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Gay Marriage Compared to Apartheid of the Old South Africa

Doesn't anyone find it interesting that history may be poised to repeat itself? From the Australian News.

Gay marriage ban just like 'apartheid'
By Emma-Kate Symons, Social affairs writer, Sophie Morris and Misha Schubert
April 27, 2004

HIGH-PROFILE lesbian couple Kerryn Phelps and Jackie Stricker have labelled John Howard's plan to block legal recognition of gay marriages "a form of apartheid".

"Blacks and coloureds were not allowed to marry whites under apartheid in South Africa," Dr Phelps, the former Australian Medical Association president, said yesterday.

"This is no different.

"And it's a desperate and narrow-minded attempt to copy what (US President) George Bush is trying to do in the US."

Dr Phelps and Ms Stricker, who published a book about their relationship called Kerryn and Jackie, had a religious wedding ceremony in New York in 1998 -- a union that has no legal foundation in Australia.

Dr Phelps said she and Ms Stricker had not considered marrying in Canada, but they would be "first in the queue" if gay unions became lawful in Australia. "And I say when rather than if," she said.

Despite agitation by gay rights groups such as Rainbow Labor, the federal Opposition is unlikely to oppose Mr Howard's plan to amend the 1961 Marriage Act, as revealed in The Australian yesterday.

Under the proposed legal changes, pushed by the Australian Family Association and 31 Coalition backbenchers who petitioned Mr Howard last month, marriage would for the first time be codified in legislation as a union between a man and a woman.

The backbench group, led by Tasmanian senator Guy Barnett, suggested there was a need to head off the prospect of gay couples who had married in Canada, Belgium Denmark or The Netherlands seeking judicial recognition of their marriage in Australia.

Labor legal affairs spokeswoman Nicola Roxon said if getting married overseas was a way for gay couples to circumvent Australia's Marriage Act, the Opposition would be prepared to consider closing off this option by stopping Australian courts from recognising their union.

"We've made a commitment not to change Australia's Marriage Act to recognise gay marriages and if there are ways to undermine that commitment, we would look at it," she said. "But at the same time, there are lots of forms of discrimination against gay couples -- in superannuation, for instance -- which we would remove."

Opposition Leader Mark Latham had no comment yesterday. However, Labor community relationship spokesman Lindsay Tanner said in a speech this month that "the genuine needs of gay couples can be provided for without changing the status of marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman".

National gay rights lobby groups and the Australian Democrats condemned the Coalition's move to limit same-sex couples' options.

Equal Rights Network spokesman Rodney Croome said the plan was "tawdry electioneering" and "an attack on citizens' rights".

Democrats senator Brian Greig accused Mr Howard of "aping the reactionary politics of President Bush".