What do we as Australians really think of homosexuals couples being able to validate theyre union in the eyes of God and society.?

Are we as a community ready willing and able to embrace gay marriage as the real deal?

Would we accept the right of gay men and women to raise children ?Should they be seen as role models for our younger generation of young gay men and women?

If we are all equal in the eyes of the church, why has it not been condoned and accepted by the Church and the Government thus far?

What do you think?

Being equal in the sight of God does not mean we have to condone all behaviour. If we allow same sex marriages why don't we also allow people to marry their pets? Those who practice sodomy might be able to convince many in and out of the church to accept their behaviour but will never get God to accept what is unnatural. You will need to make up your own god in order for this to be accepted. I thank God that many ex sodomites and lesbians have turned from their sin and receieved forgiveness from God. We forget that He is the Potter and we are the clay. I pity children who are raised without a mum and dad. We already see the tragic outcome of single parent children. That is not to say that many single parents are not doing a great job.

The reality is that dad, mum and the kids is a minority of Australian households. The majority of Australian children grow up in households headed by one of their natural parents - usually the mother.

We are all supposed to be equal in our society so I think its about time that the state recognised gay unions so that gays are not discriminated against in superannuation, pension and taxation responsibilities and entitlements.

I know a number of households where the children have elected to live with their gay parent and partner because the children thought that the gay parent could offer them better education opportunities and a more stable home environment. And I think they were right!

Whether God comes into it, depends on your religion and I am nominally a member of the third largest congregation in Australia. The Uniting Church was headed by a lesbian for a number of years and if she was good enough to be elected by her peers then that's good enough for me.

Thank you for this interesting and necessary topic, holyshadow.

Even though I am not an Australian, I am a permanent resident, so I’ll have a go.

You probably know that Holland is the only country in the world that has given the exact same right to same sex couples as to heterosexual couples including adoption of children or IVF for lesbians who want to start a family together.

As far as I know, there are no social problems and no harmful effects to children from same sex couples (SSC).
People who live in my mum’s street are homosexual couples with kids and they are no different from any other kids. They play happily together with other kids in the street and go to school together and their parents are also no different from other families except their sexual preference.
Being homosexual does not mean you cannot be good parents!
Their children do not receive less love just because their parents are of the same sex.

I can’t see why it should be such a problem in Australia- there is no problem if we don’t create one.

It is about time that people hassling homosexual people.

I think that if Australia were totally secular things will improve but unfortunately, the church interferes with government decisions.

I’m not sure that we are all equal in the eyes of the Church- if we were, then there wouldn’t be a problem with embracing SSM.
I believe it has something to do with reproduction- gays can't reproduce; or with wasting sperm.
We’ll have to get a good Christian into the discussion to explain what the problem is.

I believe that most religions including Christian and Islam have problems with homosexuality.

Runner,
marriage and relationships are about mutual consent and equality- pets do not understand marriage and therefore cannot give consent.
They are also a different species.
And homosexuality is natural too. It’s just a variation in nature and animals can be gay as well.
Again: homosexual people are no different to heterosexual people except their sexual preference.

holyshadow, what are your own thoughts on this?

Celivia,

I guess I could be somewhat biased as I have a brother who is gay.

I have lived with this dillemma for a long time now.

My brother struggles very much with being a gay man in a predominately heterosexual society.He speaks of bashings of gay pple by straight pple and is for the most part frightened of being found out, so he lives as an itinerant and never stays in one place for very long, as a result he has never made friends and mainly associates with homeless pple, who are for the most part accepting of everyone.

We as his family have tried to provide roots and an accepting family in which to grow, but that has not been very successful.Not all of us are accepting, myself not included and he semses this.

he is also very consciuos of the associattion that pple make about gay pple and children ie; pedophelia..some pple actually do believe it or not.

Runner the assertion that :
'single parent families are a tradgedy' is a generaliation that is very damaging in a forum such as this, for a minority yes, but I have a sister and her family is a unit we are very proud of, she is a single parent.
Im glad to see you corrected yourself.

You say homosexuality is a sin, well Im not sure that God or the Church would agree with you.

Have you noticed the amount of gay clerics , priests and bishops in the Church?

'Those who practice sodomy'..you say..well Im not sure that homosexuality is about a physical act, I believe it to be a state of mind or an orientation.

Gay pple fall in love and love and being gay has little to do with postion.Sodomy is only one way gay ple express themselves sexually and one that is rarely used.

I am time poor right now..contd.

No! won't ever happen! We aren't that americanised thats really the issue that the canadians think its ok but doesn't unionship really really actually keep couples together. No not in today's society with that large growth in devorses. We all know its 2006 but it will never happen and shouldn't happen i still to this day dont think that kids that grow up with same sex marriages "what what what" is what the kids going to trying to get there head round it is weird for us to even conjure up the thought so how the hell is a kid going to cope with understanding that!! I think they can do whatever they want behind closed doors but there comes a time when too much information is too much information and this shouldn't be debated full stop!