diff --git a/Lib/test/test_sax.py b/Lib/test/test_sax.py
index a16c821762c..825c16a8d03 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_sax.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_sax.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ from xml.sax.expatreader import create_parser
 from xml.sax.handler import feature_namespaces
 from xml.sax.xmlreader import InputSource, AttributesImpl, AttributesNSImpl
 from cStringIO import StringIO
+import io
 import os.path
 import shutil
 import test.test_support as support
@@ -170,9 +171,9 @@ class SaxutilsTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
 start = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>\n'
 
-class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
+class XmlgenTest:
     def test_xmlgen_basic(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
         gen.startDocument()
         gen.startElement("doc", {})
@@ -182,7 +183,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result.getvalue(), start + "<doc></doc>")
 
     def test_xmlgen_content(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -194,7 +195,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result.getvalue(), start + "<doc>huhei</doc>")
 
     def test_xmlgen_pi(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -206,7 +207,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result.getvalue(), start + "<?test data?><doc></doc>")
 
     def test_xmlgen_content_escape(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -219,7 +220,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
             start + "<doc>&lt;huhei&amp;</doc>")
 
     def test_xmlgen_attr_escape(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -238,8 +239,41 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
              "<e a=\"'&quot;\"></e>"
              "<e a=\"&#10;&#13;&#9;\"></e></doc>"))
 
+    def test_xmlgen_encoding(self):
+        encodings = ('iso-8859-15', 'utf-8',
+                     'utf-16be', 'utf-16le',
+                     'utf-32be', 'utf-32le')
+        for encoding in encodings:
+            result = self.ioclass()
+            gen = XMLGenerator(result, encoding=encoding)
+
+            gen.startDocument()
+            gen.startElement("doc", {"a": u'\u20ac'})
+            gen.characters(u"\u20ac")
+            gen.endElement("doc")
+            gen.endDocument()
+
+            self.assertEqual(result.getvalue(), (
+                u'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="%s"?>\n'
+                u'<doc a="\u20ac">\u20ac</doc>' % encoding
+                ).encode(encoding, 'xmlcharrefreplace'))
+
+    def test_xmlgen_unencodable(self):
+        result = self.ioclass()
+        gen = XMLGenerator(result, encoding='ascii')
+
+        gen.startDocument()
+        gen.startElement("doc", {"a": u'\u20ac'})
+        gen.characters(u"\u20ac")
+        gen.endElement("doc")
+        gen.endDocument()
+
+        self.assertEqual(result.getvalue(),
+                '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ascii"?>\n'
+                '<doc a="&#8364;">&#8364;</doc>')
+
     def test_xmlgen_ignorable(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -251,7 +285,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result.getvalue(), start + "<doc> </doc>")
 
     def test_xmlgen_ns(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -269,7 +303,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
                                          ns_uri))
 
     def test_1463026_1(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -280,7 +314,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result.getvalue(), start+'<a b="c"></a>')
 
     def test_1463026_2(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -293,7 +327,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result.getvalue(), start+'<a xmlns="qux"></a>')
 
     def test_1463026_3(self):
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -321,7 +355,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
         parser = make_parser()
         parser.setFeature(feature_namespaces, True)
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
         parser.setContentHandler(gen)
         parser.parse(test_xml)
@@ -340,7 +374,7 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
         #
         # This test demonstrates the bug by direct manipulation of the
         # XMLGenerator.
-        result = StringIO()
+        result = self.ioclass()
         gen = XMLGenerator(result)
 
         gen.startDocument()
@@ -360,6 +394,29 @@ class XmlgenTest(unittest.TestCase):
                           '<a:g2 xml:lang="en">Hello</a:g2>'
                          '</a:g1>'))
 
+    def test_no_close_file(self):
+        result = self.ioclass()
+        def func(out):
+            gen = XMLGenerator(out)
+            gen.startDocument()
+            gen.startElement("doc", {})
+        func(result)
+        self.assertFalse(result.closed)
+
+class StringXmlgenTest(XmlgenTest, unittest.TestCase):
+    ioclass = StringIO
+
+class BytesIOXmlgenTest(XmlgenTest, unittest.TestCase):
+    ioclass = io.BytesIO
+
+class WriterXmlgenTest(XmlgenTest, unittest.TestCase):
+    class ioclass(list):
+        write = list.append
+        closed = False
+
+        def getvalue(self):
+            return b''.join(self)
+
 
 class XMLFilterBaseTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_filter_basic(self):
@@ -804,7 +861,9 @@ class XmlReaderTest(XmlTestBase):
 def test_main():
     run_unittest(MakeParserTest,
                  SaxutilsTest,
-                 XmlgenTest,
+                 StringXmlgenTest,
+                 BytesIOXmlgenTest,
+                 WriterXmlgenTest,
                  ExpatReaderTest,
                  ErrorReportingTest,
                  XmlReaderTest)
diff --git a/Lib/xml/sax/saxutils.py b/Lib/xml/sax/saxutils.py
index 7989713f588..dad74f5389d 100644
--- a/Lib/xml/sax/saxutils.py
+++ b/Lib/xml/sax/saxutils.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ convenience of application and driver writers.
 """
 
 import os, urlparse, urllib, types
+import io
 import sys
 import handler
 import xmlreader
@@ -13,15 +14,6 @@ try:
 except AttributeError:
     _StringTypes = [types.StringType]
 
