GPs: Marriage will lead to health risks

GPs: Marriage will lead to health risks

A group of 150 medical professionals have claimed same-sex marriage would negatively impact on people’s general health and potentially increase HIV rates.

In a submission to the recent Senate inquiry into same-sex marriage, the group Doctors For The Family said it was opposed to any change to the Marriage Act.

“Legislation of same-sex marriage will have significant ramifications that have been confirmed by research and events here and elsewhere,” the group said.

The submission stated that same-sex marriage would further “normalise” homosexual behaviour which would lead to health consequences. To illustrate their point, the group pointed to the higher rates of HIV and syphilis among men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) compared with heterosexuals.

National LGBTI Health Alliance general manager Warren Talbot said the claims were false.

“There’s obviously no intrinsic relationship between homosexuality and HIV status — globally HIV is a heteroseuxal pandemic,” Talbot told the Star Observer.

“It is a fact that in Australia and some other places, because the initial pool of infection was amongst MSM, that’s where the infections are going to be, but that has nothing to do with proving any intrinsic relationship between HIV status and homosexuality.”

Talbot said while he was concerned about the group’s views, he doesn’t believe their views were widespread in Australia’s medical community.

“I would be concerned that the 150 people who signed the submission [would not] treat an LGBTI person with the proper respect and dignity which all patients deserve,” he said.

“But Australia has 81,000 medical practitioners and I’m quite sure the 150 who’ve signed this submission are completely out of step with the Australian Medical Association, which has a very good policy on the acceptance of people with different sexual orientations and sexual diversity — so this group would be entirely out of step with the mainstream of the medical profession.”

In a submission to the same inquiry, the Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) said legalising same-sex marriage would, in fact, benefit the health of LGBT people.

“Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) populations experience significant health disadvantage,” AMSA said.

“Discrimination, including legislation that precludes marriage equality, is an important cause of the health inequities experienced by LGBTI populations.

“The issue of marriage equality affects the whole of society. Instituting marriage equality is an important measure to remove discrimination against LGBTI populations and improve the health of these groups.”

An AMA spokesman told the Star Observer the AMA does not have a position on same-sex marriage.

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27 responses to “GPs: Marriage will lead to health risks”

  1. I think it is horrific that the doctors exploited their status as medical men of society to distort medical facts and inject fear into a society that is on the cusp of legalising same sex marriage in order to cater to their homophobic views.

  2. That headline is a little misleading; “GPs: Marriage will lead to health risks” suggests that a broad swath of GPs are behind this submission, as opposed to the narrow group that is actually behind it. Surely most doctors don’t believe this nonsense.

  3. Probably the most ridiculous argument I’ve heard. How can they make such a dumb argument with a “straight” face? Pushing gay men back into the closet won’t help. Closeted bisexual men are often reluctant to prepare for encounters with condoms and lube and often have quick opportunistic sex, which is known to be more risky than carefully planned sexual encounters, and certainly more risky than intimacy with your married spouse.

  4. This is but another example of a religious groups trying to gain scientific legitimacy for their hateful beliefs. I don’t find it surprising that Robert Pollnitz is involved in this group. He’s already made a personal submission to the enquiry and joins this mob.

    As a health care professional, the science and research should be the key driving factor when considering what is right. The evidence that they quote in their report has a large amount from Professor Patrick Parkinson and the report he was commissioned to produce by the Australian Christian Lobby – Conflict of interest much???

    Furthermore, if anyone actually reads the report, they’d find sections that have a positive view of same sex couples.

    Doctors for family seems to be another front for the ACL.

  5. I would be very surprised if any of them had practical experience, research credentials, publication records or requisite qualifications in the areas of reproductive and sexual health, pediatrics or developmental psychology.

  6. I wish they would make up their minds. First we spread STI’s because of our loose sexual lifestyles. Amd now that we are stepping forward and activily condoning monogamus living, we are accused of Homo-normalising. When will these people lay aside their personal predjuces and stay out of our lives? Dont they have their own?

  7. What utter nonsense. Goes to show you cannot trust all doctors to be true to good science. Yes their names should be published so gay people can avoid them.

  8. Qualifications are not a required field on the petition on their homepage. Just another bunch of religious fools trying to undermine the seperation of church and state.

  9. Doctors? Really truly ACTUAL doctors ‘said’ this? How on earth is it feasible that people entering into committed relationships would somehow cause HIV to increase?!

    Absolutely barking. I’m disgusted that a group of ‘medical professionals’ could make such a statement when society has known — for years — that marriage = a reduction in STDs and other social ills.

    I guess the sort of marriage we envisage for ourselves doesn’t count.

  10. With the Christian Right, it usually helps to remember that they’re severely scientifically challenged. They usually try to maintain a shallow facade of ‘professional’ support for their causes through getting their very few professional members to impress the shallow and gullible through display of credentials.

