To link same-sex adoption laws and having marriage status, you could use the The Adoption Amendment (Same Sex Couples) Act 2010 NSW which extended the definition of couples to include same sex couples, so that they could adopt. Though in saying this, there are plenty of amendments for having same sex marriage status ranging from 2004 to 2017, that can be used in your essay which means that you could separate the two ideas. Not too sure about if there is a law reform for same sex adoption laws except for the one mentioned. Also, if you do ever run out of LCMIDI, there is a legal studies media library here on atarnotes at https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=165173.0.
Thank you for your reply.
I ended up writing something like this:
Law Reform has been effective to a great extent in granting same-sex couples more rights with changing social values. In 2004, the Howard government’s Marriage Act 1961, defined marriage as a “union between a man and a woman,” the law explicitly excluded same marriages and inhibited same sex couples from adopting children from overseas countries. This legal discrimination has severely impeded the notion of justice same sex individuals receive due to the lack of fairness and equality within the law. However, the Adoption Amendment (Same-sex couples) Act 2010 (NSW) was introduced to extend its rights to same-sex couples by changing the decision of terms to be gender neutral. These changes adhered to community standards by increasing the acceptance of homosexual couples by granting them legal recognition and equality with de-facto and heterosexual couples. This amendments is seen to be effective through its enforceability and accessibility in the case Re William and Jane (2010) where the the first adoption order was made in favour of Mr and Mrs Smith who had fostered two children through Barnardos. Furthermore, the law has been responsive to the changing societal values with the implementation of the Relationships Register Act 2010 (NSW) which allows same sex couples to register their de facto relationship and formally recognize their same sex relationship. In addition, the postal plebiscite of 2017, found that 62% of Australian voted ‘Yes’ in favour of legalising same-sex marriages (Results: Same-sex marriage postal survey, 2017). This catalysed the enactment of Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017, which legally recognised same sex couple marriages. Thus, law reform has been highly effective in recognising and responding to the growing social acceptance of same-sex relationships.
Do you think its good?