On November 29, Australia's Senate voted to pass the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 with a result of 43 votes for, 12 votes against and 17 votes to abstain. Before this moment, there were 22 unsuccessful attempts to pass same sax marriage legislation which were rejected by the Senate or the House of Representatives.

Background

Between September 12 and November 15, 2017, people in Australia who were eligible to participate received a survey which asked to answer "yes" or "no" to the following question: "Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?"

With a voter turnout of 79.5%, 61.6% had voted "yes" and 39.4% had voted "no". Over 12 million Australians participated in this survey.

While the survey was not politically binding in anyway, it did lead to the development of the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017, which was proposed by senator Dean Smith and submitted to the Senate to legalize same-sex marriage and make other amendments regarding marriage.

The bill had passed the three readings with the final reading resulting in support to pass the bill to the House and awaits its first reading.

What will the bill change and what are its effects?

There are a few consequences of the bill.

Definition of Marriage

The definition of marriage will change from between one man and one woman to "2 people" to be inclusive of couples other than heterosexual couples. Although it the bill is titled with the term "same-sex", it will also be inclusive of other types of couples as well.

Religion and Marriage

The bill has established that ministers of religion and other religious institutions can refuse to marry same-sex couples due to religious beliefs. This also applies to civil servants, who may refuse to provide this service because of their religious beliefs as well.

Same-Sex marriage overseas

The bill recognizes same-sex marriages entered in places outside of Australia as valid.

There could be additional amendments to come and the House has yet to read the bill.

Additional articles to read:
Exploring the proposed bill: Our analysis
[Same-sex Marriage Vote Results w/ Live Coverage](http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/samesex-marriage-vote-results-and-live-coverage-as-postal-survey-verdict-announced-20171114-gzl182.html]