A new study has revealed that the Australian public’s opinion on same sex marriage has radically changed in the past decade.
While MPs debate whether laws should be changed to allow gay couples to wed, the rest of the country has made up its mind. Thankfully, with a resounding ‘yes.’
Almost two-thirds of Australians now support equal rights for same-sex couples, a dramatic rise from just 38% in 2005, The Guardian reports.
The support for same-sex rights was roughly the same among both men and women, with the proportion of women agreeing to equal gay marriage rights rising from 43 per cent in 2005 to 67 per cent in 2015.
Among men, the proportion rose from 32 per cent to 59 per cent.
“It certainly does seem that the political leadership is lagging behind community sentiment on this particular issue,” Roger Wilkins, the researcher behind the University of Melbourne’s national study, said.
As far as relationships and parenting go, attitudes have also shifted.
Australians increasingly agree working mothers can have as good a relationship with children as non-working mothers, and both men and women increasingly agree it is fine for an unmarried couple to live together if they have no intention of marrying.
More and more Australians believe that marriage doesn’t have to last forever and that if a couple is unhappy, they should be able to get a divorce, even when there are children involved.
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