Twelve months ago, the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill passed its third and final reading. New Zealand was the 13th nation in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, and the first in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the spirit of Marriage Equality's birthday I suggest we communicate solely with the unicorn pusheen for the day pic.twitter.com/rZOI3eHGvB
— Molly McCarthy (@molliotti) April 17, 2014
At least 350 same-sex couples have tied the knot since then, with the number of civil unions plummeting. While the relevance of marriage, same-sex or heterosexual, as an institution is open to debate, it's hard to overstate what the passing of that law meant to a huge number of New Zealanders.
Of course, it was by no means a foregone conclusion, with 44 MPs voting against the legislation at its final reading, and many people – some more notably, and more vocally, than others – remain unhappy with the outcome. The New Zealand Herald reports that fewermarriage celebrants are affiliated to churches and religious institutions, and a small number have resigned, since the law took effect in August last year.
Stella Blake-Kelly wrote in her piece published on The Wireless on Thursday, marriage equality was an opportunity to challenge preconceptions about sexuality on a national scale:
The campaign for marriage equality focused less on equal rights than it did on the meaning of love and family, which the passing of the legislation ultimately came to symbolise to many. It created a space in time where people were encouraged to challenge their assumptions of, and preconceptions about, sexuality. And for many of my friends, it set them on a journey to discover their own.
As Wellingtonian Kirsten Ainsworth, 31, noted, though nothing changed between her and her partner of seven years after their wedding day, there is still some clout attached to marriage that means it’s important that it’s extended to all people. “It does seem like quite a privilege to be able to say ‘I’m married’, and get the currency associated with that.”
And Laura Vincent, who came out as gay since marriage equality passed, wrote about the experience of “feeling the weight and power of everyone who has gone before”.
