Media Release
PROTECT THE HUMAN RIGHT OF A CHILD
TO A MOTHER AND A FATHER
National Marriage Coalition Statement on the NSW Adoption Amendment
(Same Sex Couples) Bill 2010.
The Adoption Amendment (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2010, hence “Bill”, before the NSW
Parliament exists to extend adoption ‘rights’ to gays and lesbians. This push also has serious
implications for marriage in Australia as the begetting and raising of children is best and most
appropriate in the context of marriage.
Gerard Calilhanna, a spokesman for the National Marriage Coalition, said, “The implication of the
Bill undercuts the role of marriage because it removes, in law, the necessity of a child having a
mother or a father. If two men can adopt, the motherhood is irrelevant, if two women can adopt,
then fatherhood is irrelevant.
A child’s natural birthright is a mother and a father and the best social, economic and emotional
environment for the conception, birth and raising of that child is in marriage. In adoption the right
to a mother and father, though now not by one or both natural parents, does not abrogate this right.
The right to a mother and father remains as an extension of this original natural family bond in the
context of marriage.
This Bill breaks that bond, formally separating the child from his or her right to a mother and a
father and, in consequence, separates the raising of a child from a mother and a father. Hence, the
necessity of promoting marriage for this purpose disappears. Marriage no longer matters.”
Mr Calilhanna continued, “This undercuts the relationship between marriage and children, because
if motherhood and fatherhood is no longer relevant to what is “in the child’s best interests”, as this
Bill seeks to fulfil, then neither is marriage.
On the basis of redefined parenting serving “the child’s best interests”, this pushes the parenting
aspect of marriage also to change its meaning to accommodate two ‘parents’ of the same sex. We
can then interchange any combination of two adults to fit the parenting role in marriage and thus
help redefine marriage. The gay adoption push subverts the meaning of marriage and is another
part of the campaign for gay marriage.
For the sake of children, their rights and their part in marriage the National Marriage Coalition
opposes the push for same-sex adoption.”
Gerard Calilhanna
0417 487 844
NEWS 
