not too much

Although same-sex marriage has never been recognised in Australia, Prime Minister Howard has argued that it might be one day if the courts were to interpret marriage as something other than between a man and a woman. The opposition Labor party has supported Government legislation to achieve this. But it has not explained how a ban on gay marriage would serve to strengthen traditional marriage. It is noteworthy that one of Australia's best newspapers, The Age, argued in its editorial of 10 August that the ban promotes intolerance.

It can be argued that banning gay marriage undermines family values because it denies the ultimate expression of commitment to homosexual couples. Certainly the ban will fan intolerance, and that is a most potent reason for not proceeding with it. If the Parliament must vote on the issue (and there appears to be no pressing reason for the legislation) it would best be decided by conscience vote rather than by party directive. It appears Labor may have agreed to the ban in order to neutralise it as an issue before the election. If so, this is cynical politics that weakens the society our parliamentarians are meant to serve.

The Labor Party has swung to where its sees there are votes. They would have little chance of of my vote, but for the fact that the alternative is worse. Labor has promised changes to tax, superannuation, family and immigration laws to remove discrimination against gays and lesbians. But can they be trusted to do this?The legislation may possibly be be unconstitutional and a High Court challenge is possible. This is the first time in Australian history that a law has been changed to deliberately limit the rights of gay and lesbian people. The bill was pushed through the Senate using a guillotine (time limit) for the first time in years, and passed 38 votes to seven.Australian Democrats sexuality spokesman Brian Greig said it was deeply offensive for anti-gay campaigners to argue that love and commitment between gay people was less or different to that between people of the opposite sex. Greens leader Bob Brown accused the Prime Minister of "hate legislating" and refused to apologise when the Senate president described his words as unparliamentary language.I'm not sure how to respond to all this -- something between resignation and anger.