Australia's top court overrules gay marriage in capital

Google – AFP, Amy Coopes (AFP), 12 December 2013

A same-sex couple walk past a religious protester (back R) outside the High

Court of Australia, Canberra on December 12, 2013 (AFP, Mark Graham)

Sydney — Australia's top court Thursday struck down gay marriage in the nation's capital, ruling that parliament must decide on same-sex unions -- to the anguish of dozens who have wed under a landmark law.

In a unanimous judgment scotching the Australian Capital Territory's new same-sex marriage law, the High Court ruled that only parliament -- not state and territory authorities -- had the power to decide who could wed.

The ruling dashed the hopes of same-sex couples and campaigners who had banked on the ACT legislation paving the way to a national law permitting gay marriage, a decade after the federal government defined wedlock as strictly between a man and a woman.

A religious protester reacts to the decision 

of the High Court of Australia, Canberra on 

December 12, 2013, after it struck down

gay marriage in the nation's capital where

dozens have wed under a landmark law

(AFP, Mark Graham)

Polling commissioned by marriage equality campaigners puts support for same-sex marriage in Australia at 64 percent, but the nation continues to lag behind a growing number of countries on the reform including neighbouring New Zealand, Britain and 16 US states.

"The Marriage Act does not now provide for the formation or recognition of marriage between same-sex couples," the court said.

"That Act is a comprehensive and exhaustive statement of the law of marriage," it added.

"Under the constitution and federal law as it now stands, whether same-sex marriage should be provided for by law is a matter for the federal parliament."

There were tearful scenes outside the Canberra courthouse as some of the 27 couples who wed under the month-old law learned that their vows were to be annulled.

"In less than a week we've been married and we've been unmarried, at least on a legal level," a "devastated" Ivan Hinton told reporters, fighting back tears.

Hinton married his partner of 11 years Chris Teoh at Old Parliament House on Saturday, one of the first weddings to be conducted under the ACT law.

"We're still married. I've made commitments to Chris to spend the rest of my life with him, through sickness and through health, in the good times and in the bad. Today's not particularly good," Hinton said.

Gay marriage was explicitly outlawed under a 2004 revision of the national Marriage Act by the conservative prime minister at the time, John Howard. Since then, the issue has gained increasing national traction.

'Victory' still at hand

An Australian gay couple exchange vows 

during their marriage at Canberra's Old

 Parliament House on December 7, 2013 

(AFP/File, Andrew Taylor)

Same-sex couples can have civil unions or register their relationships in most states across Australia, but the government does not consider them married under national law.

For legal purposes they are considered de facto couples and have exactly the same rights as married couples. Campaigners, however, insist that the right to marry is a more fundamental human right.

Despite Thursday's court ruling, veteran gay rights campaigner Rodney Croome said social progress could not be undone.

"Although there's been a defeat for marriage equality in the High Court today this week, we've seen a much greater victory," an emotional Croome said.

"For the first time ever same-sex couples have married on Australian soil. That has been a huge step forward and one from which there is no return."

The ruling had also given campaigners a clear path forward, Croome said, putting the ball squarely in the parliament's court, and affirming for the first time that lawmakers "definitely" had the power to legalise same-sex marriage.

"Many people had assumed that until now, but it has never been declared by the court," he said.

Same sex couple Krishna and Veronica hug

 outside the High Court of Australia, in Canberra

on December 12, 2013 (AFP, Mark Graham)

Others also took heart from the court's declaration that, while the Marriage Act was restricted to male-female unions, the constitution did not inherently exclude same-sex couples from the definition of "marriage", underscoring that it was a political rather than legal issue.

But religious groups including the Australian Christian Lobby welcomed the ruling, saying the issue was irrelevant to most Australians and it was "time to move on".

The conservative government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott is opposed to gay marriage, despite Abbott's sister being a lesbian who hopes to marry her partner.

Attorney-General George Brandis welcomed the decision and urged MPs to "uphold and respect" the ruling, which he said went to the question of uniform marriage legislation.

"The proceedings in the High Court have never been about the desirability or otherwise of same-sex marriage," he said.

The Labor opposition called on Abbott to allow a conscience vote on the issue, where lawmakers would be free to cast on personal rather than party lines.

A previous ballot in September 2012 failed by 98 votes to 42, after Abbott imposed the party line on his MPs.

Related Articles:

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Australia strikes down law allowing same-sex marriage

Gay and lesbian couples marry in Australia under shadow of High Court ruling

India government mulls legalising gay sex after court ban

India top court reinstates gay sex ban

Britain's first gay marriages to take place from March 29

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?

Answer: [From the Kryon Office]

There is often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page" for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]

An excerpt from Kryon Book 6, page 306

Question from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.

Answer from the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about Human society and "God."

Thirty years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God. Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing, indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a changing culture!

The truth, of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it. Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves! You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's culture.

Now I say this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?

If the answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that, don't you?