LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
I WOULD like to thank Sheena McClenaghan for contributing to the marriage debate.
In her letter headed ‘The arguments don’t stand up to scrutiny’ (Gippsland Times, 28/7), she attempts to rebut my argument that same-sex marriage denies children the right to their biological mother or father.
However, she (inadvertently, I presume) goes a long way to add weight to this argument.
Every situation she lists for the ways in which a child may be taken away from a parent (orphan, death of parent, abusive parent, abandoned by parent and unknown parent) is a tragedy that would not be wished upon a child.
She then compares these tragedies to the taking of a child from a parent so it can be raised by a homosexual couple.
Yes, like all these situations it is a tragedy — but worse.
It is actually a travesty of justice, because rather than being an unplanned misfortune, it is planned and sanctioned by the state.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is considered a hero today, but was executed for standing up for the rights of others during World War 2.
He famously said, “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children”.
