With the Maxim Institute in the doldrums after Logangate, has Gordon Copeland chosen the wrong time to grandstand over the DOMB? On 7 December, the Marriage (Gender Clarification) Bill will receive its first reading. You wouldn't know it from the surroundings. If this were Canada or the United States, both pro-gay and Christian Right marriage lobby groups would be loudly remarking about constitutional equality rights or discriminatory 'traditional' heterosexual marriage. Mind you, the Institute didn't put up much of a fight over the Marriage (Gender Clarification) Bill before Larry Baldock's demise and its delayed introduction, either. It only devoted a single webpage to the issue, and that was it. Nor did anyone else, apart from the Society for Promotion of Community Standards and Right to Life New Zealand. And with their profile, there might as well have been nothing else. Since then, Challenge Weekly has weighed in with commentary. Unfortunately for Christian Rightdom, Bruce Logan was probably their most prominent advocate of discriminatory spousal and family policies. Given that he has been outed as a discredited plagiarist, there will be problems if Michael Reid decides to take over his mentor's mantle over that issue. To put it bluntly, the Christian Right is in no strategic position to fight for this, and no condition either. There have been few media releases since Copeland announced he was taking the private members bill in question over. It's almost as if the real battle was fought and lost against civil unions, and banning same- sex marriage proper has only received half-hearted support as a result. There is no Campaign Against Same-Sex Marriage or whatever. By contrast, we do have the Campaign for Civil Unions and an infrastructure available to mobilise against this measure. We just need to do so. Given that SPCS and Right to Life New Zealand inhabit a vanished yesteryear where pressure groups don't have to prove what they say, we should be able to make more headway if we devote time and energy to it. Do they want to lose this? Recommended: http://www.challengeweekly.co.nz Challenge Weekly http://www.maxim.org.nz Maxim Institute http://www.right-to-life.org Right to Life New Zealand http://www.spcs.org.nz Society for Promotion of Community Standards Craig Young - 24th November 2005