Judge talks of gay marriage from another side of bench
Bellinda Kontominas
October 24, 2006

JUSTICE Michael Kirby has used his experience as a gay man to highlight the legal discrepancies unfolding as same-sex marriage spreads to several countries.

In a speech to the National Family Law Conference in Perth yesterday, Justice Kirby called for equal treatment under one law for homosexual and heterosexual unions.

Tranquil lives … Justice Kirby and Johan van Vloten.

"It is a source of puzzlement to Johan and me, as we go about our tranquil lives, that there are many fellow citizens, some of them well educated and very important, who seem to be threatened and upset by such relationships and who feel the need to discriminate against them by laws enacted or unenacted by our nation's parliaments."

His comments come as the ACT Government revives its plan to legalise same-sex unions after legislation that would have allowed homosexual couples to enter into civil unions was disallowed by the Federal Government in June...continue via Sydney Morning Herald?