Married for five days
Married for five days: in 2013, the happiness of thirty-one couples was shattered before Australia's highest court.
On 12 December 2013, a short-lived dream was shattered in Canberra. The High Court, Australia's highest court, unanimously declared the Australian Capital Territory's marriage law invalid. This also invalidated the marriages of the thirty-one same-sex couples who had said "I do" a few days earlier.
In October 2013, the small capital territory had become the first part of the country to pass its own law on marriage for same-sex couples. To avoid a conflict with the federal government, it deliberately defined this marriage as a separate form alongside marriage under federal law. Tony Abbott's conservative government nevertheless went to court immediately. Since 2004, the national Marriage Act had explicitly stated that only a man and a woman could marry.
On Saturday, 7 December, the first weddings took place. They were days full of joy; some couples were congratulated by strangers in the street. Then came the ruling. Marriage law was a federal matter, the judges found, and a territory could not create its own marriage alongside it. The entire law was of no effect.
For the couples, it was a hard blow. Craig Berry, who had married his partner Ulises Garcia, told the ABC that he would go on calling Uli his husband. They would keep the marriage certificate, and nobody could take the special day away from them.
And yet the ruling contained a sentence that gave hope. The court held that the federal parliament did indeed have the power to open marriage to same-sex couples. The question was therefore back with the politicians. It took four more years, a nationwide postal survey and a heated debate before the parliament in Canberra passed marriage equality in December 2017. This time, the vows were valid for the whole country.