The world around us is changing more and more each day, for better or worse. This time, the citizens of Australia decided to make a positive change which affected the minority greatly. Australia had finally gave in and voted ‘yes’ to marriage equality, letting the LGBTQ+ community have the right to marry.

After a two-month national poll survey came out which legalized same-sex marriage, people expressed their joy on the streets and even online. The results which were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that even as 38% of the population voted against the idea, a majority of 61% voted to allow same-sex marriage. In the country, it was estimated that more than 12.7 million people participated in giving their feedback through the survey with every state and territory giving a majority answer of ‘yes.’

As marriage equality has been announced legal in most English-speaking countries, Australia has been fighting their way to achieve the same benefits. There have been numerous accounts of debating over whether or not such an act of equal marriage was necessary. Even Australia’s LGBT community was afraid of the outcome of this national poll, in fear of bitter feedback.

The day the victory was announced, social media celebrated and even got the news to trend as number one. Many celebrated including popular singers, actors, actresses, and internet stars. They were shown tweeting their love and appreciation towards the decision made in Australia on Twitter. Locally, Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull expresses his overwhelming joy and states, “[Australians] voted ‘yes’ for fairness, they voted ‘yes’ for commitment, they voted ‘yes’ for love. And now it is up to us here in the Parliament of Australia to get on with it” (CNN).

This is such a significant achievement for the LGBTQ+ community. People who are a part of this community are mistreated every day whether we see it or not. Bullying in schools arise and especially major hate crimes and incidents from people just being themselves and living freely with their sexuality. This serves as an important step into letting the world know that members of the LGBT community deserve just as much of the same rights as any other person. People of this community are humans as well and should not be discriminated. An invisible line should not exist between straight couples and gay couples. One is no different than the other.  Ashley Ko (11) believes that this achievement is “super important and [she is] glad to see the LGBT community getting the rights they deserve, finally.”

Over many years, being lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, etc has been looked down upon and seen as an abnormality; yet, this is not how it should be. Achievements such as these which help bring light to the minorities are especially amazing. There is a great upcoming for the bright future of the LGBT community in Australia and they now have more freedom to express their sexuality.