Jason Rushton, Australian correspondent for LifeSiteNews:

A board member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) has resigned less than 48 hours after Australian media reported that he had signed a document supporting true marriage.

Professor Kuruvilla George, who is also Victoria’s deputy chief psychiatrist, signed a pro-marriage submission to a Senate inquiry on the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2010 in March. (There are currently three bills to change the legal definition of marriage before Australian parliament, which are the subject of two separate inquiries).

When it was revealed on Sunday by various newspapers that Professor George had been one of a group of 150 medical professionals who submitted to the inquiry that “the evidence is clear that children who grow up in a family with a mother and father do better in all parameters than children without,” there were immediate calls for his resignation.

Kerryn Phelps, the former national president of the Australian Medical Association said the group of doctors - who go under the name Doctors for the Family - should “hang their heads in shame”, and that Professor George’s position on the board of the VEOHRC should be reviewed.

“They should immediately disqualify themselves from dealing with matters of sexuality, as they clearly have no idea about its complexities,” she said.

Although Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark defended Professor George’s right to free speech, opposition Attorney-General Martin Pakula said Professor George needed to explain why he should remain on the board. Victorian Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge similarly demanded an “immediate explanation.”

By Tuesday morning, the chair of the board of the VEOHRC, John Searle, announced Professor George’s resignation “due to time constraints and personal reasons.”

For more on this story, see Bill Muehlenberg's commentary.