Love Makes a Family Campaign
For over seven years, the Love Makes A Family Campaign has advocated for law reform in Victoria to remove discrimination for same-sex couples in accessing Assisted Reproductive Treatment and to provide legal recognition for our families. The Love Makes a Family community campaign was coordinated by the Rainbow Families Council, supported by the ALSO Foundation and the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby. Read about the Campaign Aims.
The campaign has helped motivate and support people affected by the laws to have their say in the Commission’s Enquiry. It has also encouraged hundreds of people to contact their local Members of Parliament to convince them to support law reform. People have told their personal stories, sent in family photos, wrote letters to the papers, and visited local MPs.
In December 2008, the Victorian Parliament held a conscience vote on this issue. The law reform (the Assisted Reproductive Treatment (ART) Act) was passed by the Upper House on 4 Dec 2008, followed by loud cheers, applause and many tears. To read more about the changes, see Victorian Law Reforms - 2009 Update.
The Love Makes A Family Campaign has truly been a community effort. All of our emails, photos, visits and calls to Victorian MPs have had a huge impact in demonstrating the high level of community support for law reform.
The record of discussion in the Legislative Council (Upper House) can be found here; and the Bill may also be viewed here. See also our brief information on the Victorian Law Reforms.
[Federal Laws have also changed - read more on the changes to Federal Law (including Medicare Safety Net, Social Security and Family Assistance].
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HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGN
Not all children have been treated equally under Victorian law.
Prior to the 2008 Victorian law reforms, same sex parented families were not recognised in Victorian laws. This meant that children in rainbow families had no automatic legal relationship with their non-birth/ non-biological parent or their siblings. Non-biological parents were not recognised on birth certificates, and could not consent to their child's medical treatment. Same sex couples were not able to use Victorian IVF clinics for fertility treatment, unless deemed 'medically infertile'.
In 2002 the Victorian Government asked the Victorian Law Reform Commission to conduct an enquiry into all laws relevant to reproductive technology and adoption, and their impacts on children, including those with same-sex parents.
During its five-year enquiry the Commission reviewed three decades of research and received over 1000 submissions. In June 2007 the Commission reported to the Government that:
- children are in no way disadvantaged by having same-sex parents, only by discriminatory laws and attitudes
- it is quality of parenting, not the sexual orientation or marital status of parents that determines outcomes for children
- children of same-sex parents are disadvantaged by laws that fail to recognise or protect their family relationships, and
- laws preventing same-sex couples and single people from accessing simple fertility procedures like donor insemination are unfair and undermine the health and wellbeing of children.
The Commission made 130 recommendations, including changing the law and birth certificates to recognise same-sex parented families, and removing discriminatory barriers to fertility treatment, adoption and surrogacy for same-sex couples and single people.
To read the report visit www.lawreform.vic.gov.au.
The Love Makes a Family community campaign was coordinated by the Rainbow Families Council, supported by the ALSO Foundation and the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby. For several years it lobbied for legal and social recognition of same-sex parented children and their families.
The campaign helped motivate and support people affected by the laws to have their say in the Commission’s Enquiry. It also encouraged hundreds of people to contact their local Members of Parliament to convince them to support law reform. People told their personal stories, sent in family photos, wrote letters to the papers, and visited local MPs.
In December 2008, the Victorian Parliament held a conscience vote on this issue. The law reform was passed.
More information about the Love Makes A Family Campaign:
 MP Visits Handy Hints Sheet | downloads: 1022 | type: pdf | size: 333 kB |
How to find your MP, make an appointment, what you might say and FAQs. |
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| MP Visit Cheat Sheet | downloads: 1103 | type: pdf | size: 317 kB |
Summary of useful status and facts, including a table with current laws, impacts on children and families and relevant VLRC recommendations. |
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| "Three facts" flyer | downloads: 931 | type: pdf | size: 420 kB |
This plain language flyer explains what discrimination exists in Victoria against children and rainbow families, and how you can help. |
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Victorian Attorney General launches final VLRC Report |
| Posted by Sarah Marlowe (sarah) on Jul 09 2007 at 10:31 PM |
The Victorian Law Reform Commission launched the final report and recommendations of its Enquiry into Assisted Reproductive Technology and Adoption at Parliament House on 7 June 2007. The Report was officially launched on 21 June by Attorney General Rob Hulls, with many rainbow families in attendance!
Rainbow Families Council and the Love Makes a Family campaign welcome the report as a very positive step towards recognising the rights of same-sex parented children, their families and same-sex and single prospective parents. We urge the Victorian Government to turn the recommendations into legislation as soon as practicable.
A brief summary of the key recommendations for rainbow families and prospective parents follows:
- access to Assisted Reproductive Technology for lesbian and single women
- adoption ("stranger") opened up to same sex couples and gay or lesbian single people
- second parent adoption available to gay men who have accessed surrogacy and for same sex couples whose relationships start after children have been born.
- recognition of non birth mother through simple means of changing the birth certificate and recommendations also supporting this for families with existing children before the law is changes.
- clarification that a donor is not a father (even if a Known Donor is used through a clinic or in home insemination)
- birth certificates to change to allow you to give the option of listing ‘parents’ instead of ‘mother’ or ‘father’ so 2 mums or 2 dads can be named.
- decriminalise home insemination and recommends that children conceived this way not to be treated differently in terms of parentage.
- gay men as known donors or identity-release clinic donors should only be asked questions relating to identifiable risk factors for STIs relevant to the process, not about their sexuality or sexual practices.
- The current six-month quarantine period for sperm storage should be changed to reflect current medical knowledge about risk factors.
- Clinic donors should not be permitted to specify the characteristics of unknown recipients of their donations ie should not be permitted to stop lesbians or single women being the recipients of their donations.
- Altruistic (non-commercial) surrogacy to be made available including for gay men who have a friend as a surrogate.
- The law should be changed to reflect that children may have two parents of the same sex.
You can read and download the executive summary and full report with its 130 recommendations on the Victorian Law Reform Commission website, or ring 03 8619 8619 to request that a hard copy be mailed to you.
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- See the menu on the right hand side of this page for documents and information about the campaign.
