Australia Celebrates Five Years of Same-Sex Marriage

Five years have passed since Australia legalized same-sex marriage. Following a national postal survey, the Marriage Act was amended on December 9, 2017, to bring equality to same-sex couples. Back in 2010, Austria had allowed gay and lesbian couples to register as civil partnerships, before announcing in 2019 a law granting same-sex couples full marital status.

GAYBY BABY: Maya Newell's documentary about four Australian children raised by same-sex parents

Another major force, in 2015, was the documentary GAYBY BABY, about four Australian children whose families had either two gay fathers or two lesbian mothers. The film was directed by Maya Newell, who herself grew up with two mothers, just like the children she followed for more than four years. The question it poses is: how should children raised by same-sex parents live, and how should they be brought up? The film was nominated for awards at several film festivals, including:

• Best Feature Length Documentary at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards
• Best Documentary (Local or International) at the Australian Film Critics Association Awards
• Best Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival

It reflects the voices of modern families led by same-sex parents in Australia beautifully.

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A survey by Easy Weddings found that wedding spending by same-sex couples could reach $170 million for the wedding industry

A survey by Easy Weddings, a wedding-services company, which gathered data from more than 3,300 Australians between August and September 2017, found that the average total cost of an Australian wedding was A$31,368. With 5,420 same-sex couples, this could represent up to $170 million in wedding-related business — nearly 3.8 billion Thai baht.

The true number of same-sex married couples in Australia is believed to be higher than the disclosed figures

This is because Australia's Notice of Intended Marriage form requires applicants to select one of three gender options — male, female, or X (preferring not to be identified as either female or male) — and the count of same-sex marriages includes only couples where both partners were recorded as male or both as female. It does not include couples where one partner chose not to specify their gender.

In 2016, the Australian Census of Population and Housing found 46,800 same-sex couples living together in Australia, or 0.9 percent of all cohabiting couples in the country, suggesting that Australia's wedding market still has room to grow.

For thousands of couples, the reform changed lives and helped bring an end to years of campaigning and discrimination. Australian law defines marriage as "the union of two people, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life."

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Karen and Bronte on the vote that legalized same-sex marriage

Karen Pack married her partner, Bronte, in Sydney last year in front of friends and family. Speaking to local media on Thursday about the vote to legalize same-sex marriage, she said many couples had come up to tell them, "Thank you for telling your story. Thank you for being brave enough to do what you did — because what you made happen means I won't have to spend the next 20 years" grappling with the emotional wounds they had faced. "It means so much to us," she said.

A special commission in New South Wales is investigating unsolved anti-gay hate crimes that took place between 1970 and 2010.

Gay rights activists say that during the 1980s, violence against the LGBTQ community was "deeply unjust"

Gay rights activists say the homophobia seen in the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic was based entirely on stereotypes. The inquiry — the first of its kind in the world — was established in April on the recommendation of a parliamentary committee, and is scheduled to report by the end of next June.

• Only about 60% of Australians voted in favor of marriage reform
• while 38.4% of respondents to the 2017 postal survey opposed any change to the law
• with nearly 80% of eligible Australian voters taking part

Opposition to same-sex marriage from some church leaders remains, but the anniversary of the 2017 vote is being celebrated as a landmark moment in history. Since the same-sex marriage law took effect in Australia, official figures show that nearly 18,000 same-sex marriages have taken place since the law was amended. Advocates say Australia still has work to do on religious discrimination and the rights of transgender people. Today, more than 33 countries have legalized same-sex marriage.

Even so, more than 160 countries around the world still treat same-sex marriage as illegal, showing that the movement for marriage equality remains a long road ahead. Still, the #MarriageEquality movement that has grown over the past 20 years is an encouraging sign that acceptance of LGBTIQ people is increasing in many parts of the world.

Verified references

Links and relevance to the article’s main topic were reviewed on 13 August 2026. Each source supports only the scope stated in the original document and does not replace personalised medical, legal, or service advice.

1. Australian Attorney-General’s Department: Get married Accessed 13 August 2026