New Zealand's parliament has legalized same sex marriage during the final voting session Wednesday.
Lawmakers of New Zealand cast their votes in what was the final voting session for the bill that was passed regarding the country's 1955 Marriage Act. The bill had already been through two rounds of voting in the Parliament and now it has been passed legalizing gay marriage in the country.
New Zealand becomes the 13th country in the world to legalize same sex marriage. Labor MP Louisa Wall's bill passed its final hurdle at Parliament and said, "It now includes all citizens in our state institution of marriage regardless of their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity."
Right before she introduced the bill in the Parliament, Wall said marginalizing and discriminating against particular sectors did not benefit society and families.
"It is a simple choice; do we support discriminatory laws or not? I know I don't and hopefully that is true of most of the members of this house," she said.
Hundreds lined up outside Parliament before the debate to get a seat in the public gallery and another room was also packed with supporters watching on a big screen.
Before the vote, a number of MPs spoke on the bill, including National's Maurice Williamson, who made light of all the "hate mail" he'd been sent.
"I've had a reverend in my local electorate say the 'gay onslaught will start the day this law is passed'. Well, we are struggling to know what the gay onslaught is," he said. "We don't know if it will come down the Pakuranga highway as a series of troops or whether it will be a gas that flows over the electorate that blocks us all in."
Same-sex couples wanting to get married will have to wait around four months before they can take their vows because the Department of Internal Affairs has to upgrade its computer systems.
