I thought that a debate on same-sex marriage which allowed only two-minute speeches and two-minute rebuttals would be absurd. Well, I was wrong. After listening to the head of Australian Marriage Equality, Rodney Croome, debate the head of the Australian Marriage Forum, David van Gend, on radio earlier this week, I’d have to say that the arguments on both sides emerged very clearly.
Both Croome and Dr van Gend (an occasional MercatorNet contributor) are old hands, so they presented their best arguments succinctly and dispassionately. The presenter on ABC Radio Hobart also posed four questions to the pair. There were no tricks; they were predictable and sensible, the queries that always pop up in all discussions of same-sex marriage.
So who won? In my estimation, Rodney Croome’s argument seemed to be: “marriage is all about love and acceptance”. If that is his best shot, David van Gend’s insistence that children need a mother and a father won, hands down.
But judge for yourself.