Rodney Croome, national director of Australian Marriage Equality – a pro-same-sex ‘marriage’ lobby group – is reported in The Age to be opposed to a referendum being held to determine whether or not same-sex ‘marriages’ should be legalized. Croome, a Tasmania-based Australian LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights activist and academic says:
Overseas referenda on marriage equality have been exploited by cashed-up, anti-gay groups to conduct fear and hate campaigns against gay people.
We know from US research that in states where there have been marriage equality referenda there is an increase in the level of anxiety, depression and suicide among gay and lesbian people.
The people who suffer the most are young gay people coming to terms with their sexuality.
An Australian referendum would give anti-gay stalwarts such as Fred Nile the biggest megaphone they have ever had.
This is why anti-equality groups are usually the ones calling for a referendum.
Another big problem is confusion about what’s being proposed.
Comment: Croome asserts that anyone who dares to express any opposition to “gay marriage” is “anti-gay” by definition and will “conduct fear and hate campaigns against gay people” motivated by their hatred of “gays”. This reasoning is absurd. It is logically flawed, false and is incessantly repeated by leading “gay” rights campaigners around the world.
Leading Christian philopsopher Dr William Lane Craig has addressed the fallacy inherent in this type of ‘reasoning’ when he states:
“It occurs to me that if my thinking that homosexual acts are immoral means that I hate homosexual people, then it follows that I must also hate all single people, since I think that pre-marital sex is wrong. Surely such an accusation is patently absurd.”
Many oppose “gay” or same-sex ‘marriage’ (SSM) for reasons that are not in any way connected with a belief that homosexual acts are wrong. They believe traditional marriage is a foundational institution of civil society and has been universally understood to involve a man and a woman in an exclusive relationship. This definition holds true irrespective of what people believe about the morality of homosexual acts between consenting adults. Many practising homosexuals opposes “gay” marriage and want nothing to do with an institution that they consider archaic, patriarchal and a hinderance to their sexual practices and lifestyle.
It is a logical absurdity for anyone, let alone an academic who should know better, to claim that if a person opposes SSM that means they hate “gay” people. It is an obvious non sequitur i.e. it is an inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premises or evidence.
