If you’ve ever been to a wedding in Australia, you will have heard the celebrant utter the following words: “Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of a man and a woman.”
Yep, and you likely heard the celebrant apologise for it too, seeing as it was explicitly exclusionary of same-sex couples. Unfortunately, that line is part of a three-sentence statement, called the “monitum”, that celebrants have to say in order for the marriage to be legal. It was a bummer, but a necessary bummer if your two mates wanted to get hitched.
That is, until now.
Thanks to the glorious and hard-won legalisation of marriage equality, the monitum is about to change, and we all get to ditch that intrinsically homophobic little line from our wildly expensive commitment parties for good.
The new set script for marriage celebrants now reads:
I am duly authorised by law to solemnise marriages according to law.
Before you are joined in marriage in my presence and in the presence of these witnesses, I am to remind you of the solemn and binding nature of the relationship into which you are now about to enter.
Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of two people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.
The union of two people. Not man and woman. Just two people. And doesn’t that feel much, much better.
Couples also get the choice to have the celebrant refer to them as “spouse” rather than “husband” or “wife“, and marriage certificates will look a bit different, too – rather than the categories “bridegroom” and “bride“, we’ve instead got the pleasantly efficient “party 1” and “party 2“.
Marriage equality becomes law on Saturday December 9, i.e. tomorrow, which means that all the weddings you’re going to over the summer are going to include those sweet new words. It also means that same-sex couples can apply for marriage licenses from tomorrow, and start getting hitched in a month.
Are you ready for an extremely gay wedding-y January? I sure as hell am.
