mike carey

To summarise, it's a social weekend involving a lunch and a pool party (and perhaps a dinner as well) with a number of clients and escorts who, if they do not live there, stay at the various gay resorts in Palm Springs. In between formal events, many of the resorts have enough participants staying to ensure that there is plenty of socialising around the pool or elsewhere. I'm surprised that wasn't clear from the other postings in this thread. If you search for the thread about the 2017 weekend, you will find an indication of how it worked out that time.

Perhaps, but not uncommon. Running a currency isn't cheap for a very small country. Several South Pacific countries use the AUD, and several in southern Africa use the ZAR, and although they issue their own currencies at par with the Rand, the Rand is legal tender in them.

Interesting side point, the Bill was passed four years to the day after the first same-sex weddings in Australia. The Australian Capital Territory legalised them in 2013 and there was a quick flurry of solemnisations, but seven days later the High Court struck down the ACT Act, thus voiding those marriages.

UK in Australia ‏Verified account @ukinaustralia 10h10 hours ago Today we have raised the rainbow flag over the British High Commission in Canberra to celebrate with Australia in this historic moment The Australian Parliament has voted to change the Marriage Act to allow same-sex couples to marry #marriageequality#loveislove #LoveisGREAT [ATTACH=full]14672[/ATTACH]

No, for most things legal status as a couple is available to both married and unmarried couples. Marriage is automatically evidence of being a couple whereas people in de facto relationships need to provide more evidence. For means tested benefits, which count both partners' income to determine eligibility, any appearance of it being a mutually supportive relationship rather than house-mates makes you part of a couple. And they can be intrusive in investigating. Ironically, when this was introduced a few years ago it was to the disadvantage of same sex couples. Before that they were deemed to be single so unemployment benefits and pensions didn't consider their partner's income and their previous entitlements weren't grandfathered. Tax returns are filed individually with no option for joint filing, so marriage makes no difference. Australian states have a governor who is also the representative of the Queen. The governors' link to the crown is direct, not via the governor general.

It's still the Royal Anthem so it's used in any events involving royalty (not the GG though). The Bill received royal assent in the last few minutes and will come into force at midnight. From then foreign marriages will be recognised here, but the first weddings will only be possible on about 9 Jan as there is a requirement to give 30 days' notice of intention to marry. From tomorrow the words 'marriage is between one man and one woman' will no longer have to be said in the ceremony.

People in the public gallery of the House of Reps after the vote was taken.

It is done!! The Marriage Amendment Bill was passed with only four votes against it. (House Standing Orders provided that with so few no votes, the yes votes were not counted.) Welcome to he 21st Century.

The debate in the House of Representatives is coming to a close, they are voting now on whether to put religious freedom/freedom of speech amendments into the Bill. Several earlier amendments of the same sort were defeated. This final vote was 63-79, so the amendments failed.

Who isn't?

Many!!

I doubt it's forever. Wikipedia changes, and that will be edited in time. How long it stays there is the interesting question.

They are cuts for the people who 'matter'.

Exactly so. I've driven enough on both sides of the road now that I'm reasonably relaxed about it. For a while I would make one 'side of road' error each time I changed either way, but I seem to be over that now. An interesting quirk that says something about my cognitive processes is that when giving driving directions in the US I would generally say left when I meant right and vice versa. It was as if my concept of left and right was linked to where I was sitting in a car rather than to the actual directions. The first time I ever attempted to travel on the right (I hired a bicycle in Denmark) I was completely discombobulated (that's twice this week I've used that word) and had all sorts of difficulties, despite having ridden a bike for years.

No, right handed, but my entire driving life I've changed gears with my left hand.

I learnt on, and have mostly owned manual cars, and prefer them. Had an automatic when I lived in the US, but did drive a manual there on occasion. I found changing gears with my right hand a little awkward, but I'm sure I would have adjusted to it in time.

I like this display. [ATTACH=full]14643[/ATTACH]

Maybe so, my impression was that it was IT tech stuff. Clearly I'm not the authority on this matter!

That is something that is being considered here by religious bodies although not by the state. Ministers of religion are automatically entitled to conduct marriages under civil law, and they are already permitted to refuse to marry couples who don't meet their religious requirements. Most churches are happy with this. Some, though, are so discombobulated by same sex marriage that they are talking of withdrawing from the jurisdiction of the Marriage Act. If they do this, marriages that they perform will not be recognised under civil law and the couples will have to have a separate civil marriage. I can't see couples being happy with a church wedding that left them 'not legally married'.

This is not tech talk, it's a Lounge discussion.

I think it would be out of line. Call him what he says you can call him and keep whatever you have found out to yourself. If he becomes a regular, that may change. If you really find out by accident, say social media linking you to his profile, you may want to alert him to that. But don't use what you find out, either by accident or snooping, to try to make or build a connection to him.

In his Senate speech on the Bill last week, conservative Christian senator Dean Smith noted that his faith was not a platform, it was a refuge. It's a pity more Christians didn't take that view when they make their interventions in the public sphere.

Tim Wilson's speech is notable in that it condemns the people on his [conservative] side of politics who spent years trying to prevent equal marriage, and dismisses the specious claims that legalising equal marriage somehow detracts from other people's religious freedom.

The Equal Marriage bill was introduced into the lower house of Parliament today. One gay government MP in his speech to the house proposed to his partner, who was sitting in the public gallery. News cameras in the house focused on him and you could see him mouth the word 'Yes'. The speaker said, 'Let the Hansard record that the answer was Yes'. (Otherwise it would only have recorded the question.) The theatre of the whole process continues to be absorbing.