Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage in Australia: Analysis and Impact

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Australia. It begins by tracing the evolution of the concept, highlighting the global trend of legalizing same-sex marriage and the Australian government's decision to amend the Marriage Act in 2017. The essay delves into the legal framework, including the 1961 Federal Marriage Act and the 2017 Marriage Amendment Act, and the impact of the law on same-sex couples. It explores statistical data on same-sex marriages, including the demographics of couples, the rates of marriage, and the age of couples at the time of marriage. Additionally, the essay analyzes the decision through the lens of discrimination theories, such as deliberate discrimination and inclusive masculinity, offering insights into the societal and cultural shifts that have accompanied the legalization of same-sex marriage. The paper concludes by emphasizing the significance of this legal change in reducing discrimination and promoting equality, referencing the evolving understanding of family structures and the role of law in responding to societal values. It also includes a bibliography of the sources used in the analysis.

Same-Sex Marriage
Student Details
8/30/2019

In today’s society, same sex marriage is the phrase that people are hearing from various
channels, which are available near them. It is a concept that has evolved recently. While growing
up or our earlier generation most probability have not heard about this concept. Even in today’s
society as well as this concept of same sex marriage has not get accept totally. Some are in favor
of it and some are in against of it, however many governments are making laws regarding this
concept by allowing the marriage between two individual of same sex. The governments of
USA, Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, New Zealand, and Taiwan have legalized same sex
marriage in their country. In year, 2017 on 7th December the concept of same-sex marriage also
was legalized in Australia (Henriques-Gomes, 2018).
The reviews of same sex marriage among individuals differ based on personal judgment
of the individuals or the people present around them. Many individuals oppose the concept of
same sex marriage, based on their own perspective or based on the perspectives of others.
However, the time is changing now and the people are considering same sex marriage as some
another kind of simple marriage, which involve the exchange of vows between two individuals
irrespective of their gender. As specified above, the governments of many countries have
decided to legalize same sex marriage in their countries. This is encouraging the concept of same
sex marriage in all over the world as well as trying to change the traditional views of people
(Colquitt, Baer, & Long, 2014).
The laws and regulations of Australia are based on the core principles of jurisdictions.
They respond to prevailing issues rapidly in order to provide protect to the people of Australia.
In the similar way, the Australian Government has taken this step of making same-sex marriage
legal in nature. It is the responsibility of government of any country to take the protective as well
as corrective measures within time to react accordingly in the particular prevailing situations to
avoid chaos and unproductive behavior. This decision of Australian government can be
considered one of the lifetime events. This is the reason behind the writing of this content. With
the help of this article an attempt has been made to review the reason behind the decision of
same sex marriage taken by Australian Government as well as looking into its after effects. The
decision of Australian government also analyzed with the help of some set theories and concepts
of literature (Cropanzano, Anthony, & Daniels, 2016).

Marriage is regarded a traditionally referred to as masculine and female relationship
between two people. It is a official union among two people and a social and legal agreement
that legally, economically and mentally unites their life. Becoming married also provides
legitimacy to the marriage's sexual relations. Everyone knows that the significance of marriage is
when two individuals make a government commitment or engagement to live together and share
their life in a manner that get acknowledged legally, socially as well as religiously (Anderson &
McCormack, 2018). Currently, however, the fundamental idea of marriage being a legally
binding contract is not same owing to modifications in culture. Marriage is governed primarily
by the countries to which the people belong. Joining into a marriage shifts both parties ' legal
status and provides fresh privileges and responsibilities to both husband and wife. From the
definition or the meaning of the word marriage, it can be clear that it is an informal relationship
between two individuals. The definition does not talks about the gender of two individuals still
people consider them as male and female respectively. Now days this thinking of public is
changing due to the awareness of minimization of discrimination based on gender of the
individuals (Colquitt, Baer, & Long, 2014).
The 1961 Federal Marriage Act regulates Australia's marriage legislation. The Act
describes marriage (in Section 5 of the Act) as "the union of two individuals to the benefit of all
others, meant into willingly for life." In order to enable same-sex marriage, Australian law
enacted the 2017 Marriage Amendment Act at the Australian Legislature on 7 December 2017
and obtained parliamentary approval from the Governor-General the subsequent day. The law
went into force on December 9, acknowledging weddings of the same sex throughout the nation
instantly. Australian act's first same-sex wedding ceremony took place on December 15, 2017.
The adoption of the law accompanied a voluntary postal study of all Australians, which endorsed
the legalization of same-sex marriage by 61.6 percent of participants. Alternatively, the
government requested the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to further decide how to
combine the freedoms of people based on their appearance for non-discrimination (Henriques-
Gomes, 2018).
Australia's state has also created other forms of acceptance for same-sex couples. Under
federal statute, same-sex couples also can be acknowledged as de facto couples that give most of
the same rights and duties that married couples are granted. While the rights may be hard to

