ࡱ> 536` bjbjss 7 $ (,  $Ah*  ```   ` ``` 8X8c R`0`.(``4 ` V  (((, d(((,  Dear Sir/Madam, I'm afraid I have no personal stories to share on this topic, nor can I point to specific examples of legislation that discriminate, but I would like to address points made in "Festival of Light (Submission No. 031)" HYPERLINK http://www.humanrights.gov.au/samesex/submissions/031.html http://www.humanrights.gov.au/samesex/submissions/031.html Section 1.1 of the submission claims that children who grow up in broken families are disadvantaged, and I would agree. The submission then makes the almighty leap to claim the reason for this disadvantage is solely because the biological father is missing. I submit that it's all about whether children grow up in a stable, loving, nurturing environment and nothing to do with the gender or genetic links to the parents. Section 1.3 of the submission divides families into 3 categories: married, de-facto heterosexual and de-facto homosexual. It then uses statistics to rank the 3 categories on their suitability for child rearing, and concludes that a married family is a better environment than a de-facto heterosexual family which in turn is a better environment than de-facto homosexual family. If you believe those statistics (and for what it's worth, I don't), then you would have to conclude that the institute of marriage is good for child rearing. Surely that is an argument for less discrimination rather than more. Perhaps the child rearing environment of de-facto homosexual families would be improved by treating that relationship more like a marriage, or at the very least, discriminating against it less. So the argument put forward in this section of the submission can be summarised: 鱨վ that grow up in families that we currently discriminate against are disadvantaged, therefore we need to maintain this discrimination. Finally, I submit that Submission 031 loses all child-friendly credibility by the inclusion of the following paragraph: Nothing in the Convention obliges a State party to give any legal or social support to same-sex households in which children are deprived of their inherent right to know and be cared for by both their father and their mother. It would appear that the authors of this submission are very selective indeed as to which children they care about. The very children they have declared as disadvantaged in earlier sections, they are now proposing should be abandoned by the State. Yours truly, David Bath [Details removed] 1 2 3 m n h}hLCJOJQJ^JaJ&hvx>*B*CJOJQJ^JaJph/jhAFhvxCJOJQJU^JaJ#jhvxCJOJQJU^JaJhvxCJOJQJ^JaJ o p s t   \ => 'o}~ 7$8$H$gdvx 7$8$H$gdvx50P:pvx/ =!"#$% DyK yK vhttp://www.humanrights.gov.au/samesex/submissions/031.html@@@ NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH DAD Default Paragraph FontRiR  Table Normal4 l4a (k(No ListH@H L Balloon TextCJOJQJ^JaJ  z opst\=> 'o} ~ !1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!opst\=> 'o} ~ 00000000000000000000000000000000opst\=> 'o} h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0`    2m X \c)+qt ::::::n  Cn}wnoNLvx@`4  `@UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z Arial?5 z Courier New5& zaTahoma"h拧&拧&$9$924d 2X)?vx2Oh+'0d   , 8DLT\ Normal.dot4Microsoft Office Word@F#@l*c@l*c$՜.+,D՜.+,< px  9   Title 8@ _PID_HLINKSA9e;http://www.humanrights.gov.au/samesex/submissions/031.html !"#$%&')*+,-./2Root Entry FpZ8c4Data 1TableWordDocument7SummaryInformation( DocumentSummaryInformation8(CompObjq  FMicrosoft Office Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89qRoot Entry F_k4Data 1TableWordDocument7 !"#$%&'?89:;<=>՜.+,՜.+,< px  9   Title 8@ _PID_HLINKSA9e;http://www.humanrights.gov.au/samesex/submissions/031.htmlSummaryInformation( DocumentSummaryInformation87CompObjq