Sydney welcomes 2018 with rainbow display celebrating same-sex marriage
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – DECEMBER 31: The 9.00pm family fireworks on New Year’s Eve on December 31, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)
Sydney, Australia has welcomed in the new year with a rainbow display celebrating same-sex marriage.
Revellers in Sydney celebrated the new year with a spectacular fireworks display which included a rainbow waterfall cascading off the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The rainbow was intended to celebrate same-sex marriage which just recently became legal in Australia.
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“This is a fabulous way to see out 2017 – the year that four out of five Sydneysiders said a resounding ‘Yes’ to marriage equality,” Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.
More than 1.5 million revellers took to the Sydney foreshore to watch the fireworks display.
Part of the display was also designed by Hugh Jackman.
The Hollywood star and same-sex marriage advocate designed 20 seconds of gold and silver fireworks.
While Sydney was one of the first to welcome in the new year, celebrations around the world will soon take place in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
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The first same-sex marriages took place two weeks ago in Australia for couples with special circumstances who were excused from the 30-day waiting period.
Royal Assent was given to the same-sex marriage law on 8 December following on from a historic postal vote earlier this year which saw more than 61 percent of Australians vote Yes for same-sex marriage.
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Despite a 30-day waiting period after couples registered to marry, two weddings took place on 16 December.
It is expected that the next same-sex weddings will take place on 9 January following the waiting period.
Lauren Price, 31 and Amy Laker, 29, were the first to marry in Sydney.
Another couple had been granted an exemption as one of them has terminal cancer.
Australia’s parliament earlier this month legalised same-sex marriage, passing a bill to allow two people, regardless of sex, to marry.
The motion was approved almost unanimously by the House of Representatives, after passing the upper chamber the previous week.
