Support for marriage equality is popping up in some surprising spaces.

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An OUTinPerth reader highlighted that the Salvo’s Store in Victoria Park has a rainbow in it’s window and a poster encouraging people to vote YES on their front door.

We’re not sure if the rainbow is a new edition to the store window, but it’s great to see the poster prominently displayed.

The religious organisation has sent mixed messages about their stance on LGBTI people and their thoughts on marriage equality.

Back in 2012 the organisation went into damage control mode when one of their representatives appeared on Melbourne’s LGBTI community radio station and suggested that LGBTI people deserved to die.

The Salvation Army quickly labeled the comments from Major Andrew Craibe, their communications director, as a “miscommunication and misrepresentation of their official teachings”.

While the organisation’s official policies, which are decades old, lists being gay and lesbian as not being inline with their beliefs, younger members of the organisation have created YouTube videos voicing support for the LGBTI community.

Last year the Salvation Army’s Victorian branch announced its support for the Safe Schools Coalition, a program that aims to reduce bullying of LGBTIQ+ school children.

After intense lobbying from family groups with a few days a national statement changed their position to declaring they had concerns about the program.

Earlier this year when a conservative coalition The Family Council put a submission into the Senate Inquiry on Same-Sex Marriage listing the Salvation Army as one of it’s member groups, the Salvation Army were quick to distance themselves from the submission, saying they had not been consulted on the content of the submission.

OUTinPerth reached out to the Salvation Army to ask what their official position was on marriage equality, but in the mean time it’s nice to see the support from the Op Shop in Victoria Park.

Graeme Watson