Rural and regional areas in Australia are becoming more LGBTI accepting

The results of the marriage equality postal survey suggest that support for LGBTI people is higher than even in regional Australia.

The overwhelming majority of regional and rural areas voted Yes, with most of the few No-voting electorates being in cities, News.com.au has reported.

The only regional areas that returned a No vote were the Groom, Kennedy and Maranoa electorates in Queensland.

The other seats with a majority No vote were in Sydney and Melbourne.

South Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia all returned Yes votes from every electorate.

Trent Light of the small town of Narrandera in New South Wales said LGBTI folks are more accepted in country towns than people might think.

“I think many people think that in small country towns [same-sex relationships] are not accepted,” he said.

“It used to be worse but I think it needs to be looked at again today to show people that it is not what it used to be, it’s much better. I think it’s gaining a lot more acceptance.”

Light said he wasn’t surprised that his home town’s electorate of Farrer returned a 55.2 per cent Yes vote.

“I suppose all the people I know in this town and in all the other towns around, I think the support of the LGBTI community is fairly good,” he said.

“More people are coming out and I think people are realising it’s not such a bad thing.”

Light said support from his community was crucial.

“When I did come out, people may have been homophobic but because they knew me, they thought, ‘Trent’s not a bad guy and who he loves doesn’t matter’,” he said.