Australia To Purge Gay Bias Laws

About 100 Federal Laws Affecting Same-Sex Couples Will Be Changed, But Gay Marriage Ban Will Continue

(AP)  Australia will change a raft of federal laws to remove discrimination against gay couples, but will stop short of allowing same-sex marriages, the government announced Wednesday.

Under the changes, gay couples in long-term relationships would be treated the same as married couples on issues such as taxation, pensions and welfare payments, Attorney General Robert McClelland said.

Gay marriage is a hot-button issue for many Australians, and gay rights advocates say it is a key test of authorities' willingness to end discrimination.

But McClelland said the Marriage Act would not be among the laws changed.

"The government believes that marriage is between a man and a woman," he said.

The changes - to about 100 different laws - will begin being introduced to Parliament next month, and the process is expected to be completed by mid-2009, McClelland said.

Some examples of the changes include that children being reared by gay couples would be considered dependents of both adults for tax and unemployment benefits, and same-sex couples would be treated as a family unit for pension purposes.

Rights advocates welcomed the changes, though they said the government should go further and recognize gay marriages.

"Gay and lesbian Australians will not be fully equal until we are allowed the right to marry the partner of our choice," Rodney Croome of the Australian Coalition for Equality group told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The Most Rev. Peter Jensen, the Anglican archbishop of Sydney who is a vocal opponent of gay marriage, said people in platonic relationships deserve the same benefits as gay couples under the law reforms.

"I hope this is not just pro-gay, so to speak, but pro-people ... in order to make sure there is justice for all Australians," Jensen told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

He said friends living together in long-standing platonic relationships "support and strengthen each other."

"There'd be many Christian people living like that, and I think that sort of thing could also be recognized," Jensen added.

The changes will bring the federal government more closely into line with state and territory governments, which have already passed laws recognizing same-sex couples in their jurisdictions.

Under state laws, long-term gay couples are recognized as de facto partners with some legal rights. But the federal Marriage Act defines the union as between a man and a woman.

Australia is in line with many countries in Europe that give some legal recognition to same-sex couples - though few recognize gay marriages. In the United States, state bans on same-sex marriages or unions are widespread, though domestic partnerships are recognized in some places.

[gaye5]

of course there is much more details to these articles from Professionals, and one can only surmise as to if this is the reason for prejudices in the past.. logics of centuries of experience has said that because of what they do it is a dangerous act, causing disease.. which of course then moves over into heterosexuals'' from bisexuals or contagions..
There are many lovely homosexuals who would love to lead normal lives but are told that they are stuck in this pit, when many have acturally come out and are leading normal lives..
This is not a hit at homosexuals. We even warn people about the dangers of smoking and that is not a hit at smokers, it is just a warning of how disease is becoming epidemic amongst homosexuals.
I could keep quite like others do as the last thing I want is to get a barrage from people who think that I am against homosexuals, but as we warn against over eating, smoking etc shouldnt we help those who dont know of the dangers of homosexuality..

[gaye5]

During the 1990s, syphilis occurred predominantly among African-American heterosexuals in the South and in large cities. (10) In Seattle, syphilis declined from 1987 to 1996, but a syphilis outbreak occurred around 1997. The outbreak was traced to a cluster of homosexuals. 68% of syphilis patients were MSM, among whom 66% were also HIV-positive. Most MSM were 30 years or older (i.e., old enough to know what they were doing) and had recruited many anonymous partners. (11)
Syphilis increased mostly among men aged 35 years or older and gonorrhoea increased mostly among younger men.
It hardly needs mentioning who gets rectal gonorrhoea. Homosexuals also get gonorrhoea in the *** (urethral gonorrhoea) and mouth (pharyngeal gonorrhoea). Parasitic intestinal infections are common among homosexuals; they result from the consumption of faecal material via rimming and other sexual practices..
Amebic liver abscess, a disease usually found in developing tropical countries is found elsewhere among individuals who have visited these countries and also among MSM etc

[gaye5]

And yet the government of western countries push homosexuality in schools as a normal way of life.

Unfortunately the danger of these exchanges does not merely affect homosexuals.
Travelers carried so many tropical diseases to New York City that it had to institute a tropical disease center, and *** carried HIV from New York City to the rest of the world.

Homosexual practices create a third-world level of sanitation and chronic disease unknown to most Westerners.
In the mid-20th century, male homosexuals constituted about 8% of men afflicted with anal cancer; by the mid-1980s, this figure had risen to 72%. (1) The transmission of certain types of human papilloma viruses explains the association of anal intercourse with anal cancer.
During 1982-1989, MSM constituted less than 10% of individuals with hepatitis-A. (5) During the first 6 months of 1991, 29% of the hepatitis-A cases in Denver, 66% in New York City, 50% in San Francisco, 56% in Toronto, 42% in Montreal, and 26% in Melbourne consisted of homosexuals.

[gaye5]

At least 8 new sexually transmitted germs in homosexuals were identified, where did they come from and WHY???
We should be educating our young of the diseases of homosexuality, once hooked it is addictive..

It appears that there is an increasing number of new viruses and diseases appearing. .. There is a pattern here that we ignore at our peril, Throughout history, the major civilizations and major religions condemned homosexuality, could it be because the life of the law is not only logic but centuries of experience...