    In reality though, even if these individuals do publish in professional journals, they are frequently at odds with mainstream professional opinion based on scientific evidence and research. These journals are not peer-reviewed and the methodology used is often faulty, consisting of inappropriate sample scales, short duration studies, inferential jumps that cannot be sustained from the piblished results, or ‘disciplinary’ imperialism, in which someone presumes to judge the theoretical frameworks and research methods of professional practises that they are not affiliated with.

    Most of these bozos originate from Britain or the United States, usually the latter. They share propaganda, strategy and tactics with one another on a regular basis. Their first loyalty is to their religious beliefs and they will warp and distort mainstream scientific and medical research and practise to ‘support’ their case.

  11. This article gave me a nasty flashback to a lesson from history. The first professionals recruited by Germany’s Nazi party were doctors.

  12. Dr Dunjey who the site is registered to, is a former Christian Democratic Party candidate and stood and lost in the 2004 election.

  13. oh GAWD that sounds DUMB!! where did they get these statistics from!?!?! (and no thats not actually a statistically valid topic – long story this is a quasi-experiment which means they are unable to state causality – which they seem to have done! ummmm) anyway! yeah that doesn’t sound accurate in the slightest it just seems like it was a bunch of idiots sitting in a circle and saying with what they think is logic ‘oh gay men have aids – if gay marriage makes gays normal then aids will be normal’ – the best way to get rid of aids is awareness and proper prevention methods – MSM are generally under a much more ‘back scene’ background than gay men, if gay marriage promotes LGBT normality – by the same logic (probably better logic actually) couldn’t one generally assume that if MSM turn into Gays or Bisexuals therefore being more mainstream and given wider and generally more acceptable methods to be informed and protecting against aids (ie, having sex in a bed with a condom instead of a nighttime park with prayers for protection), wouldn’t that in fact reduce HIV risk? *blah speil* armchair logic battled with airchair logic SNAP

  14. Yes, I thought so. This organisation has links to the Christian Right websites Mercatornet (Australia) and Lifesite News (Canada). Dr Peter Coleman may be associated with the fundamentalist “Christian Medical Fellowship”, based in the United Kingdom, while Dr Joseph Santamaria is one of the sons of the late Australian conservative Catholic stalwart BA Santamaria.

    In terms of the names of the individuals involved, they’re listed in the Senate Committee hearings on marriage equality, Submission 229. Someone needs to do heavy detective work on Google to see if any of them have previous ‘form’ in terms of Christian Right affiliations.

  15. One suspects that this is a front organisation for one of the larger Australian Christian Right pressure groups- possibly the National Civic Council, the Australian Christian Lobby or another such extremist pressure group. I’ll scoot off to their website and see if I can spot any identifying details.

  16. Clearly public health was not a big part of these people’s medical degrees. The prevailing consensus among medical and public health specialists in HIV is that increasing the human rights of LGBT populations and addressing stigma and discrimination will be good for HIV prevention since it will remove barriers to prevention and care.

    Incidentally, it is true that marriage is a risk factor for HIV in some parts of the world, but that is for women in heterosexual partnerships.

  17. I was informed that these doctors are all men of “faith”. Lol
    They are blinded by their bigotry, not their medicine.

  18. The battle is on! It’s homosexuality versus heterosexuality. David versus Goliath, and we know who wins!

  19. I am a doctor.

    I fully support legal marriage in the LGTBI community.

    I’ve had a look at the “doctors for the family” website and there is no identifying information on it or way to contact them. They have not provided any qualifications to verify they are even doctors. There are no references to evidenced based, peer reviewed data or papers to support their views.

    It concerns me that my colleagues would advertise such intolerant and bigoted views which fly in the face of any evidence based facts.
    Their views are certainly not those of the general medical population and it upsets me that they have used our title to promote them.

    I welcome any move towards gay marriage and look forward to the day the legislation is passed through parliment.

  20. This group needs to be deregistered immediately by the Federal Government. They are not using evidence based research, and are inventing fiction to support their evangelical cause. Do they pray away skin cancer, or let it grow untreated? Medicine should always be evidence based, not based on loopy ideas or the fanatical religious beliefs of some people. In Australia there are over 24,000 GP’s. The vast majority simply would never put their name to this notorious rubbish “Doctors for the Family”. So this group represents 0.625% of the total GP population. http://www.phcris.org.au/fastfacts/fact.php?id=6775

    In Germany not so long ago, some doctors also banded together to support a conservative Christian movement, the Nazi Party, saying similar rubbish about people of the Jewish Faith and those who had a disability. My husband is a Medical Director, and this group of fundamentalist would simply not find work at his hospital where Doctors work on evidence based medicine.

  21. I would like to know the personal background of each individual GP who joined this nonsense. Obviously they didn’t join this group from a professional point of view but from personal beliefs.

    Also, the acclaimed “[…] confirmed by research and events […]” has been demystified years ago. Demographics has disapproved this myth over and over again, data has been collected to disapprove this nonsense by simple facts.

    I would like to see this acclaimed “emperical research” and question each GP, take legal action for each GP to lose their license for promoting false facts driven by self beliefs and neglecting existing research.

  22. Where can I get a list of these doctor’s names? So I never make the mistake of visiting one.