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Abstract

Marriage equality is a recent achievement in Australia, passing the Parliament on7 December 2017 and receiving royal assent the following day. Australia is the26th country to recognise same-sex marriages, following what activists calledthe ‘long march toward equality.’1 Internationally, formal same-sex relationship recognition first started gaining momentum in the late 1980s, followingfrom the gay and lesbian liberation, and, later, LGBTQ+ rights movements.2Broadly speaking, the various strands of these movements can be cast into threecategories: first, legalising same-sex sexual activity; second, the introduction ofanti-discrimination measures, including anti-discrimination law; and third, legislating for the recognition of same-sex relationships, either as marriages or someother state-recognised union.3 Tasmania was first to formally recognise same-sexrelationships in Australia with the introduction of the Relationships Act 2003(Tas), which came into effect on 1 January 2004. With this, the tacit assumptionthat marriages in Australia must be comprised of one (cisgender, heterosexual)man and one (cisgender, heterosexual) woman was increasingly challenged. Thus,to eradicate any doubt as to which couples may marry according to Australianfederal law, the Howard government introduced the Marriage Amendment Bill2004 (Cth), which restricted the union to one man and one woman, and passedwith bipartisan support from both major parties (the Australian Labor Party andthe Liberal Party of Australia). This bill came into effect as the Marriage Amendment Act 2004 (Cth) on 16 August that same year.

Item Type:	Book Section
Authors/Creators:	Richardson-Self, L and Fielder, B and Ezzy, D
Keywords:	same-sex marriage, LGBT, religious freedom, postal vote
Publisher:	Routledge
DOI / ID Number:	10.4324/9780429021589
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2020 The Authors
Related URLs:	Google Scholar: Richardson-Self, L UTAS Profile: Richardson-Self, L Google Scholar: Ezzy, D UTAS Profile: Ezzy, D
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