Australian support for equality in marriage has steadily increased throughout the years. It has risen from 38 percent in 2004. A survey conducted in July found that 72 percent of Australians support the legalization of marriages that are based on gender.
An unambiguous majority of heterosexual couples support equality for marriage. A 2016 survey indicates that couples who support equality in marriage are significant in people of the 2nd generation Australians.
Despite this support for equality in marriage, however, marriage itself is in decreasing numbers across Australia. There were 5.2 weddings for every 1000 people as of 2014, which is down from 6.2 in 2004 as well as 9.2 in 1950. The figures are considerably lower than in America. The US. Also, 74.1 percent of Australians who have gotten married choose to have a more civil than one that is religious.
Institutionalised discrimination
In any civil ceremony held in Australia, the discriminatory nature of marriage should be made clear by law. It is the Marriage Act obliges civil celebrants to declare:
When you join in a wedding in the presence of me and with witnesses, I want to try to make you aware of the solemnity and binding relationship you are going to join.
According to the law in Australia, it refers to the union between a male and a woman, to the exclusion of everyone else, and voluntarily signed for the duration of their lives.
The requirement, referred to colloquially in the form of “monitum” (Latin for “warning”), has been in place since the time that the Marriage Act was enacted as the nation’s first marriage law in the year 1961.
The statute is a reflection of the common law and the religious beliefs prevalent in the era. Garfield Barwick, the key creator of the marriage laws in Australia, explained in 1960 that the law was:
… an element to the stabilization of the marriage.
These beliefs are in place in the present. Arguments to protect the marriage institution were reintroduced in the 2004 parliament and, this time, to support the explicit exclusion of couples of the same genders from the Act on Marriage. Philip Ruddock, then the attorney-general, stated:
The government has repeatedly emphasized the importance of marriage and the role of marriage in the society we live in … (and] will implement measures to increase the importance of this essential institution.
Heterosexual solidarity
With the widespread use of civil marriages and the acceptance of marriage equality, how can heterosexual grooms and brides who favor equality in marriage manage the legal requirement for the ceremony of the momentum?
My ongoing research shows heterosexual couples who believe in equality of marriage and the civil celebrants who get married are using their wedding ceremonies as a way to protest the marriage laws in Australia in various ways.
The most frequent were “statements of protest” read by the wedding celebrant, the civil celebrant groom, or other guests prior to or following the momentum. These declarations express dissatisfaction with the legal system as it is and call for change.
Other methods include:
The celebrant reads the momentum quietly or makes the PA system quieter;
organizing private wedding ceremonies that are legal with the momentum followed by a separate, public ceremony that is not a minimum;
performing a vow ceremony instead of a wedding
making guests wear ribbons to show solidarity
From one celebrant and the exclusion of the momentum in small weddings when they believed that they wouldn’t be reported.
My sample isn’t enough to accurately determine the degree of effort to ensure equality for marriage in all civil wedding ceremonies. The estimates from the celebrants I spoke with ranged from the lowest point from a pledge to equality in marriages at a rate of 2-3 percent of weddings led by the celebrant to between 80 and 90 percent at the upper end.
I will survey everyone who is registered as an Australian civil celebrant in order to be aware of the size of the protests.
