Thank you Commissioners for conducting this inquiry, and for giving me the opportunity to speak to you. At the outset I'd like to say that quite frankly, it confounds me that we need to be going through this process in Australia, in We live in an essentially tolerant and inclusive society, so you've got to wonder why people like my partner Andreas and me are still waiting for equality. In all but one respect, Andreas and I are an ordinary everyday middle-aged couple, living lives just like all the people around us. Thirteen years ago, in a page application for Andreas' permanent residence visa we actually proved this to the Australian Government. I won't go over the details again, except to say that since then our lives have become even more closely intertwined. We're productive members of our society.

Booklet, "Born Free and Equal". Booklet, "Living Free and Equal". Fact Sheets. Speeches and statements. Feature stories.

No one anticipated it, but President Barack Obama used the occasion of his second Inaugural Address to give what was perhaps the most important gay-rights speech in American history. Inaugural Addresses are, by their definition, important and defining occasions, when Presidents set the tone and direction for the coming four years. President Obama used the occasion to make the first direct reference to gay-rights in an Inaugural Address, and he did so with a power and forthrightness we have not heard before, even from him.