Archive Article

Meet the Parents

Female Convenor
Alex Sosnov

Male Convenor
Anthony Schembri

Secretary
Andrew Pickles

Treasurer
Jenny Mann

Committee Members
Grant Colquhuon
Luke Gahan
Shane Garland
Nadine Lutherborrow
Gillian Mahoney
Nikki Maloney
Jenni Millbank
Anthony Powell
Kathy Sant
Naomi Sharp
Suzy Tay

To Contact Us:
Phone: 02 9360 6650
Fax: 9331 7963
e-mail: glrl@rainbow.net.au

Meet the Parents, a new report written for the Lobby by committee member Jenni Millbank, is sure to become a fantastic resource for anyone wanting information about gay and lesbian parenting. The report is the most comprehensive overview of research done in this area ever produced, and will be an invaluable tool for lawyers, researchers and policy makers. Building on the work of the Lobby’s 2001 report on parenting, it is yet more evidence that discrimination against gay and lesbian parents and their children must be challenged and changed.

The Lobby is an active campaigner for legal and social equality for lesbians and gay men. An area of vast injustice, where lesbians and gay men continue to be denied basic human rights, is parenting. Lesbian and gay parents are regularly discriminated against in the community, in schools, in the provision of health care to their children, and in relation to leisure activities.

In Australia we like to believe that we recognise diversity and give a ‘fair go’ to all, yet very little is done to challenge the intolerance and discrimination thrust upon lesbian and gay families, including their children. All the worse when people make excuses for such discriminatory behaviour and for the lack of legal recognition of lesbian and gay families. Such excuses, however, fly in the face of all credible research, as Meet The Parents clearly demonstrates.

The major findings of this report conclude that the sexuality of a child's parents has no bearing on their development or well-being. It is the care and love put into a child’s upbringing that is of utmost importance, and lesbians and gay men are just as capable of loving and caring for their children as their heterosexual counterparts.

Difficulties arise, however, for lesbian and gay families as a result of the denial of basic rights and social bigotry. Legal rights currently denied include:

Anyone interested in the research or involved in the battle for legal and social equality for lesbian and gay families will find this report both informative and useful. For the Lobby, the report clearly backs up what we have always been fighting for, and provides undeniable evidence that current circumstances are unjust and discriminatory. It thus provides us with an important tool in our campaign work for equal rights. After all, lesbian and gay parents and their children suffer from others' bigotry, not from their own loving families.

Meet the Parents will be launched at Fair Day (see "Upcoming Events"), and will soon be available on the Lobby website.