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Nothing was Going to Change…or Was It?

The challenge for Christians today is the same as it was for God’s people when they were in exile in Babylon. Whenever an orchestra of musical instruments were played, the people were told to bow down to the golden image, or else. This is exactly where we all are again today. Except this time the image has every colour of the rainbow. Whatever is threatened if we don’t, it remains binding that we cannot bow down to their image but must continue to worship God alone.

When LGBTIQA2SGMS+ activists sought to overturn the meaning of marriage, many people tried to warn others about the obvious dangers of doing so. However, this was often met with scorn and derision. Even some leaders in the Church declared that such concerns were tantamount to Chicken Little’s hysterical cry of the “Sky Is Falling!”

‘Nothing is going to change’, they said. ‘Except for the right of two people of the same sex to be able to love each other!’ The changes, however, have not only been far-reaching, but also profoundly detrimental.

All of which shouldn’t really surprise us, for as Marsha Gessen, the lesbian political activist, brazening told a Writer’s Festival Sydney in 2012:

Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there. Because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change. And that is a lie.

What follows then is a summary of just some of the things which I perceive has changed since the covenant of marriage was redefined into something which no civilisation in the history of the world has consistently celebrated or legally affirmed. Obviously there were one or two anomalies to this, but significantly, their cultures failed to flourish, let alone survive.You Must Wear the Ribbon!

Before same-sex marriage was ever a thing, comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld clearly understood what was just around the corner. Do you remember the sketch involving the character of Kramer who was physically assaulted for not wearing the ribbon at an AIDS march? This was viewed as being funny back in the early 2000’s but no one would laugh about it now…

The pressure to engage in performative public acts of political support for ‘Alphabet People’ has exploded exponentially since gay-marriage has been legalised. In the space of little more than one generation, homosexuality has gone from being a criminal offence, to a psychological disorder, to a valid moral choice, to being openly celebrated, to being repeatedly affirmed, to now being something of a protected species with its own set of blasphemy laws (i.e. ‘hate speech’ legislation).

Homosexual Marriages have Statistically Decreased

As far back as July, 2017 I published an article in The Spectator Australia, pointing out how the promise of an economic boom as a result of same-sex marriage being legalised was clearly false. But since then my thesis that after the initial euphoria of same-sex marriage wore off, there would be a steady statistical decline, has proven to be pretty accurate. Just consider the following statistical summary from the Australian Institute of Family Studies:

Year                Male SSM                  Female SSM              Total SSM      % of All Marriages

2018               2,757                          3,781                          6,538              5.5%

2019               2,262                          3,243                          5,507              4.8%

2020               1,117                          1,782                          2,902              3.7%  

2021               1,075                          1,770                          2,845              3.2%

2022               1,767                          2,667                          4,434              3.5%

2023               1,735                          2,619                          4,354              3.7%

2024               1,893                          2,622                          4,515              3.7%

Obviously, the number of marriages peaked in 2018, the first full year of legalisation, due to a backlog of long-term couples waiting for the right to marry. Then COVID-19 hit and subsequently everyone’s ability to get married was disrupted and in some places in Australia even forbidden. However, the long term trend has been that marriages between a couple of the same-sex are becoming less and less popular.

It’s also worth noting how the above statistical snapshot does not include the number of same-sex couples who have subsequently been divorced. This figure alone is not insignificant, with the Australia Bureau of Statistics recording that for 2024, the most recent full statistical reporting year, a total of 760 divorces were granted to same-gender or gender-diverse couples.The Decline in Marriage Overall

Sadly, the trend of marriage rates being in decline or not being viewed as a sacred life-long commitment is true across the board. In this sense, the legalisation of same-sex marriage was something of a symptom of a broader problem rather than a case. Sociologists are now referring to the “deinstitutionalisation of marriage” which can be summarised under four main points:

First, the number of de facto relationships has tripled since the 1980’s. Back in 1986 de facto partnerships accounted for just 6% of all couple relationships. By 2001 this number had doubled to 12%. Then in 2016 the proportion rose even further to 18%. Until today approximately 20% (or 1 in 5) couples in Australia are currently live in a de facto relationship rather than a registered marriage.

