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Australian same-sex marriage U-turn

Besi Besemar January 8, 2014

The Pink Triangle Trust is a charitable trust set up to educate people about all aspects of homosexuality.

Pink Triangle Trust

The Trust has commented on the reversal of a law allowing Australian same-sex couples to marry.

The U-turn came after the Australian High Court reversed the law less than a week after around 30 same-sex couples visited Canberra for marriage ceremonies after the region’s Australian Capital Territory (ACT) passed a law allowing them to do so.

Their marriages have now effectively been nullified by the country’s High Court, which ruled that the law change was never valid in the first place.

Federal government lawyers issued the legal challenge, saying that it was only up to nationwide lawmakers to decide on the definition of marriage – set in 2004 as being between members of the opposite sex.

The government also argued that to allow regional legislators the power to set their own marriage laws would create confusion and inconsistency.

The High Court unanimously ruled that the ACT’s law could not operate concurrently with the Federal Marriage Act, a decision which the same-sex newlyweds said they found disappointing but not surprising.

New Prime Minister Tony Abbott opposes gay marriage and his coalition blocked two Federal bills last year that would have allowed legal recognition of same-sex partnerships.

George Broadhead
George Broadhead

George Broadhead, the Pink Triangle Trust’s secretary, said: “Opposition from the Christian lobby, including the God-fearing Prime Minister, has triumphed.”

The ruling comes a day after India’s Supreme Court struck down a 2009 lower court decision to decriminalize homosexuality.

For more information, on the UK Pink Triangle Trust, CLICK HERE:

 

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