The Australian Senate is expected to
consider a bill which seeks to recognize the overseas marriages of
gay and lesbian couples.
According to the Herald Sun, the
Senate will consider Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young's Overseas
Marriage Recognition Bill before the end of June.
Marriage equality advocate Kerryn
Phelps, who married her partner in New York, said the couple faced a
“bureaucratic nightmare.”
“Australian politicians are not
listening to their population and it's time that they did,” she
told the paper.
Phelps added that the prohibition
against recognizing the overseas marriages of gay and lesbian couples
was approved by the government in 2004.
Recent passage of marriage equality in
neighboring New Zealand and unsuccessful attempts to legalize the
institution in Australia prompted the proposal.
Australian Marriage Equality Convenor
Rodney Croome said the law “disrespected” the marriages of
same-sex couples who got hitched abroad.
“We are disregarding those other
countries' laws, we are treating those countries with disrespect as
well as treating couples who marry in those countries with
disrespect,” he said. “It makes no sense to allow Australian
same-sex couples to marry in other countries but then to disregard
those marriages when those couples return to Australia.”