Labor Senator Penny Wong is set to debate why Australia should legalise same sex marriage on this week’s episode of SBS’s ‘Insight’.
Senator Wong will appear on the discussion show on Tuesday night at 8:30pm on SBS ONE. Senator Wong is the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. She is gay and a mother.
The hour long show hosted by Jenny Brockie will also feature the following guests from a range of different religious backgrounds.
Ben and Nam
Ben is Chinese Malay and has struggled to reconcile his sexuality with his Catholic faith and conservative family views. Nam is second generation Vietnamese and says he’d like to marry Ben as he thinks it would give his relationship legitimacy in the eyes of his wider family and community. But he worries about whether marrying Ben would impact negatively on his family.
Monsignor John Woods and Father Frank Brennan
Monsignor John Woods is the Acting Archbishop of Canberra. He says the Catholic definition of marriage is a union between a man and a woman with the possibility of them bearing children. Meanwhile, Father Frank Brennan, a Jesuit Catholic Priest, says although he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, he thinks civil same-sex marriage is inevitable in a secular and democratic society.
Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio and Rabbi Moshe Gutnick
Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio performs commitment ceremonies for gay couples at the Emanuel Synagogue in Sydney and sees no reason why same sex couples shouldn’t be able to marry or have children. Her views are at odds with Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, the President of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, who says the Torah prohibits homosexual sex.
Sheikh Mohamadu Saleem and Imam Daayiee Abdullah
Sheikh Mohamadu Saleem is from the Virgin Mary mosque in Melbourne. He says Islam would never permit same sex marriage. Sheikh Mohamadu’s views couldn’t be more different to those of Imam Daayiee Abdullah, who has been performing same-sex Muslim marriages in America for the past 13 years. He interprets the Koran to condone same-sex marriage.
SBS’s Insight airs at 8:30pm on SBS ONE on Tuesday 13 August.
