Australia: Chinese Families Voting NO to homosexual marriage
Islamic and ethnic groups are sounding warnings about the consequences of same-sex marriage in Australia, questioning whether parents will retain the freedom to promote the traditional definition of marriage to their children.
Co-founder of the Australian Chinese for Families Association Pansy Lai said she was concerned that schemes such as the Safe Schools program, familiarising students with transgender concepts, could become compulsory if same-sex marriage were legalised. Last year, Dr Lai organised a NSW petition amassing 17,500 signatures from members of the Australian Chinese community in favour of scrapping Safe Schools, which she said promoted “inappropriate sexual content to underage children”.
She told The Australian yesterday that large numbers of the Australian Chinese community kept to a traditional view of marriage, many for reasons unrelated to religious conviction, and questioned whether there were sufficient protections for them.
“The religious people might be more bold in speaking out ... but the vast majority, regardless of religious faith, have the same conviction about traditional families,” she told The Australian.
“A family has their own cultural beliefs — and we need to respect all that. From what I can see, there is actually no adequate protection for people who express a different point of view, whether in the community or in the school ground.”
Dr Lai said Chinese grandparents and parents were concerned by the prospect of schools teaching children a view of marriage and gender that went “against their background culture”.
“We are worried that, even now in schools, whether these programs are still being pushed by individual teachers or principals, parents are already finding it really hard to have the right to say, ‘Look, we feel that this is something that is a parents’ right to teach their child and not the state’s right to impose it on them’.”
Islamic groups are equally concerned about same-sex marriage, with some Muslim marriage celebrants stridently opposed to homosexuality. The “Australian Muslim Marriage” Facebook page contains strongly worded posts saying that homosexuality is incompatible with the faith.
