Marriage equality has been a long time coming in Australia.
And throughout the past decade, Fairfax Media cartoonist David Pope has been there to capture every political moment as it happened along the way.
These twelve cartoons by Pope, drawn between 2006 and 2017, illustrate the path to same-sex marriage in Australia.
What’s in the Marriage Act now?
According to Attorney-General George Brandis:
"The right to marry in Australia will no longer be determined by sex or gender. Marriage will now be defined in the Marriage Act 1961 as the 'union of two people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life'. Same-sex couples now have the same rights under the Marriage Act as all other couples.”
When are the first same-sex weddings going to happen here?
The marriage reforms officially started on Saturday, December 9.
Couples must lodge a Notice of Intended Marriage at least one month before the ‘solemnisation of the marriage’ – the wedding.
This means the first same-sex marriages in Australia will be on January 9, 2018.