assert and may not be acknowledged in practice at all times. However, Australia does not have a
national civil union or relationship registration system, most states and territories have legislation
for civil unions or registries of domestic partnerships. These unions are acknowledged under
federal law as de facto partnerships. Around September 2004 and May 2017, 22 bills linked to
same-sex marriage were brought to the Australian Parliament before the law on same-sex
marriage in Australia, all of which was enacted into law. These unsuccessful efforts came after
the August 2004 legislation was modified by the Howard Government to exclude weddings of
the same sex. In December 2013, the Australian Capital Land passed a same-sex marriage law,
although this was ruled unconstitutional by the High Court even though the Commonwealth was
already able to introduce such a law as that of the Marriage Amendment (Definition and
Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 (Taylor, 2019).
The Australian Statistics Department reported in a data then between December 9, when
proposed changes to the Marriage Act entered into force, 3,149 same-sex marriages occurred,
and the finish of the financial years 2017-18. The country with the largest share of marriages was
New South Wales (34.6%), preceded by Victoria (26.2%) as well as Queensland (18.9%), 67%
of Tasmania's 67 marriages were females. As per specialists, the most common time of same-sex
couples to get engaged in March, which represents 22.7 percent (714) of the revised marriage act
over most of the six-month period. Of all those 3,000 marriages, 56.3% were between females,
while women's average age to marriage was 39, relative to men's age of 48.5. In 2017, there were
32 for males and 30 for females in median era across heterosexual relationships. The shift in law
among elderly couples has been welcomed with specific excitement, the information suggest.
Same-sex marriage licensed 1,057 people over the age of 60, along with 86 men as well as 33
women over the age of 75. Statistics published on Tuesday revealed that 112,954 marriages were
recorded overall in 2017, down 4.7 percent from the prior year. In almost the same period,
49,032 divorces have been granted, an increase of 5%. From relationship to divorce, the average
length was 12 years (Henriques-Gomes, 2018).
In Australia, the comparatively elevated average age of dating same-sex partners
indicates that couples who marry were together for a long time and thus are lastly able to simply
recognize their love and engagement (Molloy, 2018). However, most of Australia's main
religious organizations have not conducted homosexual marriages in their worship locations.

Previous surveys have influenced the understanding of the Australian government about what the
family is or how it is evolving and evolving from a deeply concerned position to now aiming at
achieving justice, fairness and security for all family members, irrespective of the nature of their
interactions, by implementing multiple remedies. Therefore, in order to protect Australian
people, the government has taken this one of the century's ever-debated decisions (Maier,
Tavanti, Bombard, & Gentile, 2015).
The notion of marriage around two men as well as two women is not that developed yet,
but in Australia as the numbers suggest, after the modification of the wedding bill, there are
many people that have shown value in these kinds of marriages and has even married. This
Australian government choice can be regarded favorable since it is one of the measures to
decrease racism on many criteria from both the nation and the world (Parrott, 2014). As per the
deliberate theory of discrimination, individuals are asserted to deliberately discriminate against
others based on different parameters, in this situation the gender or their desire to be engaged. In
1954, Gordon Allport, an influential leader in extensive assessment of racism and discrimination
in the humanities, expressed the sequential measures by which an individual behaves badly
(Hooghe & Meeusen, 2013). However, the remarks may not be considered as severe enough to
be illegitimate, they are a definite type of intimidation. They can generate a hostile atmosphere
with nonverbal expressions of hostility. This theory provides data about individuals ' mind set
which, in turn, can assist the government make policies that minimize or eliminate
discrimination based on gender or the same-sex marriage.
There is another gender-based theory that includes the concept of masculinity. The
essence of masculinity with regard to males is discussed as per this theory (Anderson &
McCormack, 2018). Inclusive masculinity is an strategy that in the context of social
modifications believes about masculinity. It has undermined conventional hegemonic manhood
and its related homophobia, each of which has pushed people to prevent certain habits to prevent
being viewed as gay by the public. It maintains that there are progressively societal places in
which people no longer need to act in hyper-male ways in order to be successful due to choices
about same-sex marriage throughout the globe as well as in Australia. With the assistance of
enabling same-sex marriage in Australia today, people can publicly acknowledge their gender as

well as gender attractiveness. It has provided those participants a vast region to be happy to live
publicly with their suitable partners (Gerstmann, 2017).
Same-sex marriage was always a vast element of Australian culture. Altering cultural
norms and the efficiency of legal systems in responding to such values once referring in the
Australian Constitution to the legalization of same-sex marriage continues inconsistent in speed
and strategy. Studies undertaken by academics have given the foundation for the development of
concise theoretical understanding of same-sex marriage thereby helping to build public policy in
reaction to the revision of the law as additional data. It demonstrates a important connection
between law reform and fast social change–with increasing rates of divorce, decreasing marriage
figures, greater acceptance of de facto and the same-sex relationships, as well as technological
advances for efficient and gender termination. Therefore, with regard to existing scholarly
literature, present legislation as well as the experiences and attitudes from both homosexual and
heterosexual people, this paper seeks to provide an insightful overview of the capacity of the
state to tackle conflicting attitudes about same-sex marriage in the Australian Constitution.

Bibliography
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