IndexMarriage Amendment Act 20042004 to 2017ReferencesAustralians rejoiced on 7 December 2017 as legislation allowing same-sex marriage came into force, the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017, passed the Australian Parliament and received royal assent from the governor-general the following day. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay With this, Australia becomes the 26th nation in the world, which has legalized same-sex marriage, thus sending a strong message of unity and equality for its citizens, across the globe, thus inspiring other countries to follow suit. India's Apex Court has already reignited the debate over homosexuality in India and now a larger constitutional court will review its 2013 ruling upholding the validity of Section 377 of the IPC which criminalizes gay sex. With people around the world, recognizing the rights of the long-suppressed LBTQI community, same-sex marriage has sparked many heated debates at various stages in national and international forums around the world. We have tried to analyze the situation and the whole process and in Australia and tried to relate it with India.History of Marriage Act 1961 (Australia) In Australia, the Marriage Act 1961 is the current law governing the law about marriage in Australia. The Act was passed by the Australian Parliament and applies uniformly throughout Australia (including its external territories); and any law made by a State or territory inconsistent with the Act is invalid. The Act is made pursuant to the power granted to the Federal Parliament under section 51(xxi) of the Australian Constitution. The Act only recognizes marriages between two people and does not recognize other forms of union, including traditional Aboriginal unionsMarriage Amendment Act 2004Prior to 2004, there was no definition of marriage in the 1961 Act, and instead the common law definition used in the English case Hyde v Hyde (1866) was considered supreme. Although Section 46(1) of the Act required celebrants to explain the legal nature of marriage in Australia to a couple as “the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, entered into voluntarily for life ”, these words were descriptive or explanatory, rather than outlining what constituted a legally valid marriage in Australia. On 27 May 2004 the then federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock introduced the Marriage Amendment Bill 2004 to incorporate a definition of marriage into the Marriage Act 1961 and to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages legally contracted in foreign jurisdictions. In June 2004, the bill was passed by the House of Representatives. On 12 August 2004 the amendment passed to Parliament. The Bill subsequently received Royal Assent, becoming the Marriage Amendment Act 2004. The Amendment incorporated a definition of marriage into section 5 of the Act, known as the Interpretation section: "marriage means the union of a man and a woman with the exclusion of all others, entered into voluntarily for life”. and a new section inserted:88EA Certain unions are not marriagesA union celebrated in a foreign country between:(a) a man and another man or(b) a woman and another woman; it is not to be recognized as marriage in Australia. Therefore, the change to the Marriage Act made all same-sex marriages illegal and prohibited any further same-sex marriages , he passedthe amendment in parliament, without any plebiscite, which, in our opinion, was unethical and public majority should have been taken into consideration without bringing a major change to the Marriage Act. From 2004 to 2017Between these 13 years there were 22 attempts to recognize same-sex marriage in Australia under federal law, all without success. After the 2004 amendment, many ministers attempted to introduce and reintroduce the Same-Sex Marriage Act into parliament. Michael Organ of the Greens, introduced in the next parliament the Same-Sex Relationships (Ensuring Equality) Bill and the Democrats' 2006 Same-Sex Marriage Bill. Four more bills were introduced in the Senate during Howard and Rudd's time, although all were rejected or lapsed in parliament. Green Senator Sarah Hanson Young's 2009 bill to legalize same-sex marriage was the first marriage equality bill considered by a parliamentary committee. In November 2009 the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, despite recommending reforms aimed at creating a nationally consistent recognition scheme for same-sex relationships, recommended not to pass the Same-Sex Relationship Amendment Bill Hanson-Young's 2009 Marriage Equality Act. In the run-up to the committee's decision, the largest pro-same-sex marriage protests in the nation's history took place on 1 August 2009 in several cities across Australia. The bill came to a vote in the Senate on February 25, 2010. The bill was rejected by a margin of 45 votes to 5, with only Green senators voting in favor of the bill and many senators not Present at the National Conference in December 2011, Labor overwhelmingly supported a change in the party platform to support the legalization of same-sex marriage. Prime Minister Gillard, who had expressed her personal opposition to same-sex marriage, sponsored a motion to allow MPs and senators a free vote on same-sex marriage legislation. In February 2012, two bills were introduced to allow same-sex marriage in Australia. in the 43rd Parliament. On September 19, 2012, the House of Representatives voted against passing the same-sex marriage bill by a margin of 98–42 votes. On September 20, 2012, the Senate also voted against same-sex marriage legislation, by a vote of 41–26. Leyonhjelm had postponed the upcoming second reading of his bill due to the Coalition party's refusal on the floor to debate a free vote on the legislation. On 11 August 2015, Prime Minister Abbott, in response to the cross-party bill to legalize same-sex marriage being introduced to parliament, called a special joint meeting of the Liberal and National parties. The six-hour meeting resulted in 66 coalition MPs voting against a free vote on same-sex marriage legislation and 33 voting in favor of a free vote to discuss a free vote on the legislation. be held or not. Coalition MPs were against it and so the government sought support from the opposition, the Labor Party. On 14 September 2016, Prime Minister Turnbull introduced the Plebiscite (Marriage Between Persons) Bill to the House/25/2/135/1049942)