Same-sex couples who live together have worse health than married opposite-sex couples. Their health was comparable to unwed…
Tasmania’s leadership on marriage equality is a good example of how distorted preconceptions about Tasmania obscure reality.
Tasmanians United for Marriage Equality
Is Tasmania at a tipping point? Over the past two weeks The Conversation, in conjunction with Griffith REVIEW and the University of Tasmania, has published a series of provocations. Our authors ask where…
Obama wove the story of gay rights into the language of America’s founding fathers during his inauguration speech.
EPA/Shawn Thew
Much has been made of the fact President Obama became the first president to mention the word gay in an inaugural address. But the significance lies not in what he said but how he said it. In declaring…
A supporter of same-sex marriage holds a flag depicting two wedding bands outside Washington’s Supreme Court.
EPA/Michael Reynolds
The United States Supreme Court has a history of playing a pivotal role in emotive cultural debates including, for example, abortion (Roe v Wade), racial segregation (Brown v Board of Education) and the…
Gay marriage advocates in Australia would have watched last week’s US elections results with interest.
AAP/Dean Lewins
The main stories coming out of the recent elections in the United States have of course been that Barack Obama won a second term, and which party controls the House and the Senate. However, the election…
After inflammatory comments by Liberal MP Cory Bernardi, tensions ran high in parliament about the issue of marriage equality.
AAP
Having characterised advocacy for same-sex marriage as part of an attack on “our enduring institutions”, Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has warned that recognising same sex relationships through marriage…
Cory Bernardi making his now infamous comments on gay marriage in the Australian Senate last night.
ABC News
South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi’s comments about gay marriage have caused an uproar. Today he was forced to step down from his position as parliamentary secretary to Tony Abbott. But are they representative…
A JC Penny ad in the USA depicting a gay couple with children.
flickr/Freedom to Marry
The Sydney Morning Herald recently published an opinion piece by Patrick Parkinson titled About time we all cared more about marriage, in which he argued that allowing same-sex couples to marry will diminish…
It’s not time to break out the confetti yet; Tasmania faces legal hurdles before it can allow same-sex marriage.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Does the Tasmanian Parliament have the power to pass a law permitting same-sex marriage? The short answer is yes. But the more difficult question is whether that law will be effective or whether it will…
Joyous photos such as this one of Phyllis Siegel, 76, right, and Connie Kopelov, 84, marrying in New York could soon flood out of Tasmania.
EPA/Michael Appleton
I personally experienced the full necessity for marriage equality only recently. In the sunny town of Lamego, Portugal, my dear friend Nina was married to her beloved Marcos. She was the first of my friends…
Being counted in the census for the first time is a milestone for gay and lesbian couples everywhere.
multi.phrenic
AUSTRALIA BY NUMBERS: The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the first batch of its 2011 census data. We’ve asked some of the country’s top demographers and statisticians to crunch the numbers…
Gamers can choose to play a gay character in Mass Effect 3.
BioWare
It may seem surprising, but the number of queer characters in videogames has increased dramatically over the last decade. A key influence of this is “media convergence”, that is, the flow of subject matter…
Sydney protesters rally for marriage equality (March 2012).
A group of 150 doctors, called Doctors for the Family, have made a submission to the Senate inquiry into gay marriage which argues that children of same-sex parents suffer poorer health and well-being…
Gay couples in Canberra earlier this year to discuss gay marriage with the Prime Minister.
AAP
George Orwell’s mordant satire of politics and bureaucratic doublespeak famously featured the slogan that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. Watching the brouhaha about…
Doctors for the Family’s claims aren’t based on scientific evidence.
flickr/Poes In Boots
“[T]he evidence is clear that children who grow up in a family with a mother and a father do better in all parameters than children without.” That’s according to the Doctors for the Family’s submission…
Kennett and Obama have been swept away by the tide of public opinion.
AAP/Joe Catro/EPA/Kevin Dietsch
Clearly, there is something in the international waters, when, within the space of a few months, both the leader of the free world, Barack Obama, and the Chairperson of beyondblue, Jeff Kennett, declare…
Barack Obama has sent a message to same-sex attracted people everywhere: “I’m in your corner”.
ABC News
This morning my phone woke me earlier than usual with a text from one of my sons, who regularly taps into American politics in the middle of the night. “Obama has come out for gay marriage – how about…
Modern professionals have an opportunity to undo some of the hardships created by pathologizing same-sex attraction.
stigeredoo
Homophilia, a term once used to define “unnatural” relations between same-sex people in the early- to mid-20th century has been given a makeover. Urban gay communities around the world are using homophilia…
Senator for South Australia Cory Bernardi has attracted controversy with some of his right wing views.
www.corybernardi.com
Welcome to our In Conversation between Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi and Dr Timothy Lynch, lecturer in American politics at Melbourne University. Since being appointed to the Senate in 2006, the Senator…