Marriage is higher than Equality
Dear All,
Marriage is a definitional construct with the special union only between male and female, and is an integral part of social institution from all human cultures with deep-rooted social and cultural connotations. Marriage is not about Equality but Higher than Equality.
Both the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights have declined to endorse claims that same-sex marriage is a human right.
The experience in United States indicates that the redefinition of marriage may destroy the concepts of gender, tear down protections for the two sexes, break apart the family, and trample the rights of US citizens.
I agree that the problems with same sex marriage overseas is that "Parents had rights before the laws were changed, after the laws were changed their rights to have their children free from the radical LGBTIQ sex education was taken away."
Bill
International human rights law recognises to maintain a traditional view of marriage, as a definitional construct, does not detract from the equality of same-sex persons, including in circumstances where such life-long loving committed relationships are provided state recognition and protection.
The "marriage equality" claim is not borne out by the decisions of the highest human rights authorities in the international order. Both the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights have held that there is no inequality where a state retains the traditional definition of marriage. In so ruling, these bodies have actually affirmed the inherent equality of all persons.
United Nations Human Rights Committee
In Joslin et al. v New Zealand, the United Nations Human Rights Committee held that "marriage" is a definitional construct which, by the expressed terms of Article 23(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), includes only persons of the opposite sex.
Importantly, the committee held that the right to equality under Articles 2 or 26 of the ICCPR, which is the applicable international covenant that Australia has ratified, was not then violated.
That is to say, there is no inequality because the definitional boundary did not enfold persons of the same sex.
It is obvious that not every differentiation of treatment will constitute discrimination, if the criteria for such differentiation are reasonable and objective and if the aim is to achieve a purpose which is legitimate.
Similar conclusions have been reached by the other principal arbiter of international human rights jurisprudence, the European Court of Human Rights. In decisions handed down in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016, the court has also concluded that the European Convention on Human Rights does not impose an obligation to grant same-sex couples access to marriage. Consequently, the court has consistently held that the prohibition on discrimination (the right to equality) under Article 14 of the convention was not breached by states that continue to recognise that marriage is between a man and a woman.
The European Court of Human Rights' held that the important claims of equality are met through civil partnership regimes and through equality in access to entitlements such as inheritance rights and material support. These are measures Australia has already enacted.
Same-sex marriage: What does human rights law say about claims of equality? - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-01/what-does-human-rights-law-say-about-marriage-and-equality/8856552?pfmredir=sm
Over the past two years in the United States, many of them have actively worked to ensure something other than ‘equality’ was achieved. What the redefinition of marriage did to the US was to destroy the concepts of gender, tear down protections for the two sexes, break apart the family, and trample the rights of US citizens.
Take a look at the stories we have featured about what has happened in the US since marriage was redefined. Just as in the US, marriage “equality” supporters often times have no idea that consequences of redefining marriage are so vast. This is why we must keep warning Australians about the consequences of redefining marriage, and working hard to ensure it does not happen here. Marriage equality supporters are facing a harsh reality – redefining marriage redefines a country. We must not let Australia suffer the same fate.
After the US Supreme Court redefined marriage for the whole country, without providing the mechanisms to deal with the consequences for ordinary citizens, Americans are currently reeling and wrestling with those consequences. Among the fray, there have been some small victories for those who refused to kowtow to the LGBTI
Two years since marriage was redefined: the reality facing the US - Marriage Alliance
http://www.marriagealliance.com.au/two_years_since_marriage_was_redefined_the_reality_facing_the_us
That potential to have a child is the entire basis of the continuation of our species and our civilisation. The legal union of a man and a woman, aka marriage, reflects and supports these facts of nature. Same-sex marriage doesn’t reflect those facts, or contribute to future generations of human life.
A same-sex couple lacks the ability to provide a child in its care a role model of both male and female parenting.
For all 14 reasons, same-sex marriage is not about equality. Despite that, advocates of same-sex marriage keep harping on about it. They call it ‘marriage equality’.
14 Reasons that Same-Sex Marriage is not about Equality - XYZ
https://www.xyz.net.au/14-reasons-sex-marriage-not-equality/
Mr Howard is campaigning for the No vote — to maintain the current definition of marriage between a man and a woman.
"I think the Government does need to define what steps it will take to ensure that state governments don't withdraw exemptions in discrimination acts … I think that's very important," he said.
In 2004, the Howard government changed the Marriage Act to include a definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
"I don't think it's a crisis for democracy and I'm frankly surprised people are running around trying to apportion blame."
Same-sex marriage: John Howard wants more detail on religious exemptions ahead of same-sex marriage survey - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-31/howard-wants-detail-on-religious-exemptions-same-sex-marriage/8858670
Recognition of same-sex relationships
It is important to note that same-sex de facto relationships were recognised under social security and family assistance law after 1 July 2009 in Australia.
US experience
In the United States, same-sex marriage is legal in all states, except American Samoa, but not on all Native American tribal lands, since June 26, 2015, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. civil rights campaigning took place from the 1970s, the issue became prominent from around 1993, when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in Baehr v. Lewin that the prohibition was unconstitutional. The ruling led to federal actions and actions by several states, to restrict marriage to male-female couples, in particular the Defense of Marriage Act(DOMA). During the period of 2003 to 2015, various lower court decisions, state legislation, and popular referendums already legalized same-sex marriage to some degree in thirty-eight out of fifty U.S. states. In 2013, the Supreme Court overturned a key provision of DOMA, declaring part of it unconstitutional and in breach of the Fifth Amendment in United States v. Windsor because it "single[d] out a class of persons" for discrimination, by refusing to treat their marriages equally under federal law when state law had created them equally valid. The Supreme Court addressed that question two years later in 2015, ruling, in Obergefell, that same-sex married couples were to be constitutionally accorded the same recognition as opposite-sex couples at state/territory levels, as well as at federal level.
Same-sex marriage in the United States - Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States
