Why Australians says they don't want homosexual marriage
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| Rainbow flag. Symbol of gay pride. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
During a large public survey on Homosexual marriage, when asked to rate the importance of same sex marriage as an issue, relative to five other topical issues, same sex marriage ranked lowest in importance, even lower than the other social issue of voluntary euthanasia. With 61% of the sample believing that the same sex marriage debate is a distraction from more important issues, and only 1 in 7 in strongly support of changing the Marriage Act, there is a warning here for politicians to ensure that resources and time are not diverted from other more pressing issues of domestic importance.
(6) The survey also shows that a significant proportion of those in favour of same sex marriage also share the same concerns as those not in favour of same sex marriage, in the following areas:
- How children are raised, with an acknowledgement that being raised by one’s biological mother and father is the norm which should be promoted where possible.
- The need to uphold the longstanding tradition of marriage between men and women as an important institution in our society.
- Pushing ahead with significant reforms without a full understanding of the social consequences.
(7) Given this, the current survey suggests that many Australians hold conflicting attitudes on the topic of same sex marriage. Some support the principle of same-sex rights, but worry about the declining status of traditional opposite sex marriages and an increase in children who are not raised by their biological mother and father. This is an “individual rights versus social responsibilities” conflict and it explains why, when asked about changing the law to enforce same sex marriage rights, less than 50% of Australians support this, because they worry about the consequences for others, especially children.
(8) This issue is also important enough to influence how some people will vote. In fact, 11% of all voters indicated that this issue is important enough to directly affect their Federal vote, with 6.6% of all voters prepared to change their vote to oppose gay marriage, and 4.4% prepared to change their vote to support gay marriage. The net overall effect is that more voters will change their vote and vote against gay marriage than for it.
(9) One factor that is critical is that there appears to be no clear consensus on changing the Marriage Act – in fact it is not even supported by a majority of Australians at the time of the survey, and clearly time will be needed to build consensus on this issue, one way or the other.A further factor likely to carry significant weight in the debate on same sex marriage will be the social scientific evidence of the impact of same sex marriage on children brought up in same sex households. Such research will need to be substantive and authoritative, and most likely longitudinal to examine the impact on children during their developmental years and beyond.
(10) In some respects, the same sex marriage debate is really a debate about the type of government that Australians want – do they want a government that pushes ahead with social reforms where the public is divided and believes there may be risks of negative social consequences, or do they want a government that implements social change when there is a clear and emerging consensus that this is what the vast majority of Australian want? With only 35% in favour of pushing ahead with change to the Marriage Act in a divided community, and only 14% strongly advocating a change to the Marriage Act, this survey suggests that Australians prefer a consensus style of government, and deferring social reforms until there is a clear or emerging consensus of opinion
