April 3, 2012 (Dr.) Jane Anderson
Submission to Senate Committee on Same-Sex Marriage
(This is a public document and listed as Submission 123 on the Senate Committee
website)
Dear Committee Secretary,
This morning I received an email encouraging the support of traditional or heterosexual marriage as
an exclusive model for all Australians. However, the problem with this view is that diversity is
deleterious both to adult commitment and children. I therefore welcome this opportunity to make
the following submission
I write to you as a committed Catholic and one who has had long involvement in the Church. The
seriousness of that affiliation has, among other things, led me to look at issues such as marital
status, gender and sexual orientation at an academic level. Indeed, I am currently pursuing
postdoctoral research on progressive Catholicism, which is moving on from these arguments to
concerns about pressing contemporary issues such as the development of personal and mutual
relationships, climate change, refugees, homelessness and the like. In the meantime, I also know
that the bishops are increasingly divided over these and other issues, and that priests and laity are
becoming demoralised and frustrated. Some would also express their concern over the increasing
irrelevancy and marginalisation of the Church, simply because it refuses to discuss issues such as the
one being put forward: same-sex marriage.
I assert that if marriage is to be a public celebration of a couple’s commitment to each other, then it
should be made available to those adults who are willing to enter into that mutual arrangement. To
deny same-sex couples that public institution is to handicap their relationships and diminish the
social supports and sanctions that come with that.
As for children, they need functional parents. Marital status, gender and sexual orientation are
different qualities and are no guarantee that children will receive what is needed for their formative
years. The statistics on divorce provide one example of my claim. Today, parenthood requires men
and women to be skilled in the art of loving and raising children.
In today’s society, I doubt that many of us consider ourselves to be simply biological beings, which,
here, implies that generativity need not be solely related to biology. Similarly, most people would
not consider the primary purposes of marriage are procreation and the protection of the wife and
children. Rather, I think we recognise ourselves as sociological beings in that we value or give preeminence
to the quality of our relationships. That emphasis, in effect, changes the meaning of
marriage. Marriage is most importantly about a mutual covenant between two people who love
each other, who seek to make a lifelong commitment to each other, and who care and nurture each
other. It is in this relational frame that children are ideally raised. The couples as parents ensure the
generativity of their love and commitment to each other are passed onto their children. From this
perspective, I see, therefore, no reason to exclude same sex couples from marriage. Indeed, I see
every reason to encourage their marriages. Marriage as a public contract along with its deep
mythological and religious foundations, has the potential (unlike ‘superficial’ civil unions) to provide
support, sanctions and a deep grounding that will, ideally, work to protect their relationships and the
children that may or may not be raised by these people.
With regards my religious perspective, it concerns me greatly that the Christian and Catholic view is
no longer catholic. It assumes uniformity rather than diversity of opinion, a fundamentalist stance
that I believe does not serve Australian society. In a transitioning society, we need to deal with and
accommodate complexity of contemporary relationships in proactive ways.
In closing, the ultimate nature of relationships is care and nurturing. I trust that this foundation will
be recognised as grounds for achieving equal treatment for same-sex couples, including marriage.
Kind regards,
(Dr.) Jane Anderson