But it is not just a trend in Western countries. Conservative Vietnam could well be the first country in Asia to make gay marriage legal.
So just how real are the chances?
Presenter: Richard Ewart
Speaker: Hayley Conway, Campaign Manager, All Out
CONWAY: At this stage we know that the National Assembly which has 500 delegates certainly doesn't have a majority who would vote for it at the moment, but we see Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health already coming out for marriage equality. We are fairly optimistic that by the time a vote is held in 2014 there could be the required number of delegates who would be in favour of an amendment.
EWART: So what would you see as the driving force behind this, because it just seems so unlikely?
CONWAY: So currently the prohibition against marriage equality is based on a relatively archaic law basically describing same sex couples as "against nature". And so the driving force behind this has actually just been the recognition of human rights in the region and in Vietnam, and basically seeing the law as a violation of the human rights of the same sex couples and gay and lesbian people within Vietnam.
EWART: Now as I understand it same sex relationships are not illegal in Vietnam, but discrimination persists to some degree, particularly amid what is a strong conservative family society if you like. Is this a suggestion that those sorts of attitudes are changing, that people are becoming shall we say more understanding?
CONWAY: I think it's just a good reflection of where our society is at in terms of recognising that a family is a family regardless of the kind of differences that there may be between one family and another, and that actually this is just a natural extension of seeing a family and understanding what love is, and that these shifts in marriage equality laws are a reflection of that within culture.
EWART: There do appear to be maybe some contradictions though which suggest that there's some way to go yet before reaching the end game that you're obviously seeking. Vietnam's Ministry of Justice said quite recently that they would scrap the fines that have previously been imposed on same sex couples who were caught getting married, but that came days after they said that they were going to double the fines. So there's a lot of toing and froing going on here, which suggests political uncertainty?
CONWAY: Yeah I think that's a pretty accurate description that there is some uncertainty and there is certainly between now and 2014 some work to be done with the National Assembly delegates to give them a very real idea of who these people are that this law affects, and that they are in fact just people who are just like them who are looking to form families who have loving relationships, and that changes to these laws are aligned with human rights in exactly what they're seeking to do in terms of their human rights obligations internationally.
EWART: Now we've seen New Zealand in this part of the world legalise same sex marriage, but it's not happened yet here in Australia. If Vietnam were to make the decision ahead of Australia what sort of signal do you think that would send out?
CONWAY: Look I think it would send a very strong signal about the placing which Australia is falling in terms of this kind of progress. And I think that all Australians would like to see Australia be the progressive country that we know it is, and I think seeing somewhere that we are used to thinking of as being more conservative than Australia bringing on something like marriage equality before us will be quite a strong awakening for particularly our lawmakers who have been the ones really dithering on this issue, when we know that public support is already very high for marriage equality in Australia.
