This week, Australians will begin voting on whether to legalize same-sex marriage. The vote is peculiar – it’s by mail and won’t be binding. But it’s intended to show what Australians want. Polls suggest it will pass, though the vote-by-mail element adds unpredictability.

Basically, no one likes this solution. Opponents of same-sex marriage worry that the vote might succeed, while supporters note that parliament could settle the issue on its own – and meanwhile, the campaign is disparaging lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. What’s the point? they ask.

That becomes clearer in a television ad by the “no” campaign. At one point, a mother says, “School told my son he could wear a dress next year if he felt like it.” The claim has nothing to do with same-sex marriage. But it speaks to a deep sense of cultural insecurity. Advocates for same-sex marriage will wonder what is taking Australia so long, but attitudes toward marriage and homosexuality there, as in the United States, have reversed astonishingly fast – in little more than a decade. In that way, a vote no one likes represents a country still struggling to find its footing amid seismic change. 

Here is our take today on stories that examine perseverance, moral leadership, and innovation.