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Abstract
In May 2013, New Zealand's Parliament allowed same-sex marriage, adding Australia's neighbour to the list of countries legalizing same-sex marriage. While the two nations share much in common, as yet Australia has no intention of changing the law. The New Zealand legislation has been widely reported in mainstream Australian newspapers, and this study analyses those reports to understand Australian attitudes towards same-sex marriage. It finds that Australia has a sense of lagging behind the trend; that Australian marriage is most closely linked to religion which plays an important part in explaining the reform; that the issue of same-sex marriage is seen as a legislative and therefore as a political issue; and, finally, given that opinion polls show majority support for the issue that a change is required in Australian political leadership before same-sex marriage will be legalized.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Many opinion polls were consistently reported in favour (60–65%), according to The Gold Coast Bulletin (Coopes Citation2013). Australian Marriage Equality ([AME] Citation2012) also found that 64% of 15,010 Australian participants thought that same-sex marriage should be allowed.
2. Heteronormativity is a term popularized by Warner (Citation1991), which refers to the belief that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation or only norm, and states that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between people of opposite sexes. Thus, it involves alignment of biological sex, sexuality, gender identity and gender roles, and is often linked to heterosexism and homophobia.
3. The incidence of articles by State was as follows: ACT: 5; NSW: 26; NT: 3; QLD: 13; SA: 7; TAS: 3; VIC: 18; WA: 2. Total: 77 articles.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Thi Huyen Linh Nguyen
Thi Huyen Linh Nguyen is a researcher at Da Nang Institute for Socio Economic Development based in Da Nang, Vietnam. In 2013, she completed her MSc. degree in public policy and management at Carnegie Mellon University. She conducted several independent researches on the same-sex relationships. Her most recent article was in 2013 ‘Children in same-sex family: Are they different and what does that mean for policy.’ The Heinz Journal 10 (2): 57–66. At present, she is working as an international project development specialist and is expected to be a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Wollongong since March 2016.