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
History of same-sex marriage in Australia members bill's raised in the Senate by Michael Organ of the Greens and Natasha Stott Despoja and Andrew Bartlett of the Democrats. Organ introduced the "Same Sex Relationships (Ensuring Equality) Bill 2004" and the Democrats the "Same-Sex Marriage Bill 2006" in the following parliament. A further four bills were introduced in the Senate through the period of the Howard and Rudd governments, though all were either rejected or lapsed in parliament. Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young's 2009 bill to legalise same-sex marriage was the first bill of its kind reviewed by a parliamentary committee. In November 2009 the Legal and