Ricky Martin, the well-known pop singer, is in Australia for the filming of reality TV show The Voice. Of course, while he is here, he had to give his opinion on the same-sex marriage debate in Australia.

He said the legal recognition was "not about faith, it's not about religion, it's about human rights. It's about me having the opportunity to look my sons in the eye and say 'this is my husband and this is our family.' It's about self esteem, it's about dignity, it's about respect."

Leaving aside the fact that this is largely vacuous and doesn’t address most of the main arguments in the marriage debate, it raises the question: is it justified for the media to give celebrity endorsements of same-sex marriage such a large amount of coverage? There are numerous examples of this worldwide, ranging… click here to read whole article and make comments

This article was originally published at Australian website Online Opinion

“New Zealand has done it!”

“The sun will still rise!”

“It’s inevitable!”

These are not arguments.

This should be obvious, but the aftermath of the New Zealand vote to redefine marriage has once again shown how the same-sex marriage lobby tends to ignore reason and arguments in favour of meaningless platitudes.

We have heard countless times the last few days that since New Zealand has legalised same-sex marriage, Australia must follow suit. I wonder how far people are willing to take this logic. For example, New Zealand has a very creative pronunciation of the letter ‘i’. Does this (or thus?) mean Australia should adopt their pronunciation?

New Zealand MP Maurice Williamson said that “the sun will still rise tomorrow” if we allow same-sex marriage. Well, yes, most people would concede that. But… click here to read whole article and make comments

Last night (April 17) 77 people changed the institution of marriage in New Zealand from a conjugal union with the potential for generating children and providing them with the nurture of their own mother and father into “a union of 2 people regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity” with the potential for systematically depriving children of their mother or father, or both. All in the name of “love”. Starting in August.

Actually, just 17 people managed to do that, because the New Zealand Parliament currently has 121 members and… click here to read whole article and make comments

This evening, in New Zealand, the 120 members of Parliament will vote on same-sex marriage. Professor Rex Ahdar, of the University of Otago, published this cogent defence of traditional marriage in the New Zealand Herald yesterday. 

"Give us equality" ... "don't discriminate" ... These are catchcries of proponents of same-sex marriage. Gay couples assert the right to equal treatment and to deny them legal marriage is, they say, blatant discrimination.

This assertion deflects attention from the real issue: what is the true nature of marriage? Two visions of marriage confront us. The conjugal model says that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman. The partnership model says marriage is a contract between committed, loving couples.

So what is marriage? Conjugal marriage is a comprehensive union (mental and physical, emotional and sexual) of… click here to read whole article and make comments

The argument that same-sex marriage may in the long-run lead to polygamous marriage is so often dismissed as “scare tactics” because we are told “no one is arguing for polygamous marriage.” And yet Jillian Keenan, a New York feminist writing in Slate, a mainstream online liberal magazine, is arguing for just that. She explains why supporting polygamous marriage must follow on from same-sex marriage.

"The definition of marriage is plastic. Just like heterosexual marriage is no better or worse than homosexual marriage, marriage between two consenting adults is not inherently more or less “correct” than marriage among three (or four, or six) consenting adults. Though polygamists are a minority—a tiny minority, in fact—freedom has no value unless it extends to even the smallest and most marginalized groups among us. So let’s fight for marriage equality… click here to read whole article and make comments

Against the background rhetoric of "inevitability" and "times are changing" the US Republican Party has recently reaffirmed its support for the traditional definition of marriage. From its Resolution for Marriage and Children 2013:

Resolved, the Republican National Committee affirms its support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and as the optimum environment in which to raise healthy children for the future of America; and be it further

Resolved, the Republican National Committee implores the U. S. Supreme Court to uphold the sanctity of marriage in its rulings on California’s Proposition 8 and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Given such a huge proportion of Americans believe so passionately in the traditional definition of marriage, it is great news for the democratic process that at least one major political party is standing up for… click here to read whole article and make comments

An extremely concerning story out of Washington State, where same-sex marriage has been legalised. A florist, Baronelle Stutzman, is being sued by the State. What for? She refused to decorate a same-sex wedding based on a conscientious objection.

As her attorney said:

Attorney JD Bristol called the notion that his client was guilty of discrimination "nonsense."

"Arlene's Flowers has catered to all patrons, including homosexuals, for many years," Bristol wrote in his reply to the Attorney General. "Arlene's Flowers has had openly gay employees."

He told The Seattle Times that he believes the state is trying to make an example of the flower shop.

"This is about gay marriage, it's not about a person being gay," he told the newspaper. "She has a conscientious objection to homosexual marriage, not homosexuality. It violates her conscience."

This just… click here to read whole article and make comments

The legislature of Uruguay has decided to redefine marriage, making it the second country in South America to do so after Argentina. Cue the knock-out argument from same-sex marriage supporters “we should allow same-sex marriage because Uruguay has.”

In other news, in the US state of Delaware, Democratic Governor Jack Markell has announced a bill to redefine marriage.

With this news, a thoughtful article yesterday by Marxist writer Brendan O’Neil at Spiked Online, Gay marriage: a case study in conformism, is particularly relevant.

A very interesting read in The Economist about the link between same-sex marriage and opening the door to polygamous marriage.

“One of the assumptions that gay marriage calls into question, for many conservatives, is: why pairs, then? If not man-woman, then why not man-woman-woman, and so forth? Again, the response of gay-marriage proponents is generally ridicule. I don't think this is a ridiculous question...It's easy enough to show that gay marriage does not empirically lead to pressure to legalise polygamy; that hasn't happened anywhere that gay marriage is legal. But this is different from explaining why opening up the boundaries of the 20th-century understanding of marriage shouldn't raise the possibility of legalising polygamy. Why shouldn't it be legal for more than two consenting adults to marry each other?”

It is interesting that this problem with same-sex marriage has been getting an increasing amount of… click here to read whole article and make comments

The homosexual son of Congressman Matt Salmon, a pro-marriage Republican from Arizona, has spoken out in defence of his dad's opposition to same-sex marriage. He explained how it's possible to respect both homosexuals and the traditional definition of marriage.