Same sex marriage.

Australia has ‘enjoyed’ a minority government with the balance of power being held by self styled independent members and the Australian Greens party. This has allowed legislation to be suggested that would not normally make it to the floor of the chamber. Legislation to allow homosexual marriages is being promoted very loudly. This is popular with the Labor and Green parties as some prominent male and female members have homosexual relationships.

Some words seem to have come into disrepute or have had their meaning altered over the years and so I think it’s important to see how the Oxford Dictionary defines just what homosexual and marriage means:
Homosexual
 Adjective
    Sexually attracted to people of one’s own sex.
    Involving or characterized by sexual attraction between people of the same sex: homosexual desire
Noun
    A person who is sexually attracted to people of their own sex.

Marriage
Noun
    1 (a) The formal union of a man and a woman, typically as recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife: she has three children from a previous marriage
    [mass noun] The state of being married: women want equality in marriage
    1 (b) (in some jurisdictions) A union between partners of the same sex.

    2 A combination or mixture of elements: her music is a marriage of funk, jazz, and hip hop

As you can see, the term homosexual can refer to either sex and it makes the terms gay and lesbian quite redundant. Imagine instead of the ‘Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras’ we could just as accurately use the ‘Sydney Homosexual Mardi Gras’. The stigma associated with the word homosexual probably comes from when homosexuality was illegal, and still is illegal in about 70 of the 195 countries of the world. A statistical sample of the Australian population was made in 2003 and 5% to 10% admitted to being in a homosexual relationship. The discrepancy in the figures was caused by some people insisting that they were bi-sexual and not really homosexual.

The Australian Parliament (upper and lower house) has 226 members which statistically suggest that 23 should be in same sex relationships. What are the mathematical odds that 3 of the 23 should be senior members of Parliament?

The advocates of same sex marriage have become very loud and not one but two bills have been put to Parliament, one from Throsby MP Stephen Jones, and a more popular bill tendered by the Green Party (the then leader of the Green Party, Bob Brown, is in a same sex relationship). The argument is based on human rights or ‘marriage equality’. A Senate enquiry has indicated that 36% of the Australian population opposes same sex marriage strongly. The inference that 64% approved was an obvious spin in misrepresenting the data. I actually took part in one of the surveys and was one of the many apathetic people who had no strong feelings either way.

The parliamentary number crunchers feel that a same sex marriage bill is unlikely to succeed especially if a conscience vote is allowed. Many MP’s have religious beliefs that only allow heterosexual marriages while others just don’t like being pushed into a ‘politically correct’ decision.

Whilst same sex marriages are being pursued with some intensity, we find that more and more heterosexuals are deliberately avoiding marriage for one reason or another. I personally believe marriage is essential to avoid children from the union being termed bastards; nobody likes being called a bastard. Perhaps in years to come all relationships will be acceptable, however there seems to be many years of bias to overcome. Well maybe not someone marrying their companion animal.

Those contemplating a self-indulgent lifestyle should look at some advice repeated throughout written history:
Euripides (c. 485-406 B.C.), Phrixus, fragment 970: "The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children."