An overwhelming percent of same-sex Australians want the chance to say ‘I do’, according to a new national survey.
The Not So Private Lives survey conducted by the University of Queensland found almost 80 percent of the 2,232 same-sex attracted participants felt marriage should be an option while 54.1 percent selected marriage as their personal choice.
The university’s researcher Sharon Dane said the findings debunked the myth that same-sex people did not want to marry and were contented with a de facto status.
‘It was being said by religious groups and certain politicians that marriage was wanted by only a handful of activists and not a reflection of the community but that was not based on any evidence,’ she said.
‘This (survey) gets the perspective from the people affected that they do want marriage and dismisses the argument at a federal level that creating a de facto status is enough.
‘It just completes the picture.’
It is the first national survey to investigate gay Australians’ relationship preferences since the federal introduction of de facto status for same-sex couples this year.
Participants came from across all states and territories, in urban and rural areas and were aged between 18 and 82.
Of the 677 participants in de facto relationships, 55.4 percent preferred marriage to their current status, 25.6 percent preferred a federally recognized relationship other than marriage, 17.7 percent preferred de facto and 1.3 percent preferred no legal status.
The results also found that marriage was most popular among younger generations, with 62 percent of the under 30s choosing it compared to 25 percent of the 75-year-olds.
‘There are several factors explaining that but you’ll find the older generation lived in a very different environment where having same sex relationships were controversial let alone getting married,’ Ms Dane said.
‘You can see the perfect decline that as they get older they don’t want to get married.’
The results of the survey have been submitted to the Federal Senate inquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2009, which seeks to permit same-sex marriages in Australia and recognise same-sex marriages conducted overseas.
The Senate inquiry is expected to receive well over 10,000 pro-equality submissions, according to Australian Marriage Equality spokesman Peter Furness.
The AME submitted 8,500 submissions alone.
Mr Furness believed the number of submissions showed a turning point in the support for marriage equality compared to an inquiry carried out into the 2004 Marriage Act amendments banning same-sex marriage, which attracted 13,000 submissions of which 3,000 were against the amendments.
‘After such an overwhelming show of heartfelt support for marriage equality, it will be impossible for our federal politicians to ever again ignore the demand for same-sex marriage or dismiss it as a marginal issue,’ he said.
The deadline for submissions has closed and a report is expected to be made to the inquiry by November 26.
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