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Protest at same-sex marriage in Census
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| 14 August, 2011 |
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| Bishop Comensoli |
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It is disconcerting when an instrument of good governance, like the national Census, is subverted so as to impose on the nation certain political ends, said Bishop Peter Comensoli, auxiliary Bishop of Sydney.
Same-sex couples who have “married” overseas have had their unions counted in this year’s Australian Census for the first time.
The Australian Marriage Equality (AME) lobbied for a change of census rules.
“In a recent media statement (July 29, 2011), the Australian Marriage Equality group, a political advocacy organisation seeking to redefine marriage in Australia so as to incorporate relationships irrespective of gender or sexuality, asserted that “the Australian Bureau of Statistics will allow same-sex partners to indicate if they are married on the [2011] Census” by ticking the ‘husband or wife of person 1’ box at Question 5,” said Bishop Comensoli, Episcopal Vicar for Life, Marriage and Family.
“Marriage is not simply what any individual wants to assert it is according to his or her own personal interpretation.
“It is a legally defined reality that can be objectively determined. In Australia, marriage is only recognisably a marriage if it is a relationship entered into between one man and one woman.”
Bishop Comensoli said there are some Australian citizens and residents who will have entered into polygamous arrangements in countries where it is permissible to have more than one wife.
“In Australia, such arrangements are not recognised as marriages,” he said.
“While a person may want to interpret such a personal arrangement as ‘marriage’, and call a second or third sexual partner his ‘wife’, that does not make such a partnership a marital relationship.
“In Australia, such personal interpretations are neither objectively recognised nor given social legitimacy, and rightfully so.”
He continued: “Yet, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has made the arbitrary decision to allow homosexual and lesbian couples who have entered into their own personal arrangements in another country to mark these arrangements as a marriage in Question 5 of the Australian Census on August 9 by permitting anybody who so chooses to nominate someone as their husband or wife, whether or not they are married to them and irrespective of gender.
“This can have no other effect than to undermine the purpose of the national Census as a true record of what is the case about marriage in Australia in 2011.
“It is concerning enough when governments fail to adequately defend marriage. It is even more disconcerting when an instrument of good governance, like the national Census, is subverted so as to impose on the nation certain political ends.”
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