Today's Results...

Before I start this post, I just wanted to say that I don't usually write posts of this nature and I have been back and forth over the last week about whether or not I did want to go ahead and write this post, or whether I should just stick to what I know.
But after a long time pondering that question, I realised that at the end of the day, I have just as much right as anyone in the world to be talking about this issue, especially as an Australian and especially today.

Now, for those of you who don't know, the Australian Government has recently carried out a postal survey to see what the Australian public thought of legalizing same-sex marriage, the results of which are being announced today at 10am Australian time and 3pm where I am, yes I did that math last night.

It's currently 1140am in Vancouver and I am so eagerly awaiting these results, praying to the universe that it will be a yes.

Now, don't get too excited, as the results of this survey do not directly change any laws or make any difference in the legality of marriage equality today. But, if the Australian Government does go through with their promises, then if the results of this survey come back as a yes vote, then same-sex marriage 'should' be legal in Australia by the end of this year.
Whether or not that is the case, I guess only time will tell.

As anyone who knows me knows, and as you can probably guess already by the start of this post, I am 100% for marriage equality, as I would hope most logical, ethical people are. But I'm not going to take this post as an opportunity to preach, or an opportunity to say the things that so many yes campaigners have said in the past few months and that hopefully, the majority of the 12.6 million Australians (yep, that's 78.5% as of last Friday) that voted in this non-compulsory survey heard and agreed with.

What I want to take some time to reflect on is exactly that. The fact that 78.5% of the population of Australia took part in this survey. That's 12.6 million people.
That's bigger than Brexit.
It's bigger than the Irish same-sex marriage survey of 2015.
Even bigger than the last US presidential election.

And that is something that I think every single Australian should be damn proud of.

It breaks my heart a little bit to not be sitting (or sleeping considering that it's 650am) in Australia right now awaiting these results. It breaks my heart even more to know that if (when) the results return as a yes and even more when (if) the law is actually passed, that I'll be 13,203km away. But at the end of the day, if this does turn out the way that I want, that so many of my friends and family want, then we'll be making history!

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