"To whom it may concern",

A Family's Submission to the Senate Marriage Act Inquiry 2009.

I would like you to know how very strongly we feel about gay marriage, being the parents of two Sons who are gay it is very important to our family & all gays & lesbians that the law should be changed so that gay people can marry & be recognised as equal human beings, we are not asking for Special Rights but for Equal Rights. Being born gay is no different than being born left handed.

Our family have all experienced being ostracised, discriminated against & persecuted & because of this we could not continue with our farming way of life in the country, we as parents along with our sons were excluded in the town & even struck off the Corrigin Anglican Parish after having been very active in this church & our family organising the biggest Youth Camp ever held in the Bunbury Diocese at Gorge Rock in the Corrigin district.

Sadly society is conditioned in thinking & there is very little understanding of what it`s really like to be born gay & through no one`s fault, no one would ever chose this path in life, it is too difficult. Sadly our lives have been touched by the suicide of gay friends who have found the struggle of being born gay just too difficult to bear. We know many gay people who`s families disown them. Many gays have been jailed, their only crime being born gay.

Until the law is changed & gay people are finally allowed to marry & be recognised as a couple with all the rights that go with it that straight couples take for granted, then gay people & their families will continue to be treated as less than human beings & this is unacceptable.

Yours faithfully,

Glenda and George Rendell, Western Australia.