Second, the new societal norm is no longer marriage before co-habitation. Even Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, was living in the lodge with his girlfriend long before deciding to be married. This was not viewed as being a scandal—a few short years ago it would have been— because whereas in 1992, approximately 56% of couples lived together before they married, today that number is more like 81%. In short, more than 4 out of 5 weddings involve couples who were already living together.

Third, about fifty years ago the marriage rate in Australia was about 13 marriages per 1,000 adults. Today that figure has plummeted to 5.5 marriages per 1,000 adults.

Four, as more and more couples delay getting married to pursue things such as higher education, travelling overseas and establishing their “financial individualization”, the average age of a first marriage has risen from the early 1990s by roughly 5 years. This means that the current median age for getting married is 32.8 years for men and 31.2 years for women. The biological clock is ticking but nobody seems to really care.

Marriage vs Homonormativity

It’s probably apposite at this point to recall that there were a number of LGBTIQ+ people themselves who were publicly outspoken in their opposition to same-sex marriage. This is because they viewed marriage as the ‘heteronormative’ institution—which in and of itself they were opposed to and rejected. For instance, the feminist, lesbian academic from RMIT in Melbourne, Dr Caroline Norma wrote:

A “no” vote in the postal plebiscite by all right-minded citizens is crucial for turning this ship around, and bringing back to Australian public life the sparky radicalism of lesbians and gays not so eager to reflect back to heterosexuals their own image tediously magnified.

With only approximately 5% of same-sex couples deciding to get married (not including the 2,400 registered divorces among same-sex couples between 2021 and 2024) one doesn’t have to be a rocket-scientist to see how Caroline Norma was right. Most same-sex couples do not want to married as it is really not in keeping with the ‘free love’ of the gay lifestyle.

In short, the exclusive and life-long covenant of marriage is one of the central tenants of a society which is heteronormative. What better way to introduce ‘homonormativity’ then, than by reordering what it means from the inside out!

The Rights of Children have been Abandoned

When Katy Faust came to Australia in September of 2017, I had the privilege of organising an interview with her whilst she was in Sydney. Katy exploded onto the public stage as an outspoken advocate for the rights of children and her words of warning have proven over and over to be true.

Almost ten years later, Katy’s insight has proven to be prescient.

We have been told that this is simply an issue of love, that “love-is-love”, and, yeah that is sort of right! Our gay and lesbian friends have some capacity to love and commit. But here’s the problem. This is not just about love.

In every place where gay marriage has been redefined children’s rights have been sacrificed. When you redefine marriage you redefine parenthood. When you make husbands and wives optional, fathers and mothers become legally optional as well. The problem is that in a child’s life mothers and fathers are never optional and in this debate children are not being given a voice.

Katy’s website ThemBeforeUs.com tells story after story and study after study of children who have suffered detrimental effects from gay marriage. In reviewing the academic literature which claims that there is no difference between children raised in same-sex families and those by their biological parents it was found that they “…often used poor methodology (non-random samples, parental (self) reporting vs. actual child outcomes, and were short in duration to reach their conclusions.” As Katy records of a young man who had been raised by lesbian parents:

“When puberty hit, though, I became increasingly aware of the hole in my life where I wanted a father. Granted, my relationship with my parents was already souring at this point for a variety of other factors. Still, I yearned for a male role model, someone to talk to about “guy things.” My parents had no male friends, and only ever seemed to talk about males disparagingly. I would hear that men were inherently more violent, selfish, and unhealthy – and I began to believe them.”

In short, there were three main problems with these so-called objective, scientific studies, particularly in early LGBTIQ+ parenting research:

First, the participants were aware that the purpose was to investigate same-sex parenting and may have biased their responses in order to produce the desired result.

Second, participants were recruited through networks of friends or through advocacy organizations, resulting in a sample of same-sex parents of higher socioeconomic status than is typical of parents in a same-sex relationship generally.

