Jane Fonda is the latest celebrity to
back marriage equality in Australia.
“Everybody should be able to get
married,” Fonda
told Yahoo7 Be. “Many of my friends are gay women and men,
married with children, and those marriages are more stable than
most.”
The government is spending $122 million
on surveying Australian attitudes on whether it should legalize such
unions. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will announce
final results on Wednesday, November 15.
While Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
has promised to allow debate on a marriage equality bill if
Australians favor a change, the postal vote itself can't legalize
same-sex marriage. Turnbull has said he will block such a bill if
it's a “no” vote.
Fonda co-stars with Lily Tomlin in the
Netflix hit comedy Grace and Frankie. In the show, Fonda and
Tomlin's characters turn to each other after finding out that their
husbands are involved in a relationship and later marry. The show's
fourth season is set to premiere in 2018.
The 79-year-old Fonda added that
“television has played an important role in marriage equality.”
Other celebrities who have called on
Australians to vote “yes,” including Chris
Hemsworth, Cate
Blanchett, Sam
Smith, Dolly
Parton, Hugh
Jackman, Liam
Hemsworth, Elton
John and Brandon
Flynn.
Opponents included the Catholic
Church, Milo
Yiannopoulos and Margaret Court, who warned that marriage
equality will lead to the end of Christmas.
(Related: Macklemore,
Mary Lambert perform Same Love at NRL grand final.)