Australian legislators legalize gay marriage

SYDNEY—Australia’s Parliament voted overwhelmingly Thursday to legalize samesex marriage, overcoming years of conservative resistance to enact change that the public had made clear that it wanted.

The fifinal approval in the House of Representatives, with just four votes against the bill, came three weeks after a national referendum showed strong public support for same-sex marriage. The Senate passed the legislation last week.

“This belongs to us all,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a longtime supporter of same-sex marriage who had previously failed to get it legalized, said Thursday. “This is Australia: fair, diverse, loving and filled with respect. For every one of us this is a great day.”

After the vote, spectators in the public gallery began singing “I Am Australian,” a well-known anthem. Lawmakers stood and looked up at the gallery, some wiping tears from their eyes.

The new law expands on earlier legislation that provided equality to same-sex couples in areas like government benefifits, employment and taxes, and it changes the definition of marriage from “the union of a man and a woman” to “the union of two people.” It automatically recognizes same-sex marriages from other countries.

Gayrights advocates praised the landmark vote even as they said it was long overdue. In a country where there had been 22 unsuccessful attempts in Parliament to legalize same- sex marriage since 2004, they said, the law should be seen as the triumph of a democracy learning to live up to its values.

“This is a big victory,” said Evan Wolfson, founder of Freedom to Marry, which led the U.S. campaign for marriage equality. “It is a huge affirmation of the dignity of gay people in yet another country, and that will reverberate in the lives of people across Australia and the world.”

A handful of lawmakers tried to add amendments that they said were meant to safeguard religious freedoms for opponents of same-sex marriage, but their failed. Turnbull noted that nothing in the legislation requires ministers or other celebrants to oversee weddings of gay couples or threatens the charity status of religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage.

The final debate in the House of Representatives, which lasted four days, featured more than 100 speakers.ers

On the fifirst day, there was a marriage proposal: Tim Wilson, a gay member of Parlia- ment with the center-right Liberal Party, spoke of the struggles he and his partner, Ryan Bolger, had encount ered as a couple, before choking up, fifinding him in the public gallery and asking: “Ryan Patrick Bolger, will you marry me?”

The answer came loud and clear — “yes” — as did public congratulations from the deputy speaker, Rob Mitchell.ell

That was foll o we d by hours of emotional speeches, as politicians on the left and right fell into a rare moment of relative consensus and moving closer to public sentiment, which has favored same-sex marriage for years, according to polls.

For many lawmakers and gay-rights advocates working behind the scenes, the

debate took on the feel of a communal reckoning with Australia’s long history of homophobia..

Passage came just weeks after 61 percent of voters in a nonbinding national. referendum, conducted by mail, expressed support for samesex marriage.

MICK TSIKAS / AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS Members of Parliament Cathy McGowan (from lef t), Adam Brandt and Andrew Wilkie celebrate the passing of the Marriage Amendment bill Thursday in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia.