At the most conservative estimate about 30,000 Australian children are being raised by same-sex couples. The figure is probably much higher.
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These children will grow up to be just as happy and healthy as their peers, and will be heterosexual in exactly the same proportion.
I'm certain about this because it is confirmed by 40 years of research.
But don't take my word for it.
All relevant professional organisations agree it is love which makes a family, not gender.
For example, here's the view of the Australian Psychological Association:
"Parenting practices and children's outcomes in families parented by lesbian and gay parents are likely to be at least as favourable as those in families of heterosexual parents."
Meanwhile, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has shot down one the silliest stereotypes about same-sex parenting:
"There is no basis on which to assume that a parental homosexual orientation will increase likelihood of or induce a homosexual orientation in the child.”
Based on this kind of expert opinion, Tasmanian and Australian law has moved a long way towards recognising that parental gender and sexual orientation are irrelevant.
Same-sex couples can have children through fertility treatment and be legally recognised as a family when they do.
Same-sex couples can foster children and same-sex step-parents can adopt their partner's child.
The courts treat same and opposite-sex couples exactly the same when it comes to child custody and maintenance.
The two remaining anomalies in Tasmania are that same-sex couples can't adopt other people's biological children and surrogacy arrangements aren't legally-regulated.
This makes no sense.
In some situations it is in the interests of a foster child to be adopted by their gay foster parents, but the law stops this happening.
It is also in the best interests of a child born through a surrogacy arrangement to have that arrangement legally recognised and protected, but again the law fails that child.
Some groups defend this discrimination because they believe research shows a child does best when raised by their biological father and mother.
But what they don't tell us is that these studies compare children from stable mum-and-dad families with children from broken homes, and have nothing to do with same-sex parenting.
This has been confirmed by Professor Patrick Parkinson, the author of a study commissioned by the Australian Christian Lobby which has been used in recent months to attack gay parents.
He found children do well in stable mum-and-dad families, but in an acknowledgment that same-sex couples can also provide the kind of stability kids need he said that his report "...did not engage in any criticism about same-sex relationships of any kind."
As Australians, one of our fundamental values is that people should be judged by their individual character, not their gender or sexual orientation.
For example, we welcome women and gay people into political leadership roles as long as they are up to the job.
So when it comes to the most important job of all, being a parent, lets apply the same standard.
Lets judge parents according to their ability to offer children what they need most – love and care – and not condemn them on the basis of gender or sexual orientation.
I urge this not for the sake of gay parents but for the sake of their children.
No Australian child should grow up feeling their family is looked down on by other people.
If we truly believe in what is best for children we will challenge the old stereotypes that say the families of gay parents are second-rate and dysfunctional.
On this special day when we celebrate family love, lets leave behind old prejudices and show same-sex couples with children the same respect we show all other families.