‘Vote with your genitals’ was the flamboyant message from Perth icon Patti Chong heard by over 1,000 people at the Equal Love marriage equality rally on August 14 at Forest Place.
Chong, a high-profile lawyer in Perth announced this mandate during the rally, met by a cry of laughter and support from the crowd of homosexual, heterosexual and transgender people present.
The August march recorded the largest attendance in Perth for this, the National Year of Action while most of Australia’s major cities held their own marches with a reported 7,500 people around the nation protesting.
Marches took place in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, Newcastle, Wollongong, Ballart, Darwin and Lismore.
Chong said the marriage equality debate was about LGBT people having the option of marriage and that change was as simple as amending the definition of wedlock to include everybody.
‘You should demand an equal playing field … It’s all about your right to say “I can,‒ Chong said.
Local lesbian couple Kwai Doherty and Annette Mill became engaged during the proceedings after Doherty proposed to Mill in front of the crowd.
Well-known names such as comedian Will Anderson and presenter Ruby Rose attended the Sydney and Melbourne rallies while comedian Josh Thomas joined the Brisbane rally.
WA Greens Senator Rachel Siewert spoke at the Perth rally about the right to marriage for everybody.
‘Every Australian has the right to marry in their state if they so chose,’ Siewert said.
‘I’ve walked the corridors in the (federal) senate and we’ve still got a lot of work to do.’
She said the Greens would demand a conscience vote on marriage equality; coinciding with Greens leader Bob Brown delivering a call-to-arms on the vote from the other parties.
Equal Love organisers estimated over 1,000 people congregated in the Perth CBD from 12pm onwards with the march kicking off just before 2pm.
The march itself snaked around the CBD, beginning in Forest Place and continuing along Murray St Mall onto William St.
It proceeded through the Hay St Mall onto Barrack St and then back into the Murray St Mall for the final leg to finish where it started in Forest Place.
Check out Outinperth.com for photos of the Perth rally and from around Australia.
Benn Dorrignton
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