IT'S hard to disagree with any government's decision to provide greater protections to children - whether they have heterosexual or same-sex parents.
As Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said yesterday when announcing parenting rights would be extended to lesbians, the protection of children is one of the cornerstones of our society.
A new law will give equal rights to children who live in families where mothers are in same-sex de facto relationships - covering areas such as workers' compensation, inheritance and school.
The legislation won't cover same-sex adoption or surrogacy, but the Government is sending a clear message to the community.
After the battles on racist behaviour and the Aboriginal sorry campaign, gay rights is emerging as the next big front for the social engineers.
For some time an almost subterranean push by the gay and lesbian lobby - assisted by government quietly in the background - has been aimed at promoting the rights of same-sex couples.
But the powers have been coy about bringing this campaign into the open, ventilating the issues to the wider public and exposing the arguments to scrutiny.
Last week Education Director-General Michael Coutts-Trotter and Parents and Citizens Federation president Di Giblin were high-profile speakers at a Government-backed conference on sexual diversity, That's So Gay.
Yet few people outside the event, which was organised by the AIDS Council of NSW, knew it was on and the agenda was not promoted to mainstream media outlets.
Mr Coutts-Trotter, who opened the conference and spoke passionately about the need to combat homophobia in schools, later downplayed his role to The Daily Telegraph. Yet the department already has a plethora of programs imbedded in the curriculum from Year 7 onwards all aimed at stamping out homophobic behaviour.
It was strongly suggested at the homophobia conference that children with two mothers face a tough time from bullying and harassment in the playground.
If this is correct then surely it is in the public interest that the wider community is properly and fully informed so that measures to stop this behaviour can be embraced.
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