Australia has an apparent conflict between religious freedom and sexual anti-discrimination legislation. It is particularly prominent in three areas: marriage, education, and social service provision.
The sacrament of marriage that takes place in the eyes of God is a separate process from the state’s legal recognition of the coupling.
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The sacrament of marriage does not depend on the law, which exists only to regulate the rights and responsibilities arising from the practice. For religious believers, same-sex marriage won’t change their union.
Policymakers and the outcomes they produce can play a powerful role in shaping public opinion on questions of same-sex rights.
AAP/Alan Porritt
A central argument made against same-sex marriage is that children born into these marriages will be disadvantaged: they will grow up with inappropriate gender role modelling and be bullied at school.
Bill Shorten has introduced a bill into parliament to amend the Marriage Act and allow same-sex marriage in Australia.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The legislative reform required to allow same-sex marriage is not complicated. There is relative consensus as to how this can be achieved.
Tony Abbott risks having same-sex marriage used against him electorally – just as his Liberal Party once tried to use it against Labor.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
As opposition leader Bill Shorten prepares to introduce an amendment on Monday to the Marriage Act to legalise same-sex marriage, why has Australia lagged so far behind?
‘When you’re in the gun sights yourself, target Bill Shorten’ is a core tactic in the government’s toolkit.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
It’s more than a touch hilarious how the Liberals are determined to claim eventual ownership of what seems the likely endorsement of same-sex marriage by parliament later this year. If a change is made…
Outright homophobia has mostly moved from the mainstream of public discourse to its margins. For this, we can thank pioneers like Lance Loud of An American Family.
Bill Shorten’s gay marriage push has been described as ‘all about Bill’.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Some pro-gay marriage Liberals might be railing against Bill Shorten’s pre-emptive move but its effect has been to suddenly raise the prospect of common political ownership of the issue.
Plato’s Symposium in an 1873 painting
Anselm Feuerbach
A Supreme Court justice hearing arguments over same-sex marriage cited Plato’s stance on homosexuality. But what did Plato really believe about all sexuality? A scholar takes a look.
The world is recognising that the issue of same-sex marriage is a matter of what state law, not religious doctrine, says, to the extent that Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (right) and Gauthier Destenay recently married.
EPA/Julien Warnand
Same-sex marriage is about state recognition of the union between two people and is a political issue. Religious belief can apply in a church and in individual decisions, but not to a secular state.
The Supreme Court is the final word on the country’s laws but its decisions don’t necessarily end culture debates. Two scholars look at same sex-marriage arguments made before the court.
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity