After the exciting news that same-sex marriage is now legal in New York, and revelations that many state leaders of the Labor Party support marriage equality, you’re bound to get the occasional oddball in opposition spewing garbage about our communities.

Readers of Brisbane’s Courier Mail on Wednesday were given two opposing views on the issue in a feature titled Gay marriage – the case for and against.

Predictably, the one in favour of same-sex marriage was well-written and contained logic, but the case against lacked reasonable sense in every possible way.

David van Gend went as far as to say that children growing up in same-sex marriages would produce ‘a new stolen generation’. How did he come to this conclusion? I guess his training to be a GP makes him culturally and historically relevant and the fact that he is a spokesman for the right-wing religious political lobby group Family Council of Queensland makes his word truth, right?

Now I could quote everything he stated in his nice little opinion piece, but then I honestly believe there is better things to do with my time, such as hack his analogies to pieces. His comparisons to the stolen generation is purely ridiculous and offensive to all indigenous Australians. The stolen generation was the result of an Act which enabled the Aborigines Protection Board to remove Aboriginal children from their parents without having to establish that they were in any way neglected or mistreated.

Unless our government plans to take children from heterosexual couples and force them to live with gay ones instead, I really can’t see how this is going to result in a ‘stolen generation’. Now don’t get me wrong, in some cases this might be a smart idea, but who am I to judge?

I live with the belief that a good parent has nothing to do with gender, but everything to do with how they bring a child up with love and provides everything emotionally and materially that is needed for a child to live in today’s society.

Another interesting opinion Dr David van Gend brings up is that every child needs a mother. I find this remark completely offensive and insulting to all the single dads out there that have dedicated their life to bringing a child up solo. I know a few cases, and contrary to what this misguided GP might think, these kids have turned out completely fine.

Rather then condemning them, shouldn’t he be commending these single parents? Or does he honestly believe the right to marry is simply a license to breed like cattle? Should unmarried couples be banned from having children? Now what about all those non-nuclear families which statistics say outnumber the two-parent household? Should those children be forcibly taken away from them too?

He also attempts to make his comments valid by stating that “a black person cannot stop being black, but a gay person can certainly stop being gay, as a large number of formerly gay men and women around the world have demonstrated.”

He makes reference to outdated controversial study by Robert Splitzer that investigates one’s choice of homosexuality. This same study has since been debunked by numerous professionals, and ironically Robert Spitzer was also instrumental in having homosexuality removed as a disorder from the DSM. I’m yet to hear of an ex-gay therapy group that doesn’t have ties to a religious organisation.

It must also be noted that this article was the case of same-sex marriage for or against. I didn’t know we were talking about the right of same-sex couples to have children. Once more we see a right-wing fundamentalist drawing loose straws, screaming “what about the children?” like a crazy Simpsons character, rather then dealing with the matter at hand.

I couldn’t agree more with Karen Brooks who wrote the case for same-sex marriage. “Marriage is not a gay/straight issue any more. It’s about human rights to access, benefits, legitimacy, recognition, and public acknowledgment of mutual love.”

Yes we could go to the lengths of abusing the Courier Mail for publishing homophobic rants like that of Dr David van Gend’s, but then judging by the responses of support this particular article has accumulated from both the LGBT and heterosexual communities, sometimes we have to thank our mainstream media for bringing to light the uneducated and hypocritical as we continue our quest for equality.

One final note, am I the only one disturbed by the fact that Dr David van Gend is actually a practising MP in Toowoomba? I can’t help but wonder what prescriptions one with such beliefs might provide to confused youths suffering depression, while coming to terms with their own sexuality.

All I can think to say is this…

Disclaimer: The thoughts expressed in this article are that of Chad St. James and his alone. Any similarities to those shared by others can only be put down to logical thinking.