Australian Senate passes gay marriage bill in key step
SYDNEY: Australia’s upper house senate yesterday passed a bill paving the way for the legalisation of gay marriage, rejecting conservative efforts to add religious exemptions to the legislation.
The law is expected to pass through the lower house of parliament comfortably before Christmas after most lawmakers agreed to honour “the will of Australians” who voted in favour of same-sex marriage in a recent nationwide postal vote.
“We are a part of an act of acceptance, an act of inclusion, an act of respect, an act of celebration, a day when this Senate declares our acceptance of our LGBTIQ ( lesbian, gay, bi, trans, intersex, queer) brothers and our sisters,” said Australia’s highest- profile gay politician, Labor’s Penny Wong.
“( The bill) says to so many Australians, this parliament, this country, accepts you for who you are. Your love is not lesser, and nor are you,” she added.
Senators voted 43-12 in favour of the bill after rejecting calls to extend protections that allow religious ministers to refuse to conduct gay weddings to other services providers, such as bakers and florists.
Conservative lawmakers’ efforts to include amendments that let parents pull their children from school programmes they feel undermine heterosexual traditions were also defeated.
“The Australian people did not vote to restrict peoples’ freedom of speech.
The Australian people did not vote to restrict people’s conscientious beliefs.
The Australian people did not vote to restrict peoples’ freedom of religion,” said Senator Eric Abetz, a prominent ‘no’ campaigner.
“If we want to have social cohesion, I believe it would have been of very real benefit for (the senate) to have considered some of the amendments,” he added.
After more than a decade of debate, Australians emphatically endorsed same-sex marriage with 62 per cent of the 12.7 million people who participated in the nationwide postal poll voting ‘yes’ this month to gay marriage, with just 38.4 per cent voting ‘no’. — AFP