1 From Functional Family to Spinster Sisters: Australia’s Distinctive Path to Relationship Recognition Reg Graycar * Jenni Millbank ** INTRODUCTION Marriage has been the central focus of the struggle for same-sex relationship rights in the United States for many years now. Arguably, marriage has come to occupy a central place in the collective imagination; indeed, “gay marriage” is often used as a short-hand in popular discourse to stand for any and every form of same-sex relationship recognition. Yet even in some jurisdictions that have now opened marriage to same-sex couples, marriage was not first, and is not the primary, form of relationship recognition. 1 Same- sex relationship rights are in a state of enormous flux with considerable variation apparent among the models, strategies, and substantive effects of recognition around the world. This Article reflects on the approaches that Australia, and to a lesser extent New Zealand, have taken to relationship recognition, focusing in particular on the ways in which they have differed profoundly from what has happened in the United States. Specifically, the relationship recognition debate in Australia through * Professor of Law, University of Sydney. ** Professor of Law, University of Technology, Sydney. We would like to thank Anthea Vogl, Tiffany Hambley, Matthew Weait and Sally Sheldon for their various contributions, and the Legal Scholarship Support Fund at the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, for research support. 1. For instance, Canada and the Netherlands. For an excellent overview of the situation in Europe, see MORE OR LESS TOGETHER: LEVELS OF LEGAL CONSEQUENCES OF MARRIAGE, COHABITATION AND REGISTERED PARTNERSHIPS FOR DIFFERENT-SEX AND SAME-SEX PARTNERS (Kees Waaldijk ed., 2005).