The first national census that began counting same-sex couples occurred in 1996 when the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) declared its snapshot of the country’s population would include same-sex de facto relationships for the first time.
At the time, same-sex marriage was widely considered to be a “heterosexual construct” to which our communities did not aspire.
But the 1996 census revealed something about us propelling a new set of ideals and a push for rights to which we are entitled.
Numerous pieces of legislation began springing up all over the country to provide same-sex relationship recognition – there was finally, hard cold data to back up what activists could only anecdotally declare about our communities previously in lobbying efforts.
To be gay or lesbian no longer meant that we were only concentrated within inner-city enclaves close to bright disco lights as it was so often associated – there was an entire other part of our communities inadvertently coming out of its own closet.
The 1996 census showed for the first time there were at least ten per cent among those first same-sex couples who were rearing their own children.
This year, the ABS has taken that brave 1996 step one bit further with its quinquennial snapshot of the nation for the first time including same-sex couples who are married.
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