Same-sex marriage has been finally approved by Australian Parliament after the citizens of the country voted yes in a voluntary national poll.
The Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove signed off on the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 today (December 8). This was the final procedure for making the law legal in Australia.
Gay couples can start filing for legal marriage from December 9 and the marriage ceremony will happen as early as January 9, giving them a month's notice of their intention to wed. Supporters were overjoyed with the result and celebrated wearing rainbow colours.
The wedding scenes in Australia is about to change altogether with this law, starting from celebrants who have been asked to read a new monitum- a statement explaining the nature of marriage. From Saturday onwards, celebrants have to use the line "union of two people" instead of "union of a man and a woman" which was the previous legal definition of marriage in the Marriage Act 1961.
Another impact of the law is that the heterosexuals are already bothered with the 'unforeseen consequences' of allowing gay couples to wed.
The straight couples who have planned to get married soon are facing problems due to the sudden approval of the marriage-equality legalisation.
Straight couples are also trying to get married as soon as possible coming under the pressure of the gay couples who are rushing their marriage after the legal approval.
According to news.com.au, one of the celebrants said that he has seen double times increase in the number of enquiries from straight couples compared to last year around this time.
Wedding venues have also witnessed a rise in requests from soon-to-be husbands and wives.
Elizabeth Trevan, another celebrant from Sydney said that it was right for the heterosexual couples to be tensed as a gay pair was the first one to register within minutes of the yes vote, which started on November 15.
One bride-to-be was extremely surprised and confessed saying, "My partner and I got engaged in October, and planned for a long engagement — but when we started making a few very preliminary calls to venues, we realised that most of the popular areas like Kangaroo Valley, Bowral and the Hunter Valley were already well into booking out the prime months in 2019."
Stephen Lee, another celebrant from Sydney who has been receiving a lot of bookings from gay couples said that the straight couples have suddenly realised that there would be possibly a lot more people looking to reserve ceremonies. "There has been a spike in straight wedding enquiries because the penny has dropped that with all the other couples all the venues and celebrants are going to be booked up", she explained.
It has also been reported that venues are seeing a rise from the straight people wanting to reserve before the gays.
Vennesza Chaplain, director of sales at the Willows Wedding venue in Melbourne said that around 100 couples have already enquired last month. "We've had 40 enquires in the last week from straight couples and we've definitely seen more since the Yes vote," she said.
The game is on for both gay couples and straight couples fighting in order to walk down the aisle as soon as possible.
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