Rallies have taken place all across Australia this weekend to encourage people to vote "YES" in the upcoming Postal Vote.
Yes to what?
All Australians are being asked this question:
Do you support a change in the law to allow same-sex couples to marry?
Australians are being asked to vote whether they believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. The rallies, taking place days before the postal vote opens is campaigning for people to vote yes.
There were over 30,000 people at the Sydney rally alone, including the Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten. Shorten, who has promised to make same-sex marriage legal if he is is elected Prime Minister said, "For gay
Australians to have to go through a different law making process to the rest of Australia is unfair".
Twenty three countries, including the UK, US, Germany and France have already legalised same sex marriage so why is Australia so far behind the times?
TImeline.
In 2004, the then Prime Minister, John Howard, attempted to amend the Marriage Act to specifically be a 'union between man and woman, to the exclusion of all others'. This infuriated same-sex equality campaigners and the Australian Marriage Equality Party was formed.
In 2012, the Australian House of Representives voted against marriage equality by votes of 98 to 42.
In 2016 however, there was a huge swing in favour of supporting same-sex marriage, with 60% of politicians indicating they would support.
In August 2017, a news poll found 62% of Australians now in favour, with only 32% against.
The 'Marriage Law Postal Vote' closes on November 7th and the results will be known on November 15th.
Celebrities across the world, including Ellen Degeneres, Miley Cyrus and The Veronicas, have been supporting the equality campaign so come on Australia, say "I do".
