My Daughters Uni Assignment - A sad sign that we are miles behind the eight ball when Universities set assignments that perpetuate the inequality of gender and sexual expression.

My daughters recent University Assignment scenario question left me absolutely enraged. The scenario was one of domestic violence between a same sex couple. If my daughter were studying sociology, psychology or some humanities course, fair enough, but she is not. She is enrolled in a legal/justice course. Before the law we are all equal!!!

While our education and justice systems continue to differentiate the heterosexual and the homosexual within those systems they continue to reinforce the very inequality within the system they often purport to be addressing.

ALL offences in a domestic relationship MUST be treated the same - regardless of the gender of those involved.

This situation is exactly the same as those given the 'domestic/family violence' tags 'flagging' them to be treated differently to any other assault between citizens of our country.

This 'nomenclature' of offences stems back to the days when 'men' owned the women and children, they weren't individuals deserving of their own decision making. This nomenclature is still rife in the courts and justice system, it needs to change so that everyone regardless of gender and sexual expression is equal before the laws of this country.

I took exception to the actual question itself because it singled out a homosexual couple as if that situation should be treated differently to heterosexual citizens involved in the same scenario.

Again they do the same with Child Abuse - if you abuse a child related to you it's called incest - if you abuse a child not related to you it's referred to as child sexual assault. The courts handle these cases very differently and all based on the aforementioned antiquated and outdated belief that women and children are the property of men. 

You see this even more so in the communities reaction to these types of crime; abuse your 'own children, or children related to you' no one wants to talk about it, abuse an unrelated child and the community wants you hung, drawn and quartered! 

If the powers that be can't see the flaw in their so called attempts at 'equality' in our systems then at least they could acknowledge the expense of creating so many provisions within statutes to cover the genders, relationships, and sexual expression of our citizens. They should all simply be assaults - no 'tags', no 'flagging' so the system can automatically discriminate in how they choose to respond. 

We are all citizens we are not defined by our gender or our sexual expression or our relationships, we all have equal rights before our Justice System. It's about time our legislation and our educational institutions recognised this.