The survey should come in at 50-50 . Libs will blame Labor for Rudd-Gillard carbon credit damage to Budget and Labor will blame Malcolm for being PM, Greens will go to UN for research on gay whales, P Hanson will deny the plane was a gift and the ABC will do a special report on the response to the survey in Qld schools to be attached to a Bill for gay colours on Qantas planes leading to amendments to Marriage Act in the 2024 elections after debate in Q & A.

//Ok, so if we do get a 'yes vote' could this then lead to our schools being forced to refrain from using the words 'Mum and Dad' to be replaced by say 'your parents' or 'your carers'?//

It could: as far as I can see, it does not break any of the laws of nature. Therefore, it is possible.

But that doesn't tell you much. Possible covers everything from the infinitesimally improbable to the almost entirely certain. But it's not of much interest to bookkeepers and other probability nerds. What are the odds of a certain outcome? In easily expressed ratios? That's all the punters are interested in.

//I'm afraid you are wrong when you state that family dynamics don't effect children's outcomes as long as they are caring.//

Funny, all your studies seem to be about children raised without fathers... looks a bit like cherry-picking. Why the fixation on fathers?

What about children raised without mothers? Orphans? Children raised in traditional kibbutzim?

Have you considered the possibility that some kids are better off without their biological fathers? Some fathers are wife-beaters. Some fathers hit their kids as well. And the very worst of the worst rape them... children are much more likely to be raped by family member than a stranger, and most child rapists are men.

And this is where we get the phrase 'lies, damned lies, and statistics'. Because they're easy to twist to suit one's rhetoric.

I don't mind a bit of statistics: it's fine when you're doing thermodynamics. But I'm often sceptical about the way they are used in the soft sciences, and the way that subsequently filters through into rhetoric.

I think when it comes to the soft sciences, fixating on the mean does more harm than good: there is no perfectly average person, that's just a sociologist's wet dream. These are people we're dealing with, not numbers: forget the statistics and deal with people on a case-by-case basis.

//Sometimes love is not enough.//

And sometimes the degree of relation is not enough.

"What about children raised without mothers? Orphans?"

There would be oranges and sunshine,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8014953/Oranges-and-Sunshine-Emily-Watson-stars-in-child-migrant-scandal-film.html

I would use studies on children's without mothers but there are very few of them, probably because missing fathers are so much more common than missing mothers.
Foxy, I suggest you reread what I wrote. I didn't say studies about children raised in same sex homes, I said children raised without fathers.
You also ignored my comments about evidence from children of gay families who have expressed their deep anguish at being deliberately denied access to one biological parent. Also the program on sperm donors.
All this talk about all you need is love also totally ignores the fact that the level of domestic violence is just as high, and in some places higher in same sex relations than in opposite sex relationships and the breakdown rate in relationships is just as high.
So, as well as being denied one biological parent, a child in a same sex household has the same, if not higher chance of living in a dysfunctional home anyway.

//I would use studies on children's without mothers but there are very few of them//

... and? It's not like a small sample size has bothered you before.

You can't compare apples with turnips just because it makes the numbers look better.

//I said children raised without fathers.//

Because you like picking cherries.

//All this talk about all you need is love also totally ignores the fact that the level of domestic violence is just as high, and in some places higher in same sex relations than in opposite sex relationships and the breakdown rate in relationships is just as high.//

You really didn't get the point of my last past on the tyranny of the average, did you dear?

Forget your sociology and worry about people instead.

Dear Big Nana,

Please supply us with evidence to support
your claims.

Thank You.