There are books that say that Hitler was a bastard child of a Jewish Doctor.

And in his Catholic society, that was a fate worse then death. So he hated himself, and flung that hatred out on others. resulting in 55 million deaths. Thanks to his catholic church and its belief that only married hetero people should have sex.

Everywhere you look, the irrationality and yes hatred of the catholic church is there for all to see.

Because its rotten to the core, ignorant, hate filled of those who don’t kiss its ass.

And it knows that if you break the church one way, the whole rotten thing will come tumbling down. Which is well on its way in Europe, happening in South America, and needs to happen in the USA.

And anywhere the church operates.

Hardly different then the homophobes who are secretly gay.

But how a thing began and what it has become may be so different that criticism that applies to the former is just beside the point in relation to the latter. I’ve read that some public health measures began because the Boer War revealed our troops were not up to the job. It doesn’t follow we should shun the NHS. (“Who wants a service that began as a way to win imperialist wars?”) So even if marriage began as E. Gordon says (which is in any case doubtful) it doesn’t follow that marriage as it is NOW isn’t something worth fighting for.

I agree. It is like those people in England on the libertarian right who attack Margaret Thatcher for being a traitor and a socialist sell-out. Politics is always and everywhere a matter of compromise.

It may be that Ms Wong chose not to press for gay marriage in favour of victories in areas that are currently more winnable such as civil partnerships or anti-discrimination.

In time, one would hope that the public mood would, after some years of non-discrimination becoming normalised and civil parterships becoming common, present no real opposition to civil marriage.

Because if civil unions were superior, as you claim, straight people would be calling for them. But they’re not – most simply aren’t interested.

We’ll remember your support for homophobia at the next election.

“Ms Eagle … said that Australian Labor politician Penny Wong should be commended for her previous record on gay rights.”

Indeed.

And she should also be condemned loudly for her support of homophobic discrimination ie civil partnerships

What’smore, I can’t see the obsession with same sex marriage – fair enough if you’re religious and want to be able to make a religious commitment to your partner, but marriage is the least popular it’s ever been as a heterosexual institution – it’s so transparently outdated. LGBT people are desperately trying to build their own rights within a framework that simply copies heterosexuality. Why can’t people stop and comprehend the idea that maybe, just maybe, civil unions are superior to marriage? They’re a modern, legal body that attempt to throw off all of the historical baggage.

can keep marriage as far as I’m concerned.

Same sex marriage is also available in these jurisdictions

Mexico: DF
United States: CT, DC, IA, MA, NH, VT, Coquille

Marriage is no longer exclusively an institution between one man and one woman, the “tradition” is already broken and there is no going back. Both Penny Wong and Angela Eagle would do well to be highlighting this instead of pointlessly humoring anti-gay rights hetero-fascists who wish to cling to their past days of glory and power.