Definition of Family

David Lane, of the Society for the Promotion of Community standards says the head of the Families Commission Dr Rajen Prasad, has no idea of what constitutes a family. Mr Lane's preference is a married heterosexual couple with kids - like his own family is. He asks whether these groupings are 'families"

A transexual, (sic) who has undergone a sex operation to become a 'women', (sic) and a homosexual man, cohabiting in a sexual/domestic relationship, together with a child for whom the homosexual has guardianship responsibility (the child was born to a lesbian, now deceased, who used the man's donated sperm for IVF treatment). The two adults have chosen not to enter a civil union.

and

A de-facto heterosexual couple living with a bisexual and her kids.

I would have thought that the sexual orientation, practice or marital status is irrelevant to the Families Commission's definition of "family".

How different is a male bisexual living with a female lesbian along with a single heterosexual mother and her two kids from her lesbian partner to a heterosexual couple living with a heterosexual sole mother and her heterosexual kids in terms of a Families Commission definition of family?

Mr Lane obviously does not understand bisexuality and seems to think that every baby born to an unmarried person through donated sperm has a gay link.

Look, if bisexual Jane was in a relationship with transsexual Bob and had a baby via sperm donor though heterosexual Jim, and Jane brought the baby home to her family which so happened to include heterosexual Craig who had yesterday come out as a homosexual and was living with his three kids he had through his former bisexual African female wife Bobo ( who had since turned celibate after becoming a born again Christian and left Craig), that would still be a family under the Families Commission guidelines, even if Craig slept with Bob regularly and Bob slept with one or two of the kids occasionally.

Dysfunctional families may be eligible for assistance under the Families Commission, but I would hope that function comes before form before dishing out the assistance. After all, the Government was at pains to state that Family function is what matters.