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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-24 Daily Xml
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SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:35): First of all I would like to raise my concerns about recent media reports that our beloved Sturt's desert pea may come under the category of a dangerous substance. As many people in this house would know and particularly you, Madam Speaker, we have a great admiration for the Sturt's desert pea. I notice on your electorate letterhead, Madam Speaker, that you depict our floral icon, and I certainly have had a lot of positive feedback from Ashford constituents with regard to my bookmarks which have a photo of Sturt's desert peas grown in my backyard. Ashford residents and others can get Sturt's desert pea seeds on request from the electorate office. We have done a great trade in giving out those seeds. I will have to review all of that if it becomes a banned substance or a banned floral item.

My other contribution today, though, is in regard to in article from an American publication that I read which is entitled '28 perfectly good reasons to oppose gay marriage' by Outrage Magazine. This was in November a couple of years ago. The author was Rick Chris. I do not intend to read out the 28 reasons but I thought that some of the points that were made fit in with the debate that we are currently having in Australia.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. S.W. KEY: Yes, I probably should get the member for Morphett to read them out; he could probably do the 28 very quickly. I will just pick a few out as follows:

1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control.

2. Marriage is valuable because it produces children, which is why we deny marriage rights to infertile couples and old people.

3. Obviously, gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

4. Straight marriage, such as Britney Spears' 55-hour escapade, will be less meaningful if gay marriage is allowed.

8. There is no separation between religious marriage and legal marriage, because there is no separation of church and state.

9. Devout, faithful Anglicans should never accept same-sex marriage, because it is an affront to the traditional family values upheld by Henry VIII and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and his wife, Anne Boleyn, and his wife, Jane Seymour, and his wife, Anne of Cleves, and his wife, Catherine Howard, and his wife, Catherine Parr. They all knew the meaning of marriage and none of them lost their heads over the matter.

10. Married gay people will encourage others to be gay, in a way that unmarried gay people do not.

12. Legalising gay marriage will open the door to legislative change in general, which could possibly include the legalisation of polygamy and incest. Because we don't know what comes next, we should never change our laws.

13. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why single parents are forbidden to raise children.

15. Legal marriage will inspire gays to mimic the straight traditions of spiritual commitment ceremonies and celebratory parties, which is currently impermissible for them to do and which they have never done before.

16. Marriage is designed to protect the well-being of children. Gay people do not need marriage because they never have children from prior relationships, artificial insemination or surrogacy, or adoption.

17. Civil unions are a good option because 'separate but equal' institutions are always constitutional. In fact, compared with marriage, civil unions are so attractive that straight people are calling dibs on them.

19. If gays marry, some of straight people's tax dollars would end up going to families whose structure they may find morally objectionable. Clearly, it is more just to continue taking gay people's tax dollars to support straight families, who are going to heaven regardless of what anyone else thinks of them.

20. Gays should hold off on the marriage question until society is more accepting of them, because they are not part of society.

And one other that I will read into Hansard:

25. Those who support gay marriage aim to overthrow the dominant culture, as evidenced by their enthusiasm to participate in it.

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