Thu Jun 24, 2004
l) Old campaigns, actions & notices
Same sex marriage ban mark II
Urge the Senate to stand firm against Howard’s renewed attacks on LGBT rights: here are some arguments and some contacts.
The government's legislation banning same sex marriage must be investigated by a Senate committee because it raises a range of legal and constitutional issues.These include,
1. whether the federal government has the constitutional power to enact such legislation,
2. Australia's relationship with those countries which allow same sex marriage,
3. Australia's international obligations to recognise foreign marriages and protect citizens from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and
4. the role of the law in stigmatising minorities.
Passage of the Bill is not urgent because there is no immediate need for it. No Australian court has yet found that same sex couples married overseas should have their marriages recognised here as well, and this may well not happen.
If the Government sincerely believes this legislation is a matter of urgency it would have introduced it a year ago when the legalisation of same sex marriage in Canada made it inevitable that there would be court challenges to Australia’s discriminatory marriage laws.
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