SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Ten Q&A on Same-Sex Marriage Canards and Evasions – American Thinker

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Forces pushing for genderless marriage are a wellspring of fallacies and unanswered questions about the consequences.  Let’s explore some of them.

1. What’s love got to do with it?

Nothing.  Romanticizing this debate by claiming that any two people in love should have a civil right to civil marriage is a foolish distraction.  Neither judges nor legislators have any business discussing “affection” as a factor in defining civil marriage.  Clergy who bless marriages have a legitimate and separate role in discerning the internal dynamics of couples.  But not the state.

2. What is the state’s interest in marriage?

First, to recognize the union that produces the state’s citizens.  Second, to encourage those who sire and bear the citizens to take responsibility for rearing them together.  That’s all, folks.  Proponents of genderless marriage often answer this question with non sequiturs such as property rights (irrelevant), civil rights (extraneous to the question), and “love and stability” (not a function of state involvement).

3.  Why should state interest in marriage be about children if not all marriages produce children?

It’s thoroughly irrelevant that many heterosexual couples lack children because of intent, infertility, age, or health.  Claiming that this is relevant to the case for genderless marriage suggests the “fallacy of composition”: inferring that something must be true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole.  Citizens of the state can exist only through the female-male union, no matter how the union occurs — whether traditionally, artificially, or in a petri dish.  That’s the only fact that provides any grounds for state interest in marriage.

4. What about marriage for the sake of same-sex households with children?

We just don’t have the right to deliberately deprive children of knowing their biological mothers or fathers.  But genderless marriage ultimately requires us to do this.  It requires society to sanction the refashioning of familial bonds in alienating and experimental ways.   Use of surrogates and egg or sperm markets put children at ever-increasing risk of being treated more as commodities than as human beings.  Laws supporting genderless marriage cannot help but ramp up these trends to newer and crueler levels.

Read more:

American Thinker, April 6, 2013.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/ten_qa_on_same-sex_marriage_canards_and_evasions.html#ixzz2PluE44p3

Stella Morabito has published several op-eds on same-sex marriage in The Washington Examiner.

Make a “Marriage Pledge” to Uphold Marriage definition as one man-one woman – Family First NZ

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Family First NZ is calling on all New Zealanders who oppose the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill that is scheduled to have its Third Reading in Parliament on Wednesday 17th April 2013, to go online (see link below) and make a “Marriage Pledge” that:

(1) they will not use their electorate vote to vote for an electorate MP who supports changing the definition of marriage, and

(2) they will not use their party vote to vote for a party whose leader supports changing the definition of marriage.

Family First states in an explanatory note assures those making the pledge:

“The politicians have ignored thousands of your submissions. They have ignored calls for a referendum on this massive cultural change – at the same time as demanding a referendum on state asset sales! They have demanded their right for a conscience vote, yet have voted to ignore the consciences of celebrants, registrars, churches hosting weddings, and others in the wedding industry etc. They are ramming this bill through without giving it the due consideration and debate it deserves.

“BUT THEY CAN’T IGNORE YOU AT THE BALLOT BOX! In fact, it’s the one time that they DO have to listen – so they will take notice of this”

WEBSITE ADDRESS TO SUBMIT YOUR PLEDGE:

See: http://www.mymarriagepledge.org.nz/

To download poster/advert on pledge go to:

http://www.protectmarriage.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/My-Marriage-Pledge-Full-Page-Advert.pdf

SPCS written submission on the Marriage Amendment Bill

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Submission on The Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill to

Government Administration Committee

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Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc.

Conclusion reads:

Parliament has no authority to redefine marriage and should not presume to engineer changes to a natural institution that constitutes the very fabric of society. Marriage is foundational to understanding and expressing the true nature of our humanity comprising the complementarity of the sexes in true union and the procreation of new life issued from that true union. Same-sex couples have the freedom to form meaningful and legally recognised relationships under the Civil Union Act. The concept of same-sex marriage is an oxymoron. Marriage by definition involves a man and a woman and its unique and distinctive quality must be preserved, protected and promoted by the State. The Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill should be rejected. The explanations provided in the Bill for amending the principal Act are legally flawed. Amendments to the Civil Union Act rather than the Marriage Act should be the means by which the GLBT community address their issues of inequality, denial of “rights” and claimed discrimination etc.

The full text is below, or you can access the PDF version (128kB) here.

[Read more…]

Syphilis “back with vengeance” among Christchurch’s young homosexual community

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Syphilis fuelled by iPhone applications such as Grindr have “come back with a vengeance” among Christchurch’s young homosexual community.

Sexual health physicians say the Government needs to take immediate action before the infection spreads into the heterosexual community, where it has the potential to claim the lives of unborn children.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/8402842/Syphilis-back-with-a-vengeance

Christchurch fielded a fourfold increase in infectious syphilis from 2011 to last year and so far this year 16 people have been treated for syphilis at the city’s Sexual Health Centre – with six of those infectious.

Canterbury District Health Board Sexual Health Centre physician Dr Heather Young said sexual health was “one of the most neglected hospital specialties” in New Zealand.

“If there is no specific action taken, it [syphilis] has the potential for rapid spread and I fear we will be just sitting here watching a train wreck,” Young said.

Infectious syphilis waned in Christchurch late last year but had “come back with a vengeance” this year.

Because government funding does not cover most sexually transmitted infections (STI), treatment rests with regional health boards.

Syphilis has been on the increase in New Zealand since 2003, with a rise of more than 193 per cent of cases between 2004 and 2006.

Rates peaked in Christchurch last year, Young said.

Not only did the number of cases leap from seven in 2011 to 28 last year, but the average age and way that men were contracting the infection also changed dramatically.

