its not, however relationships and marrage ARE. For instance you are involved in a car acident and are in a drug induced coma in ICU. People need to make decisions on your treatment in your best interests so who should it be?
The courts?
The doctors themselves?
or the people who you love and who love you and whom you have possably discussed your desires to
Orleander has stated before that in a persistant vegitative state she would want the works done to keep her alive, personally i would want to be let die. We are both brought in to hospital from the same crash, how would the doctors or the courts know that when faced with the same probablility they should let me die and try to save her?
Im sure Orleanders husband could tell them her desires and PB DEFINITLY could about me
Now until recently in Australia even Defacto same sex couples were NOT concidered to be next of kin even after changes which gave that right and responcability to Hetrosexual Defactos. If you had previously been married or worse were just seperated your FORMER partner could be concidered to be your next of Kin even if that was 20 or more years ago (that was pre a law which past LAST YEAR)
Now lets say you have children to a drug adict when you were 18 and still trying to find yourself before you came out as homosexual. You took an action in the family court to get sole cutody of that child. You and you new homosexual partner have raised that child (lets say its 12 years latter) and the mother hasnt even SEEN the child, they have been living on the streets or whatever and the child conciders you and your male partner to be its parents. You and the child are in a car acident Under CURRENT australian law your male partner can NOT make medical decisions for that child as his\her guardian. They would have to take it to the courts or try to find the mother to do it even if she was found lying in a ditch dead or compleatly intoxicated through drugs. If you died then you WOULD NOT be granted custody it would revert to the mother, if she was found dead or unfit the child becomes a ward of the state and you would be UNABLE to adopt that child because of your sexuality.
Then there are issues around being able to be placed in the same room as your partner in a nursing home when you age which is a RIGHT for married couples but was not a right for defactos of either gender (i THINK) but definitly same sex couples until the changes in federal law last year.
there are other finantial things like the same sex partner of a soldier killed in war wasnt able to recive a gold or platnum card, war widows pention ect, they wernt concidered to be partners for tax and social securities purposes ect ect.
Like it or not marriage is a STATE contract and there for it should be free to anyone who wishes to use it and is legally able to consent (before we get the barron max's of the world claiming that they want to marry there goat ANIMALS CANT CONSENT)