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Australia says “yes” to same-sex marriages

Australia hopes to legalise gay marriage before Christmas thanks to the victory of the “yes” vote in a non-binding referendum on the issue that will allow the debate on the reform of the marriage law in the Canberra Federal Parliament. More than seven million Australians, 61.6% of the electorate, voted to legalise same-sex marriage with 12.7 million turning out to vote, 79.5% of the census.

The debate on marriages between couples of the same-sex has caused divisions in the Liberal government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, himself in favour of the reform. The bill will be presented before Christmas and it is estimated that at least 72% of MPs will give their blessing to the law and 69% in the Senate.

Although gay marriage is technically illegal in Australia, the country recognised the existence of “neutral” or “nonspecific” genders in 2014. In late August thousands of Australians took to the streets of Melbourne to express their support for the legalisation of gay weddings in the final stretch of the campaign for the referendum.

Human Rights Watch has urged Turnbull to approve the law as quickly as possible. “We must ensure that this period of political indecision ends immediately and adopt the appropriate legislation to make it so,” said the HRW president Boris Dittrich.

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