Same-sex marriage 2010 upon promulgation by the Argentine President. Argentina thus became the first country in Latin America, the second in the Americas, and the tenth in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Australia became the second nation in Oceania to legalise same-sex marriage when the Australian Parliament passed a bill on 7 December 2017. The bill received royal assent on 8 December, and took effect on 9 December 2017. The law removed the ban on same-sex marriage which previously existed and followed a voluntary postal survey held from 12 September to 7 November 2017, which returned a 61.6% "Yes" vote for
Same-sex marriage in Australia Howard would later admit that the amendments were partially motivated by a desire to prevent same-sex couples having their marriages recognised by the courts, as was being litigated at the time. Additional reforms to the "Family Law Act" prevented same-sex couples from being eligible adoptive parents for children in inter-country adoption arrangements, though these restrictions were eventually relaxed in 2014. The bill passed the Parliament on 13 August 2004 and went into effect on the day it received royal assent, on 16 August 2004. Over the following 13 years, there were 22 unsuccessful attempts to legalise same-sex marriage in the