Most men who caught syphilis in 2011 were in their mid-40s and contracted the disease at sex-on-site venues, such as brothels.

However, last year the median age dropped to 26, with some sufferers as young as 19. It was most commonly caught after the use of social media or iPhone applications such as Grindr, Boy Ahoy and NZ Dating, Young said.

“The highest number of people contracting infectious syphilis is men having sex with men and many are using social media sites or smartphones to search for sexual partners.”

The applications enabled men to meet “anywhere safe and convenient” for casual sex.

Young knew some patients who used Grindr and had had more than 50 sexual partners in three months. Others did not even know the name of their last partner.

It wasn’t until a patient showed Young how the application worked that she realised “the ease of sexual partner acquisition”.

“I didn’t truly understand it until I saw it. About 50 people popped up in the immediate vicinity with directions on how to access them,” she said.

“People can access sexual partners with the greatest freedom they have ever had now.”

One of the big concerns was syphilis’ potential to spread into the heterosexual community where it can be transferred from mother to baby during pregnancy.

Congenital syphilis could result in miscarriages, still births and abnormalities in babies, she said.

Many other developed countries are also experiencing a rise of syphilis cases, but have already introduced measures to halt its spread.

“Syphilis should be a top priority [for the Government] because it’s got serious consequences,” Young said.

Dr Ed Coughlan, clinical director of the Sexual Health Centre, said the issue was “very concerning”.

Coughlan urged the community to have regular sexual health checkups.

Doctors around the city had been alerted and an advertising campaign was being published on Facebook and in homosexual magazines, he said.

Coughlan and Christchurch medical officer of health Dr Ramon Pink have also written a joint report to the Ministry of Health, urging the Government to initiate a national response with Pink calling for a “nationally co-ordinated approach”.

“We have texting, Facebook and Twitter and many ways in which we as a society are more connected but it is very important for us to realise that despite our advances in technology, these diseases are still prevalent in our community and they do pose a risk,” he said.

“We cannot take it lightly and we have to act appropriately.”

“Pockets” of the outbreak had flared up in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland and Pink said if nothing was done to contain the infection it would only be a matter of time before it went national.

The Government has identified sexual health as a “key work area” in its 2010-2013 Statement of Intent.

Ministry of Health chief medical officer Dr Don Mackie said the Government invested about $55 million in sexual and reproduction health services through ministry contracts and district health board provider agreements every year.

Environmental Science and Research also carries out STI surveillance on behalf of the ministry.

SOURCE:

Story by Livia Carville, 9 March 2012

Syphilis ‘back with vengeance’

Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/8402842/Syphilis-back-with-a-vengeance

Children’s Television watching linked to criminal activity by researchers

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Children who spend hours watching television after school are more likely to become criminals, researchers say.

A University of Otago study found the risk of having a criminal conviction by early adulthood increased by about 30 per cent with every hour children and teens spent watching TV on an average weeknight, co-author Associate Professor Bob Hancox said.

See: Fairfax NZ News Report by Bronwyn Torrie: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/8320462/TV-watching-linked-to-criminal-activity

Watching more television in childhood was also associated with aggressive personality traits, an increased tendency to experience negative emotions, and an increased risk of antisocial personality disorder in adulthood.

“While we’re not saying that television causes all antisocial behaviour, our findings do suggest that reducing TV viewing could go some way towards reducing rates of antisocial behaviour in society,” said Dr Hancox, of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children watch no more than one to two hours of quality television programming each day.

University of Canterbury sociology professor Greg Newbold said bad parenting, rather than excessive television watching, caused children to become criminals.

“The primary factor, I think, will be the fact that kids who are allowed to watch lots and lots of television have parents who do not play a very active role in their lives. Bad parenting and television are linked and criminality is a consequence of that.”

The study, Childhood and adolescent television viewing and antisocial behaviour in early adulthood, was published in the United States journal Pediatrics yesterday.

The research is another strand of the longitudinal study into a group of about 1000 children born in Dunedin in 1972-73. Every two years between the ages of 5 and 15, they were asked how much television they watched. They were then tracked until they were 26.

It is believed to be the first “real-life” study following television viewing throughout childhood, and then looking at a range of antisocial outcomes.

Study co-author Lindsay Robertson said children who watched more television were not antisocial in their younger years. “Rather, children who watched a lot of television were likely to go on to manifest antisocial behaviour and personality traits.”

This was not explained by socio-economic status, IQ, antisocial behaviour in early childhood, or lack of parental control.

As an observational study, it cannot prove that watching too much television caused the antisocial outcomes, but the findings are consistent with other research and provide further evidence that excessive television viewing can have long-term consequences for behaviour, Ms Robertson said.

Dr Hancox said a limitation of the study was the lack of information on the type of programmes the children had watched. “We can’t tell if it was a particular type of programme or just the fact they were watching TV at all.”

The question was whether the content contributed to violent and antisocial behaviour later in life, or whether the amount of time spent watching television meant children did not develop pro-social behaviour and life skills, he said.

But there was enough evidence to come to a conclusion backed by other studies.

“Children who watch violent TV behave in a violent way afterwards and people who watch a lot of TV are more likely to have bad behaviour later in life.”

SCREEN SHOTS

Excessive television viewing in younger years is associated with increased antisocial behaviour in adulthood.

The link between television viewing and antisocial behaviour in adulthood was similar for boys and girls.

However, antisocial outcomes were less common in women.

The connection between television viewing and violent convictions were not significant after controlling for other factors.

Source: Fairfax NZ News

See: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/8320462/TV-watching-linked-to-criminal-activity