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1 M. V. Lee Badgett, Submission to the Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding the Recognition of Foreign Marriages Bill 2014 1 (2014)

handle is hein.lgbtqwi/arfmbt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: aI August 20, 2014 Submission to the Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee Regarding the Recognition of Foreign Marriages Bill 2014 By M. V. Lee Badgett Williams Distinguished Scholar, Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy, UCLA School of Law Professor of Economics and Director, Center for Public Policy & Administration, University of Massachusetts Amherst I am writing to comment on the likely impact of the Recognition of Foreign Marriages Bill 2014 on Australian same-sex couples, their families, and Australian society. The passage of that bill would mean that same-sex couples legally married in another country would have their marriage recognized in Australia. As a result, there are likely to be an increasing number of married same-sex couples residing in Australia, as married Australian same-sex couples return home after marrying in other countries and as married non-Australian same-sex couples migrate to Australia. My three main points below speak to the issue of the impact on Australian society of legal recognition for those marriages. The points are based on the experience with marriage equality for same-sex couples in the United States and the Netherlands. Dutch same-sex couples have been able to marry since 2001. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has allowed same-sex couples to marry since 2004, and today, 19 states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex couples to marry. I estimate that more than 100,000 same-sex couples have now married in the United States. The impacts of marriage equality have been positive. First, the experiences in the United States and the Netherlands demonstrate that allowing same-sex couples to marry has had positive effects on couples, their children, and their families. Second, data from both countries shows that civil unions are not a good substitute for marriage. And third, marriage equality has been economically advantageous for the states that have enacted it in the U.S. and would bring direct economic benefits to Australian businesses as well if Australian couples could marry at home. 1. Positive effects from marriage on same-sex couples, their families, and their children Impact on couples and families: My colleagues and I conducted a survey of 558 people in married same-sex couples in Massachusetts that revealed common motives and positive effects of marriage on those couples.1 We found that same-sex couples report 1 Christopher Ramos, Naomi G. Goldberg, and M.V. Lee Badgett, The Effects of Marriage Equality in Massachusetts: A survey of the experiences and impact of marriage on same-sex couples, May 2009, 1

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