National Day Of Action For Same Sex Marriage This Sunday

Local News, By Joal, 1st August, 2008

This Sunday marks the 4th annual National Day of Action for same-sex marriage, will you be there?

“Even Arnie Schwarzenegger in California has gay marriage… come on!” exclaimed CAAH’s (Community Action Against Homophobia) Heidi Claus speaking to Same Same today.

“We have over 30,000 signatures in support of same-sex marriage… it’s a really popular campaign, we’re meeting people in the street that just don’t understand why this hasn’t happened yet.”

The former Howard government passed the Marriage Amendment Act in 2004, a law stipulating that ‘marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others’.

And where is Australia four years on?

“We can’t sit back and wait for the Rudd government… [they were] elected on the basis of wanting to right the wrongs of the Howard government,” said Claus. Only today Rudd made comments about gay marriage during an interview on breakfast radio, saying, “Marriage is a particular type of relationship… Our position is that marriage is between a man and a woman. I don’t mean any disrespect to same sex relationships.”

The rally will have an Aboriginal welcome to country, speakers from the Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby, NSW Council for Civil Liberties and PFLAG. “We’ve also got Jim Casey from the Fire Fighters Union” said Claus, “There’s a lot of queer fire fighters.”

Clause said the support of groups that aren’t specifically gay or queer, like the worker’s unions and prominent community groups, like the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, clearly indicates that the issue same-sex marriage is not just about gay rights, but gaining equality for all Australians.

Sunday’s same-sex marriage rally is at 1pm, meeting at Taylor Square. The rally will hear from a number of speakers before marching down Oxford Street and George Street to Town Hall.

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