My letter to the Attorney General for what it's worth...

Dear Sir,

On April 30th, 2008 The Age speculated that there would be an end to discrimination against same-sex couples on many fronts, but whether or not they would have access to the family court was still being resolved.

In this instance, I beg that you consider the children born into this situation. They are being discriminated against for something they cannot possibly control.

I believe that denying access to same-sex couples discriminates against the children born into same-sex families. Children involved in court cases, particularly custody battles, can suffer severe stress and long term harm (I have vivid memories of my parent's court cases in the late 1970s). The Family Court now has procedures and policies in place to protect children from messy adversarial court cases. At present, children of heterosexual couples benefit from this protection whether or not their parents are married. To deny same-sex couples access to the family court is to deny children of same-sex couples the same protection children of heterosexual couples enjoy. In my opinion, this is blatant and harmful discrimination.

Without the family court, same-sex couples are forced to settle their differences in the civil courts that lack policies and regulations to protect families from damaging adversarial court cases. The Family Court of Australia requires that couples attempt alternative forms of dispute resolution before taking their case to court; appearing before a judge is a last resort and even then, a less adversarial trial is conducted with the interests of the children paramount. The civil courts are under no compulsion to give children this protection.

To deny same-sex couples access to the family courts is to expose a small portion of our community's children to a potentially stressful legal process; it condemns them to the equivalent of the dark ages of family law. Again I beg you to consider the children when resolving the issue of whether or not to give same-sex couples access to the family court.

On another note, I believe The Family Court is best equipped to deal with the additional complications that can arise in same-sex families. For example, I know a lesbian couple with two children. With the exception of gender and some discrimination they operate just like any other family. They have the same joys, trials and tribulations and will suffer the same stress and grief if the relationship breaks down. If a separation did occur, the situation would be complicated by the fact that the father is the same, yet the mothers are different (they decided to share the child bearing load and have one each). The Family Court is experienced in family dynamics and providing solutions to complex problems, therefore it is best placed to consider complicated cases such as this.

Please consider giving all families access to the Family Courts, no matter what their dynamic. For the sake of the children, please.

Yours faithfully etc.

UPDATE 12/08/08: Yey! Full access to the family courts for everyone! I like to think that I had something to do with it, but given I got a standard (albeit informative) letter in reply I rather doubt it! :-)