Australia's first gay marriages held ahead of court ruling

[Jamie D]

Australia's first gay marriages held ahead of court ruling

AFP

Canberra (AFP) - Australia's first gay marriages were celebrated Saturday in the national capital Canberra, despite the prospect of a High Court decision ruling against the unions later this week.

As soon as the clocked ticked past midnight, several couples tied the knot -- including Stephen Dawson, a Labor Party member of the Western Australian parliament, who married Dennis Liddelow on the lawns of the Federal Parliament.

"This is about us professing our love for each other... and at least for the moment our relationship will be legally recognised as a marriage," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation....

The Australian Capital Territory passed legislation in October which made it the only jurisdiction in the country to permit gay marriage, and couples arranged to wed there Saturday, the earliest opportunity to do so after a registration period.

The territory, home to the city of Canberra and the national parliament, pressed ahead with its legislation despite warnings it was inconsistent with federal laws which do not permit same-sex weddings.

Full article at the link, above

[Ms Grace]

I was so glad when the ACT government had legislated for this opportunity but the legality of it is in the balance. You need to fully understand the way the Australian legal system works to know what's going on here, but the Federal Government want to crush the law and are taking steps through the courts to do so.

I have to say I used to be pretty lukewarm on the idea of same sex marriage, but then I was pretty lukewarm on the idea of marriage to begin with. I wasn't against the idea of same sex marriage, I just couldn't understand why they wanted to be bothered with a hetro-patriarchal institution that clearly didn't work for a large number of straight people who undertook the vows.

I guess I changed my attitude when they started couching it as "marriage equality" - so yeah, if they wanted to throw lots of money at a ceremony and then have the whole thing go bust after one, five, ten years they were as utterly entitled to that experience as straights. Very cynical I know. And I don't know why I feel that way, my folks are still married after 51 years and still talking to each other so it obviously works for any number of people. I've seen plenty of instances where that isn't the case though. Anyway, like I say, despite my cynical nature, I totally came onboard with the idea of same sex marriage, still couldn't understand why they'd bother but gosh I was 100% behind anyone who wanted to get hitched.

And then, to see those happy smiles at the marriages this weekend... has totally melted away my cynicism. 

[Jamie D]

My personal feeling is that the right of association is a Natural right, and governments should not be legislating whether consenting adults should be married or not.

[Constance]

And yet, consenting adults need that stamp of approval, here at least, in order to complete federal taxes as "Married, filing jointly." So long as that is true, there will be a need for equality to be codified. Unfortunately, it's the only way people like me can actually get that equal treatment under the law that we're supposed to get but are routinely denied.