MEDIA
RELEASE
FESTIVAL OF LIGHT AUSTRALIA 24
APRIL 2007 **
Proposed Victorian relationships register
would undermine marriage ** "Diluting
the status of marriage - by including all
sorts of other relationships in the Victorian
Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
- would be a disaster," Peter Stevens said
today. Peter
Stevens is the Victorian state officer for
the family values advocacy group Festival
of Light Australia. "Marriage
is the only couple relationship that society
should legally recognise - because marriage
is so important for society's future," Peter
Stevens said."Studies
show that children do best when raised by
their married biological parents." Mr
Stevens said that any proposal to expand
the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths
and Marriages to register other relationships
such as homosexual or de facto heterosexual
relationships necessarily undermines marriage."Society has a vital interest in
supporting marriage - a public, lifelong,
exclusive commitment of one man and one
woman," he said. Mr
Stevens pointed to research in countries
which have experimented with legal recognition
of homosexual relationships for some years
now."In general,
the result of this experiment has been to
lower the marriage rate and in particular,
the rate of births within marriage - so
that more children are born into fragile
de facto relationships and do most of their
growing up in a fatherless household," he
said. Mr
Stevens warned that the purpose of such
a register could not be disguised by including
non-sexual domestic relationships as well
as cohabiting homosexual and heterosexual
relationships."Most
non-sexual partners do not want to be included,"
he said."The
push is coming from the homosexual lobby.They have made it very clear that
a relationships register would be the first
step towards homosexual 'marriage' and the
right to adopt babies." The
Tasmanian Registry of Births, Deaths and
Marriages has separate registers for "significant"
partners (with consanguinity restrictions
the same as for marriage) and "caring" partners
(ie non-sexual co-dependants).So far, no caring partners have been
registered.Of
the relatively small number of registered
significant partners, four have already
revoked their registration. "Legal
recognition of this 'marriage-lite' and
'divorce-lite' system would undermine marriage
and be a disaster for Victorian children,"
Peter Stevens said. For
more information contact: Peter
Stevens - phone 0413 467 831, or Richard
Egan - phone 0416 148 008 Festival
of Light Australia GPO
Box 9894 MELBOURNEVIC3001 Phone:
1300 365 965