Infectious Diseases are a plight of homosexuals.

Even after washing, the smell, faeces, germs, viruses stay in the pores and folds of the *** hrs after the act, collecting and passing it on as they go.

Homosexuals rode into the dawn of sexual freedom and returned with multiple plagues that may very well destroy most of them. Those who treat AIDS patients are at great risk of accidents, but also from TB and new strains of other diseases. At least 8 new sexually transmitted germs were identified between 1980 and 1997. Dr. Max Essex, chair of the Harvard AIDS Institute, warned Congress in 1992 that "AIDS has already led to other kinds of dangerous epidemics. . . . If AIDS is not eliminated, other new lethal microbes will emerge, and neither safe *** nor drug free practices will prevent them."

[gaye5]

Why is it not generally known that thousands of homosexuals are coming out of homosexuality..???
The Boston Globe published an article on February 7, 1999 which was reprinted by permission in the April 1999 NARTH Bulletin. It is an important article because it contributes to the growing body of evidence that homosexuality is not simply "genetic."
Serious scientists have long known that a simply "genetic" cause for homosexuality was highly unlikely, but the mass media conveyed the misimpression of genetic causation to the general public. In the Globe article, prominent researchers admit the distinct limitations of the "born that way" theory.
"Gay gene" researcher Dean Hamer comments, "It is the same for every human behavior--environment matters for extroversion, smoking cigarettes, just about anything you can name."

These guys have been told that they are born that way and that there is no hope for them..

[gaye5]

When the members got round to recording their aims in 1887 they read as follows:

The Fabian Society consists of Socialists.

It therefore aims at the reorganisation of Society by the emancipation of Land and Industrial Capital from individual and class ownership. In this way only can the natural and acquired advantages of the country be equitably shared by the whole people.
The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in Land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of Rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as for the advantages of superior soils and sites.

The Australian Labor party policy statement from their 1988 Conference is binding on every ALP politician.

. Legalise homosexuality.....
. Legalise abortion on demand, making no distinctions between abortion and any other medical proceedure....
. Open the floodgates for Pornography by Abolish Queensland Film and Literature Board of Review . Remove any compulsion on teachers to conduct Bible studies...
. Introduce poker machines.

Policy points are from their 1988 Policy Document and branch Members Handbook...

[gaye5]

The article says...Australia will change a raft of federal laws to remove discrimination against gay couples, but will stop short of allowing same-*** marriages.. Remember that Labor in Australia is left winged.. Liberal is right winged..
Rudd knows that if he agreed with gay marriages that he would be out next elections, he has some manipulating to do before he brings that in..
The aim of the left is to do just that..
In a tract published in 1906 the Fabian Society acknowledged with satisfaction the influence which the then small Labour Party already had on the Liberal Government, which was out of proportion to its numbers. They said, however:

The Labour Party in the House of Commons is as yet not disliked because it is not feared. Until it has made itself both disliked and feared it will be far short of having fulfilled the objects of its very existence.

[avigil2]

The decline of moral continues with the endless number of divorces (over 50% in the US), the 48 hour marriages (HELLO Brittany), the 3rd or 4th marriages (HELLO Pamela Anderson) and the Christian Right Wing that preaches, not compassion and understanding, but to hate *** and lesbians for loving each other and being who they are. What would Jesus say?

[idic16]

*** want to be accepted as normal, just as normal as everyone else and want to force society to recognize that theory by forcing the definition of marriage to accept *** as an equal part. What they seek from society is what they should instead seek from within. The quest of "outside" approval will be neverending.

[usbrit-2009]

Australia, more so than the United States, has always been a leader in human rights

Posted by Nancy_Naive

I wouldn''t go quite that far - remember it was only a couple of generations ago that the policy of taking aborignal children from their families and fostering them to white families (the so-named "lost children") finally died out. In the late 1800''s the Aborigines were treated similarly if not worse by the settlers than American Indians were.

[honestabe8]

salty: do you have a cite on shrub and the reprogramming school?

[salty1954]

WE have gay marriage in Massachusetts and guess what, the sky has not fallen.

Civil rights = Human rights.

If you are concerned about who marries who - Get A Life!

George Bush was sent to a gay-reprogramming "school in 1976. How many straight men say ''fabulous'' as much as he does?

[hungry1968]

Good for them!!

Anytime someone can end prejudice and bigotry, it''s a reason to celebrate!!

[flagship-usa]

America is out...tired drag queen. lol

[irliberal]

Way to go Aussies! Woohoo!

[jjp735i]

Civil Unions or Marriage, either name you use is the same as long as both get the same benefits which is really all anyone wants. To be treated the same.

[dmhphils]

Perverted!

[flagship-usa]

Here in Amerika things don''t look as promising - Civil Unions are a good idea. Society benefits each time we allow ourselves to live freely amongst ourselves in a lawful and orderly manor. GwB and The right-wing fundamentalist Christians, brought ****-sexuality out of the closet; into the forefront of culture, and society. They/them/we/us like being out, and going back is not an option. The hetero song-and-dance, needs to be addressed by The Supreme Court. How can it be that a Civil-Union here in State "a" is not recognized in State "b"? There are plenty of unlawful things that crisscross our State lines and Civil-Unions should not be one of ''em.