Do unto others

Do unto others

It’s a bit rich for the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) to dismiss research commissioned by LGBTI rights advocates as tainted and then expect the public to accept research that they commission as not.

Yesterday the ACL launched Sydney University law professor Patrick Parkinson’s For Kids’ Sake report into the wellbeing of young Australians. The report finds family breakdown is a contributing factor in spiralling rates of child abuse and neglect.

The report was commissioned by the ACL and paid for by the Christian Vos Foundation, which was set up by the late Tasmanian supermarket magnate Roelf Vos.

Few would accuse Parkinson of a religious bias — last month he called for an inquiry into child sexual abuse complaints within the Catholic Salesian order, and he’s written a book on child sexual abuse and the churches.

In 2008 he spoke out against moves to extend all the legal responsibilities of marriage to de facto couples who did not want them on the grounds that “people’s right to choose not to marry should be respected”.

For Kids’ Sake even lists LGBTI community organisations among those that should be enlisted to provide parenting and family education to help address the problem.

Sadly, predictably and wrongly, some conservative commentators will use the report to attack the LGBTI community anyway, taking the bizarre standpoint that same-sex couples represent some kind of kryptonite to families.

The Australian’s Angela Shanahan fired the first volley, citing the report in a Fathers Day column attacking same-sex marriage and lesbian parenting as “social engineering and thought control” before it was even released.

But the more gays and lesbians take their rightful place in the mainstream of society, the more society will need to draw on us as part of the solution.

The more same-sex relationships are treated with the respect they deserve, the fewer family breakdowns there will be from closeted gays and lesbians feeling compelled to marry opposite-sex partners to live up to the expectations of parents and faith communities.

The more children are surrounded by committed stable relationships, regardless of sexuality, the more they will aspire to such relationships themselves, and the greater the stability of the wider community in which they grow.

The more people who are allowed to marry, the more marriage will be valued in our society.

For Kids’ Sake should not be dismissed — but so should the ACL accept research by respected pollsters including Galaxy, Roy Morgan, Nielsen and News Poll that show majority support for marriage equality in this democratic country.

Unfortunately the ACL has little love for democracy. ACL chief Jim Wallace recently admitted that opposition to same-sex marriage was a vote-changer for as few as 15 percent of voters — and considering that most of those vote for the Coalition already, that’s not a particularly influential constituency

What a pity the Australian Christian Lobby doesn’t concentrate its efforts on supporting all families instead of campaigning on behalf of one minority to limit the rights of another.

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