Australia confirmed!

The Australian House of Representatives passed a same-sex marriage law on Thursday. Marriages may begin in January. The vote was almost unanimous. From a picture I wonder if for some votes the members indicate their position by which side of the hall they sit or stand. In this picture one half looks mighty empty.

A commenter to another blog noted how the Australian government mismanaged the process at every step, making it much harder than it needed to be. A summary:

1. Back in 2004 a lesbian couple, married in Canada, asked is our marriage legal? The law didn’t specify gender. Instead of saying it does, another law was hastily passed to say marriage was between a man and a woman.

2. A same-sex marriage law was repeatedly introduced, but the major parties were too skittish to touch it.

3. So they did this non-binding postal survey on the question.

4. It could have been a referendum with formally written language and a legally binding outcome.

5. Marriage equality advocates didn’t want the survey because they knew the “no” side would be vicious, inflaming extremists.

6. Because the postal survey didn’t have formal language our opponents gleefully campaigned on the scariest version of the law they could think up.

7. Even so nearly 62% of the responses were yes.

8. But even with that affirmation members of Parliament are still trying to appease the religious right. I don’t know how much of those efforts made it into the final bill.