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David Van Gend
Connor Court, 2016
Connor Court, 2016
Dr
David Van Gend is a fundamentalist rural Queensland doctor who lives in
Toowoomba, one of the most backward rural centres in Queensland and a
hotbed of right-wing extremism in that Australian state for many years.
So, what does this book have to say? Not too much that is original.
One
wonders why the Australian Christian Right isn't simply importing
remaindered material against marriage equality from the United States,
to help out the ailing and heavily indebted US National Organisation for
Marriage, as New Zealand fundamentalist bookstores did during the civil
union debate, which helped no end in rehearsing arguments for marriage
equality that ended up becoming highly useful a mere eight years later
when New Zealand's own marriage equality debate occurred. Oddly enough,
though, Australian Christian Right books against marriage equality don't
turn up on New Zealand fundamentalist bookstore shelves. I've had to
send money to my parents over in Brisbane to get my hands on this
material.
So,
who is this character and what are his affiliations? Van Gend is
Queensland director of Doctors Who Respect Human Life (an anti-abortion
medical group) and also involved with the "Australian Marriage Forum",
which is a coalition of Australian Christian Right organisations opposed
to marriage equality. Don't quote me on the publisher, because
apparently they decided to relinquish the property once they found out
about the content. And as for that content...van Gend has quaint ideas
about the 'essential' nature of straight married parents to the
successful rearing of children. Except that Judith Stacey and Tim
Biblarz found that same-sex parenting has little effect on the
educational outcomes of children of lesbians and gay men, that partners
and parents have excellent interpersonal communication skills in this
context, that boys raised in such contexts actually communicate with
women better and girls grow up to be independent, capable women in
non-traditional employment. It's the same old cherry picked nonsense
from sub-cultural luminaries insofar as claims against same-sex parenting
go, I'm afraid, but what would you expect? Mark Regnerus gets a look
in, as one might expect, even given the thorough drubbing his hatchet
job received over here, for instance.
And then there's the anti-transgender crusade. Australia is financing campaigns to upset the time-hallowed 'essential', polarised and complementary categories of male and female in the interests of... transgender child and adolescent health and safety at school. Never mind that the Vatican only came up with its current dogma that hormone treatment and reassignment surgery are forbidden to 'faithful' Catholics a mere decade ago, when Dr Paul McHugh acted as a 'consultant' to the Vatican on that issue. Never mind, too, that this sectarian religious natural law philosophy is just that and fails the tests of meaningful religious freedom and faith/state separation that are conducive to healthy, diverse civil liberties, human rights and democratic institutions.
The
only injustice in the marriage equality debate is the continuing
discriminatory denial of civil marriage equality to Australian LGBT
partnerships and derogatory, destructive calumnies against LGBT parents
of children who will be exposed to this hyperbole and pseudo-scientific
nonsense. As for claims that conservative Christians are being
'victimised' by any impending introduction of marriage equality across
the Tasman, might I point out that New Zealand has had marriage equality
for the last three years and there have been no recriminations against
Family First or fundamentalists employed in secular occupations, or
accommodation providers. And don't forget homeless and impoverished
Australians who could do with the millions of dollars that the Coalition
shamelessly intends to lavish on these unrepresentative Australian
Christian Right pressure groups.
Too bad if your nanna needs a hip replacement, 'family values' comes first. Er, what was that about 'stealing' again?! Come to think of it, what was that about 'families'?!
-Craig Young
Not Recommended:
David Van Gend: http://www.davidvangend.com
Australian Marriage Forum: http://www.australianmarriage.org
