Along with Labour MP Louisa Wall, Green Party list MP Kevin Hague has submitted a private member's bill to legalise same-sex marriage.
Questioned on the issue, Prime Minister John Key says he would support a bill to legalise same-sex marriage at its initial stage, but would not guarantee his support would continue through to the final reading that would see it become law.
But is adding adoption to the same-sex marriage debate going a step too far?
According to the Roy Morgan Research State of the Nation Report, a countrywide survey of 11,500 people, the number who believe homosexual couples should be allowed to adopt children has risen from 38 per cent to 56 per cent in the past eight years.
The report's authors said the survey showed "New Zealanders have become more open-minded in their attitudes to some key moral and social issues [and] are now more accepting of homosexuals than ever before".
A Herald-DigiPoll last month showed that 61.2 per cent of the public felt adoption law should be changed to allow all couples, including same-sex couples, to adopt while 35.1 per cent felt adoption should be kept to heterosexual couples.
The tide of public opinion is definitely changing.
While there is nothing within the law which precludes homosexual couples from adopting, the law says only one partner actually adopts and the other applies for guardianship.
In today's Bay of Plenty Times Weekend we meet Kevin and Ben Haraki-Beckett, a couple from Te Puke.
Ben and Kevin, who both come from large extended families, have been together five-and-half years and in a civil union for two.
They believe they have the right to adopt children like any other loving couple or individual.
Kevin told us: "We are both very good with kids, have godchildren, and play a very pivotal role in some of their lives ... We both come from very open upbringings, with unconditional love and support, and I think we could teach our children those same values."
What more could we ask for?
It is not unexpected that Bob McCoskrie, national director of Family First NZ, objects to the concept of same-sex adoption.
He says same-sex couple and single parent adoption and surrogacy potentially harms children because it intentionally creates motherless and fatherless families. And while he makes a good point, isn't he missing the wider picture?
In New Zealand far too many children are not given a good upbringing.
Some children don't even get to make it into their teens and become high-profile statistics that we should all be ashamed of.
The Kahui twins, James Whakaruru and Nia Glassie to name but a few.
But there are thousands of others who are emotionally and/or physically abused by their caregivers.
And there are far too many who are not parented and are basically left to fend for themselves.
First and foremost when we are looking for people to adopt children, the ability to provide a caring and loving home should be at the top of the list.
If a gay couple is prepared to devote their lives to raising and nurturing an adopted youngster, we should be appreciative of their desire to help a needy child.
Their sexuality should not come into it.
If Kevin and Ben Haraki-Beckett are prepared to offer a child a caring home and give that child unconditional love, why would we stop that?
