Here’s What Marriage Celebrants Will Read Now That Marriage Equality Is Legal
This change is long overdue.
“Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.”
Nope, not anymore!
Ever since the Howard government updated the marriage act back in 2004 to explicitly prohibit same-sex couples from getting hitched, civil celebrants have been required to utter the above phrase in order for a marriage to be legally valid. But now that marriage equality is finally the law of the land, that outdated script has gotten a very welcome update.
As of December 9, civil celebrants will instead use the following words:
“Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of two people, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.”
Additionally, people getting married will now have the option to say they take their partner as their lawful wedded “spouse” if they’d rather not use “husband” or “wife”.
Marriage certificates are also getting a makeover, with “bridegroom” and “bride” replaced with “party 1” and “party 2”.
With couples required to give a month’s notice before they wed, Australia’s first same-sex marriages will take place on January 9. Mark it in your calendars, because it’s going to be an extraordinarily gay day.
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h/t Buzzfeed. Feature image via Wikimedia.