Australians endorse gay marriage, ensuring Parliament bill

— Nearly two-thirds of Australians supported gay marriage in a postal survey that ensures Parliament will consider legalizing same-sex weddings this year, although the form any law would take and its allowances for religious objections sparked immediate debate.

The Australian Bu- reau of Statistics said Wednesday that 62 percent of registered voters who responded in the unprecedented mail survey favored reform. The conservative government promised to allow a bill creating marriage equality to be considered in Parliament in the final two-week session that is due to end on Dec. 7.

A “no” vote in the survey would have put marriage equality off the political agenda, perhaps for years. Thousands of marriage equality supporters waving rainbow flags gathered anxiously in city parks around the country and cheered when the results was announced.

The mood was relief rather than exhilaration when the result was announced in a park in the national capital, said Tanna Winter, 30. Canberra demonstrated Australia’s highest level of support for same-sex marriage, with only one in four responses opposing it.

“The polls said that Brexit wouldn’t happen, the polls said that Hillary would win and I sort of thought this felt like Australia’s time to show everyone that we’re backward too,” Winter said hours later over a celebratory beer.

“We didn’t do it and we didn’t do it in pretty good fashion. That’s a nice relief, a nice moment to be proven wrong,” he added.

His friend Sam James, 31, quipped: “It’s hard for the Russians to interfere with a paper survey”— a reference to Russia’s suspected meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a vocal advocate of marriage equality, called on lawmakers to heed the “overwhelming” result and to commit to legis- late for gay marriage by next month.

“They voted ‘ yes’ for fairness, they voted ‘yes’ for commitment, they voted ‘yes’ for love,” Turnbull told reporters. “Now it is up to us here in the Parliament of Australia to get on with it, to get on with the job the Australian people have tasked us to do and get this done this year before Christmas — that must be our commitment.”