WHAT does it mean to make history? While much of Australia was preoccupied with forming a minority federal government, history of another kind was being made in NSW. The passing of the Adoption Amendment (Same-Sex Couples) Bill ushered in an end to direct legislative discrimination against same-sex couples in NSW.

While historic, the bill's content was modest. It merely provided definitional changes of terms such as ''couple'', ''de facto partner'' and ''step-parent'' – making them gender neutral. Legal technicalities of the amendments aside, the legislation's effect is to ensure that parenting ability, not gender, is the determinative factor in deciding the best place to raise children.

No one has the right to adopt. Children do, however, have the right to have legally recognised parents, regardless of their parent's sexuality or gender identity. As a consequence of this reform, NSW has significantly advanced social justice for gay men, lesbians and their families.

The path to legislative equality for sexual minorities in NSW has not been an easy one. It has been a process fraught with insecurity and uncertainty. Until 1984, consenting sexual activity between men was not simply frowned upon - it was criminal.

While today in NSW (and indeed most of Australia) the idea of criminal sanctions for same-sex relationships seem ludicrous, the resistance towards relationship and family recognition remains.

Being non-heterosexual still challenges our social imaginations about what we consider to be ''normal''. Normalcy can be troubling when it is used parochially as a political strategy to refuse acknowledging anything that may be different. When it comes to people of diverse sexual orientations, the politics of the ''normal'' can come at the expense of recognising the value of different forms of intimacy and kinship that exist outside the heterosexual bonds of matrimony.

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