (straight) couples can merely say 'Why bother?'. They seem to get married these days when they're ready to have children, or when they're sick of being asked about it!

Marriage has become an optional piece of paper.

Partnerships obligations and rights might be more respected if they had to be earned, not claimed on a drunken night in Vegas a la Britney Spears. You should be able to prove that you have financial interdependence, wills etc before the state will recognise your relationship.

A quick anecdote will show you the ridiculousness of the current situation. Military pensions can pass to an opposite-sex spouse on death. There are women who haunt nursing homes to marry aged male veterans, and there is one woman who apparently now claims THREE military pensions thanks to men she's married on their death beds. However, the same-sex partners of veterans who can prove decades of interdependence currently get NOTHING.

So, spend your whole life together and get nothing, but a gold-digger who is eligible for a piece of paper can hit the jackpot.

Wayne - you were, by far, my favourite lecturer and you still rock.