Most people look at same-sex relationships these days and apply the "quacks like a duck..." argument. I don't believe this is an inner-city or left-wing phenomenon. To all intents and purposes, over half the population doesn't see any real qualitative difference between a steady relationship between two men or two women, and an opposite-sex union. We know this because the same agencies that bring us the weekly polling on politics have also taken surveys on same-sex marriage -- even if this is an area of opinion polling the major parties are content to ignore. People don't tend to look at any long-term relationship between a couple of adults in terms of what happens in the bedroom, and would rightly prefer to discuss the weather than brands of personal lubricant. Which is fair enough. What interests me is that the most vociferous comments against Senator Bernardi have come from parents of gay people, who are understandably upset at his insulting of their children's relationships. Bernardi likes to paint himself as pro-families, and where there is a same-sex couple you will find that there are always going to be in-laws, which looks strangely family-like. Here's a little suggestion as to what parents and families with gay children really see.
Surely this is the moment for a step back on all sides of the argument. Bernardi's comments reflect an extremely narrow section of the Liberal Party that happens to be very good at stealing the megaphone. It is sad, and he is more to be pitied than condemned. Laughter would be better still. Perhaps its time groups like PFLAG took a more prominent public stance to offer a more realistic position that would be harder to marginalize.
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