The furor over the remarks by Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) leader Jim Wallace that the gay lifestyle is more dangerous than smoking refuses to die.

The offending comment, which prompted Prime Minister Julia Gillard to withdraw her scheduled address at the ACL national convention in October, was backed by Anglican Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen.

"I am generally supportive of ACL," ABC quoted Mr Jensen who also stressed that he does not agree with everything that the ACL leaders said.

"As far as I can see . . . the lifespan of practicing gays is significantly shorter than the ordinary so-called heterosexual man . . . what we need to do is to look at why this may be the case and we need to do it in a compassionate and objective way," Mr Jensen explained.

Like Mr Wallace's first remark, Mr Jensen's Monday night comment generated debate across Twitter and other social networking sites, indicating that the issue is far from dead.

Media will likely monitor the ACL convention to check if the lobby would make any further controversial comments on the gay lifestyle, while Parliament is expected to debate and vote next week on a same-sex marriage bill introduced on Monday by Labor Senators Trish Crossin, Gavin Marshall, Louise Pratt and Carol Brown.

It was the fourth gay union bill introduced to Parliament. While the Labor senators are hopeful of support from Green senators, they admitted the key to the bill being passed by the Senate is the decision of Coalition leader Tony Abbott to grant Opposition members a conscience vote on the issue and not force them to follow the party stand.

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