The President of the Western Australian branch of the Australian Family Association has welcomed the 2011 census counting same sex couples who have married overseas. John Barich said it shows that few gay couples really want to get married.
Speaking to RTRFM’s Morning Magazine program Barich argued that the 2006 census had shown that there were only 22,000 same sex couples in Australia in comparison to nine million married couples and that the influence of gay lobbyists was totally out of kilter with the numbers.
In a heated discussion with host Meri Fatin, Barich argued,
‘Five years ago there were twenty three thousand of them, so this time that figure may double but they’re still totally inconsequential to the nine million heterosexual married people.’
When asked for the reasoning behind the Australian Family Association’s stance against same sex marriage, especially if the gay population was so inconsequential, Barich offered to send the show’s presenter some books to read to understand their position.
Barich argued that support for same sex marriage was amongst unmarried people and those already married did not want the institution to change,
‘Why don’t you poll the married people, the nine million and see how many of those support same sex marriage?’ Barich argued.
The Australian Family Association’s National Marriage Day Rally will be held in Canberra on Tuesday August 16th, the day before federal politicians are due to report back to parliament on their electorates views on same sex marriage.
Listen to the full program at RTRFM
Graeme Watson
Declaration: OUTinPerth Editor Graeme Watson is a presenter at RTRFM and a financial member of Art Radio Ltd. Prior to commencing his role at OUTinPerth Graeme was the General Manager of RTRFM.
