CANBERRA, Australia (BP) — Australia’s Parliament legalized same-sex marriage today (Dec. 7), following a court ruling doing the same in Austria two days earlier, the Associated Press reported. Churches and religious organizations in Australia are allowed under the new law to boycott gay weddings without violating existing anti-discrimination mandates, the AP said.

Australia legalised same-sex marriage on 9 December 2017. States and territories began granting domestic partnership benefits and relationship recognition to same-sex couples from 2003 onwards, with federal law recognising same-sex …

THE final step to make same-sex marriage legal in Australia has now been completed with couples able to marry by January next year. Charis Chang CharisChang2. news.com.au December 8, 2017 9:28am.

In August 2004, same-sex marriage was officially prohibited when the Marriage Act 1961 and the Family Law Act were amended in order to define marriage as a "union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life". Amendments were also made to prevent the recognition in Australia of marriages conducted in other countries between a man …

It was a week after same-sex marriage became legal in Australia, and it has now been revealed to be the countrys first. It was allowed to proceed without the 30 …

Nearly 6,000 couples from around the country have tied the knot in the 12 months since same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia, with New South Wales leading the way down the aisle.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Western Australia have seen significant progress since the beginning of the 21st century, with male sex acts legal since 1990 and the Parliament of Western Australia passing comprehensive law reforms in 2002. The Australian state decriminalised male homosexual acts in 1990 and was the first to grant full …