In the first part of this three part series I discussed the general state of marriage equality around the world. For this article I have interviewed Elsa Bourdon, an ATCK living in Australia whose passport country is France.

Elsa has been living in Australia for eleven years now, but previously she has lived in Brunei, Malaysia and Holland, and although she has never lived in her passport country, she has visited many times to see family. France is one of 13 countries in the world, which has legalized marriage equality, Elsa says that the only reason she could see herself returning to France would be to get married.
I asked her what it would look like to cross international borders after getting married in France, she had previously expressed that she would most likely continue living in Australia. She responded, “The marriage wouldn’t stand legally here… you would be doing it for the act… When you go back to Australia it would be basically like you’re not married.”

Australia’s current campaign for marriage equality is ongoing and there has been some progress. Unfortunately there is no marriage equality in Australia, but in some states a same sex couple can adopt children, and in others they can enter a civil union.
Elsa also explained to me that, “Last year there was marriage equality for like two days or three days in Australia, and then it got cancelled… and every marriage which happened in that time got annulled.” But there is still progress being made, the coalition has growing support especially from younger people, and now business leaders.
There is hope that the next prime minister will be able to make a permanent change with marriage equality in Australia and in Elsa’s words, “We’ll just have to wait and see.”