-# See whether the xmlcharrefreplace error handler is
-# supported
-try:
-    from codecs import xmlcharrefreplace_errors
-    _error_handling = "xmlcharrefreplace"
-    del xmlcharrefreplace_errors
-except ImportError:
-    _error_handling = "strict"
-
 def __dict_replace(s, d):
     """Replace substrings of a string using a dictionary."""
     for key, value in d.items():
@@ -82,25 +74,46 @@ def quoteattr(data, entities={}):
     return data
 
 
+def _gettextwriter(out, encoding):
+    if out is None:
+        import sys
+        out = sys.stdout
+
+    if isinstance(out, io.RawIOBase):
+        buffer = io.BufferedIOBase(out)
+        # Keep the original file open when the TextIOWrapper is
+        # destroyed
+        buffer.close = lambda: None
+    else:
+        # This is to handle passed objects that aren't in the
+        # IOBase hierarchy, but just have a write method
+        buffer = io.BufferedIOBase()
+        buffer.writable = lambda: True
+        buffer.write = out.write
+        try:
+            # TextIOWrapper uses this methods to determine
+            # if BOM (for UTF-16, etc) should be added
+            buffer.seekable = out.seekable
+            buffer.tell = out.tell
+        except AttributeError:
+            pass
+    # wrap a binary writer with TextIOWrapper
+    return io.TextIOWrapper(buffer, encoding=encoding,
+                            errors='xmlcharrefreplace',
+                            newline='\n')
+
 class XMLGenerator(handler.ContentHandler):
 
     def __init__(self, out=None, encoding="iso-8859-1"):
-        if out is None:
-            import sys
-            out = sys.stdout
         handler.ContentHandler.__init__(self)
-        self._out = out
+        out = _gettextwriter(out, encoding)
+        self._write = out.write
+        self._flush = out.flush
         self._ns_contexts = [{}] # contains uri -> prefix dicts
         self._current_context = self._ns_contexts[-1]
         self._undeclared_ns_maps = []
         self._encoding = encoding
 
-    def _write(self, text):
-        if isinstance(text, str):
-            self._out.write(text)
-        else:
-            self._out.write(text.encode(self._encoding, _error_handling))
-
     def _qname(self, name):
         """Builds a qualified name from a (ns_url, localname) pair"""
         if name[0]:
@@ -121,9 +134,12 @@ class XMLGenerator(handler.ContentHandler):
     # ContentHandler methods
 
     def startDocument(self):
-        self._write('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="%s"?>\n' %
+        self._write(u'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="%s"?>\n' %
                         self._encoding)
 
+    def endDocument(self):
+        self._flush()
+
     def startPrefixMapping(self, prefix, uri):
         self._ns_contexts.append(self._current_context.copy())
         self._current_context[uri] = prefix
@@ -134,39 +150,39 @@ class XMLGenerator(handler.ContentHandler):
         del self._ns_contexts[-1]
 
     def startElement(self, name, attrs):
-        self._write('<' + name)
+        self._write(u'<' + name)
         for (name, value) in attrs.items():
-            self._write(' %s=%s' % (name, quoteattr(value)))
-        self._write('>')
+            self._write(u' %s=%s' % (name, quoteattr(value)))
+        self._write(u'>')
 
     def endElement(self, name):
-        self._write('</%s>' % name)
+        self._write(u'</%s>' % name)
 
     def startElementNS(self, name, qname, attrs):
-        self._write('<' + self._qname(name))
+        self._write(u'<' + self._qname(name))
 
         for prefix, uri in self._undeclared_ns_maps:
             if prefix:
-                self._out.write(' xmlns:%s="%s"' % (prefix, uri))
+                self._write(u' xmlns:%s="%s"' % (prefix, uri))
             else:
-                self._out.write(' xmlns="%s"' % uri)
+                self._write(u' xmlns="%s"' % uri)
         self._undeclared_ns_maps = []
 
         for (name, value) in attrs.items():
-            self._write(' %s=%s' % (self._qname(name), quoteattr(value)))
-        self._write('>')
+            self._write(u' %s=%s' % (self._qname(name), quoteattr(value)))
+        self._write(u'>')
 
     def endElementNS(self, name, qname):
-        self._write('</%s>' % self._qname(name))
+        self._write(u'</%s>' % self._qname(name))
 
     def characters(self, content):
-        self._write(escape(content))
+        self._write(escape(unicode(content)))
 
     def ignorableWhitespace(self, content):
-        self._write(content)
+        self._write(unicode(content))
 
     def processingInstruction(self, target, data):
-        self._write('<?%s %s?>' % (target, data))
+        self._write(u'<?%s %s?>' % (target, data))
 
 
 class XMLFilterBase(xmlreader.XMLReader):
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index eab49934c3e..39298b52783 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -202,6 +202,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #1470548: XMLGenerator now works with UTF-16 and UTF-32 encodings.
+
 - Issue #6975: os.path.realpath() now correctly resolves multiple nested
   symlinks on POSIX platforms.