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(Sydney, Australia) A senior Australian cabinet minister has outraged gays and lesbians by suggesting they should give up the fight for same-sex marriage and be content that homosexuality is no longer a crime.
During a gathering of the Sydney Institute, a conservative think tank that holds regular public seminars and panel discussions, Treasurer Peter Costello was questioned by a lesbian couple about his government's refusal to consider either marriage or civil partnerships.
The couple, Dr. Kerryn Phelps, a former president of the Australian Medical Association, and partner Jackie Stricker, were married in 1998 in a ceremony that is not recognized by the government.
Costello said that his government was right in blocking legalized unions for gay couples because marriage should only apply to opposite-sex partnerships.
The cabinet minister said gay partners have the right to access each other's pensions and that was about as far as the government was prepared to go.
He then said that "I think we do recognize the rights of gay and lesbian people in Australia. We do not criminalize conduct or behavior."
"I thought that was appalling. It was offensive. I found it suggesting that we were lucky that we weren't being thrown in jail," Stricker told the Australian Associated Press.
"We have in this country vast number of families with same sex couples as the parents. Their children don't have the same rights, the individuals in those relationships don't have the same rights, as people in heterosexual marriages."
Last year the Australian government passed legislation last year defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
©365Gay.com 2006
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