Third, on average, samples of fewer than 40 children of parents in a same-sex relationship virtually guaranteed findings of no statistically significant differences between groups.Commercial Surrogacy Has Become More Mainstream

One of the greatest bogeyman’s employed against Christians in the public square has been the dystopian feminist novel by Margaret Attwood, The Handmaid’s Tale. The work has become something of a modern cultural phenomenon with the book proving to be influential particularly amongst young people as it is a prescribed text in most high schools, in addition to being made into a popular TV series freely streamed on platforms such as SBS.

But is Christian nationalism the real enemy here, or is it actually gay marriage? The sexual union between two people of the same sex is inherently sterile, biologically speaking. Hence, the only way around this is to introduce the egg or sperm of a another person outside the relationship. I would encourage you to watch the following interview. It’s a little long but definitely worth the investment of your time time (Hot Tip: Try listening to podcast interviews on 1.5 speed and get your life back).

Gender Has Been All But Obliterated

Millie Fontana called out the true goal of gay marriage ten years ago when she observed that it wasn’t about gender equality but rather the obliteration of gender all together. Ms Fontana’s claim might have seemed hyperbolic back then, but approximately ten years later her warning needs to be taken seriously.

Ironically, it was Julia Gillard, Australia’s first female Prime Minister, who will go down in history as the one responsible for the debacle we are all now witnessing. This is because in 2013, the Gillard Labor Government amended the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to add sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status as protected attributes. 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1NtdWvgMJV

However, there is some hope that this injustice might be overturned as Alison Penfold, the National’s MP for Lyon, seeks to introduce a private members’ bill into the federal parliament.

The recent incidents involving Sally Grover’s case “Giggle vs Tickle” not to mention the other just as absurd cases of Kirralie Smith and Moria Deeming, are all glaring examples of why the law needs to change. But this is not just about the rights of women, but of biological men too who want the freedom to be able to enjoy single-sex spaces. While other countries are not far behind, Australia has quickly become an international laughingstock and a world leader in progressive politics.

If same-sex marriage had not been legalised, then it’s almost certain that Western civilisation wouldn’t be living through the gender confusion of today. This really is as basic as being able to tell one’s right hand from one’s left (See Jonah 4:11).

The Rise of Militant Islam

While there are lots of other aspects, one which I don’t think many people consider is the rise of totalitarian religious movements such as Islam. With the decline of traditional sexual morality around the world and the pandora’s box of progressive possibilities now on full display, we are seeing something of a pendulum swing in the opposite direction.

There used to be a meme on social media which went: “This is why the Muslims hate us”. It was presented as a shocking joke involving western absurdities being the “real” reason for anti-Western sentiment, rather than geopolitical issues. There is little doubt that there is truth here.

People who have migrated to the West for a better life economically are routinely appalled at the sexual depravity they routinely see. Even in our own culture, people are being attracted to totalitarian expressions of religion because of its affirmation regarding moral absolutes in a world where there basically are none.

Don’t Bow Down to the Golden Rainbow Image

A friend of mine on social media pointed out recently how Australian law today can be summarised by a quote from Lewis Carroll’s in his classic children’s story Alice in Wonderland:

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

Sadly, we have become a nation where words have not only all but lost their meaning, but due to the ‘chilling effect’ brought in through gay marriage, most people are too afraid to speak the truth. As in that other children’s fable, The Emperor Has No Clothes, even when we see the naked stupidity of someone else’s view very few people call it out.

Whenever you get a chance, watch this following short video on Disney’s original short cartoon Chicken Little, and you’ll understand not only how prophetic it was.

What’s happened in Australia since gay marriage? In short, only everything that really matters or is morally important. Our entire culture as a civilisation has been basically cooked. The sky may not have literally fallen in but we have all but lost the ability to perceive the danger when it’s there. There was once a time when Walt Disney was able to warn of the threats to come, but that time has sadly passed.

– Mark Powell