""That's just the way it's always been" isn't a reason for maintaining an inequality in society."

What inequality?
Perhaps the notion of equating the sexually intimate relationship of a man and a woman with the sexually intimate relationships of man and man and woman and woman is the real inequality.

Recently on the ABC it was stated that the assaulting of homosexuals was on the increase and Melbourne police are currently hunting the perpetrators of just such an attack, according to tonight's ABC News.

The can of worms?

//Slavery was never a tradition, never widespread much less a universal building block of society in the UK and rigorously opposed from the date of it's adoption, that's why it lasted barely 200 years.//

From wkipedia:

//Slavery can be traced back to the earliest records, such as the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1760 BC), which refers to it as an established institution. Slavery is rare among hunter-gatherer populations, as it is developed as a system of social stratification. Slavery was known in civilizations as old as Sumer, as well as almost every other ancient civilization. The Byzantine-Ottoman wars and the Ottoman wars in Europe resulted in the taking of large numbers of Christian slaves. Similarly, Christians sold Muslim slaves captured in war and also the Islamic World was engaged in slavery throughout its history. Slavery became common within the British Isles during the Middle Ages. Britain played a prominent role in the Atlantic slave trade, especially after 1600.//

Full article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery

//Perhaps the notion of equating the sexually intimate relationship of a man and a woman with the sexually intimate relationships of man and man and woman and woman is the real inequality.//

Perhaps. And then again, perhaps not.

//Recently on the ABC it was stated that the assaulting of homosexuals was on the increase and Melbourne police are currently hunting the perpetrators of just such an attack, according to tonight's ABC News.

The can of worms?//

Worms are fascinating creatures that cause no harm to human beings. Lowlife thugs who go out poofter-bashing thirty years after it became unfashionable are clearly such slow learners that it pains me to think that we're the same species. I've met a lot of dogs smarter than poofter-bashers. Come to think of it, I've met some worms that are smarter than poofter-bashers.

Violence is not going to stop because same sex marriage becomes law. I suspect it may rise, as more come out into the open. Murder does not decrease because it is considered criminal, even as assault does not cease because it is a criminal offence. Law does not change attitude it sometimes aggravates some into criminal action.

Young boys will always bully the one different to themselves. Law will not change basic attitude.

Jay of Melbourne,

So your reasoning as to why same-sex marriage can only be a pseudo-marriage is because heterosexual marriage is a basic building block of society? Since when has the state of being a basic building block of society been a determinant for the validity of marriage? You’re very much a Natural Law, Formalism kinda guy, aren’t you. Two very discredited and unreliable philosophies of law and ethics.

Marriage is whatever society deems it to be, and while a large minority may disagree with it now, one day kids will learn about opposition to it like they learn about segregation. They're already bewildered by its opposition. By the way, marriage and family units have taken many different forms throughout history and there is nothing to suggest that same-sex marriage will detract from what we have now. There is, however, an abundance of evidence to suggest that equality is always beneficial for society and that inequality is always detrimental.

So what if same-sex marriage only appeared in public discourse and political platforms recently? That says nothing about the rightness or wrongness of it, and nor does it suggest that “it's always been about recognition of alternative lifestyles and special treatment for special groups.”

And what “special treatment”, by the way? What's so "special" about being treated equally? Do you really see them as so inferior that you think they should count their lucky stars in the event that we “allow them” to marry?

As for the NZ saga, there is no new form of discrimination. There would be nothing preventing two heterosexual people getting married if they really wanted to. The issue was the mockery that it made. Similar concerns have arisen regarding that Married at First Sight show.

Marriage has supposed to have been about love for the last few hundred years. You are harking back to its origins when you talk of shelter and siring. Either way, it’s origins are not a reason for objecting to same-sex marrige (and Toni Lavis just finished mentioning the Appeal to Tradition fallacy). Perhaps gay people are more advanced than us?

Oh please, Is Mise ...

<<Perhaps the notion of equating the sexually intimate relationship of a man and a woman with the sexually intimate relationships of man and man and woman and woman is the real inequality.>>

… enlighten us as to how that could possibly be the case. And please don't give us any baloney about how when you got married, you did so in the understanding that marriage would only ever be between a man and a woman.

I don't know how the increase of assaults on gay people supports the idea that the push for same-sex marriage is opening a can of worms. Are you honestly saying that if the gay community didn't start this push, then the assaults wouldn't be on the rise? Talk about victim blaming. If anything is helping to feed the violence against gays, then it is the attitudes of the anti-same-sex-marriage lot.

//Violence is not going to stop because same sex marriage becomes law.//

Really? Gosh, here was I expecting that as soon as one tiny change was made to the Australian marriage act we would see a sense of love and peace and fraternity embrace the whole world, and that man would lay down arms against his fellow man and all have a big group hug.

Thank the powers that be that we have the Great Prophet Josephus to dispel such naive fantasies.

//Young boys will always bully the one different to themselves.//

In my experience this is true. But usually, they grow out of it.

God save us from slow learners.