Australia says YES! to marriage equality

The Australian people have overwhelmingly said YES! to marriage equality in every state and territory across the country, with a powerful 61.6% majority. Nearly 80% of the nation turned out to respond.

The full survey results are available on the ABS website here.

Big crowds attended the public announcement of the results of the survey and positively cheered when the results were made public.

Now the fight is on to change the law to reflect the will of the majority. A majority of politicians are promising to vote marriage equality into law. However, the right are still planning to frustrate the process by arguing for the right to discriminate.

As Lisbeth Latham wrote in Green Left Weekly this week: "The right's obsession with religious freedom is entirely cynical and divorced from the real historic struggles for religious freedom, which were about defending and protecting the rights of religious minorities from laws linked to state religions."

"The right’s push to protect "religious freedom" is part of a broader assault to impose its conservative social attitudes via the state. It is a campaign that is anti-secular while seeking to violate the religious and social freedoms of those whose lives do not fit within the right's view of morality."

So we've won a major victory but the campaign is not over yet.

Nevertheless, today is a day for celebration!