Denying gays and lesbians the chance for their unions to be formally recognised condemns them to a life in a "shadowland" limbo, says an Australian commentator, and politicians and church leaders are using the issues as political pawns. "The same people who want to deny gay couples any vestige of formal recognition for their union, are also the first to denounce the stereotypical gay lifestyle," writes Muriel Porter, an Anglican laywoman and regular columnist. "They deplore the promiscuity presumed to be part and parcel of the world of gay bars and saunas. But if they refuse to honour monogamous same-sex unions, what alternative are they offering gay people? "If gay people are denied proper public recognition of their partnerships, they are left with little other than the lifestyle offered by the gay community, which inevitably leaves them in a kind of shadowland. To the wider community, the myth of gay relationships as invariably short-lived and somehow degenerate, remains unchallenged. "Those who oppose gay unions know all this. They know that they are condemning gay people to a life of marginalisation, at the very least. But that is the object of this distasteful political exercise. They want a world they can control, where conventional marriage is the only recognised form of sexual relationship."