On 30 Wednesday June, the Justice and Electoral Select Committee reported back on the Care of Children Bill, with its lesbian/gay guardianship clauses intact. Given that this government bill has majority support from the Labour, Greens (and Progressives), it is assured of passage. Moreover, the Select Committee Report is available online. So, what happened over the clauses related to abortion and homosexuality within the legislation? In the case of the latter, there were a large proportion of lesbian and gay oral submissions that supported our accession to guardianship rights and responsibilities, although most Christian Right submissions wanted to remove clauses related to competent minors and abortion access, predictably. As for antigay submissions, they tended to be written pro forma documents about fait accomplis. Many opposed lesbian access to assisted birth technologies like in vitro fertilisation, yet New Zealand lesbians have had access to that family formation method for the last decade or so. In other cases, they seemed unaware that the 'lesbian dads' clause had been replaced, although the bill still includes recognition of legal guardian status for the lesbian partners for women who use new birth technologies. Many of them were reportedly dependent on either the Maxim Institute or US Christian Right organisations like the Heritage Foundation or Marriage Law Project for their rote content. I'm not surprised by the latter, given MLP activist Lynn Wardle's close linkage to our Maxim Institute. As I've noted beforehand, he was a keynote speaker at an EDF "family forum" back in 1999. As for our side of the debate, many LGBT submissions concentrated on pro forma email letters and focused largely on coparent guardianship status, parenting orders, coparent legal status related to lesbian use of new reproductive technologies, conciliation and termination of guardianship. Unfortunately, the vote will probably be polarised along party lines, although it is a government bill, and Labour and the Greens will bloc-vote for it, so it will probably pass. Although Don Brash has said he'll support same-sex parenting provisions within the CCB, Judith Collins has said that National will try to amend the abortion-related clauses to pander to SPUC, Right to Life New Zealand and their misogynist ilk. In news coverage, guardianship surveillance proposals and Family Court transparency appear to have taken precedence over any coverage of the same-sex guardianship roles and responsibilities outlined within the CCB. Source: Dave Crampton's blogsite: http://big-news.blogspot.com [Evangelical Christian journalist, but a nice bloke. Justice and Electoral Select Committee Care of Children Bill Report: http://www.clerk.parliament.govt.nz/content/SelectCommitteeReports/54BAR2.pdf Craig Young - 1st July 2004