On Saturday May 23rd a group of marriage equality supporters took to Murray Street Mall to speak out about marriage equality.
The rally took place in honour of International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHoBiT), which took place the previous Sunday on May 17th.
Equal Love WA and the Socialist Alternative member Clare Francis introduced the speakers, and herself spoke about the significance of IDAHoBiT.
“This day is an anniversary of when the World Health Organisation decided to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. This is obviously a very positive change and it changed the way that gay people are viewed. But I think we also have top see this decision in the context of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people as well as straight people challenging homophobia and as a reflection of the changing attitudes that resulted from their struggle.”
ECU Student Guild Queer Officer Natalia Verne spoke about the importance of including transgender rights in the fight for LGBT equality. “Transexuality is still listed as a mental disorder in the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders.” she said.
“Transphobia is still very rampant within the queer community, non-binary phobia is still very rampant within the queer community and we all need to challenge ourselves to make ourselves better.”
Sam Cavallaro of Equal Love WA discussed Australia’s position in the fight for marriage equality in comparison with the rest of the world.
“Today we await the results of a referendum that could legalise marriage equality in Ireland. This would make it the twentieth country worldwide to legalise same sex marriage. This referendum, which looks likely to succeed, puts the Australian government further behind, not only in regards to LGBTI rights worldwide, but the public opinion of the majority of the people in this country.”
Equal Love WA member Miranda Wood spoke on behalf of United Against Bigotry and Racism. Wood spoke about the upcoming Rally Against Racism.
Farida Iqbal also made a speech about the importance of persistence when striving for marriage equality. “I’m really glad that the people who organised this have organised this, because even though we haven’t got the numbers here today that we had in the past, we don’t have 800 people here today, nevertheless it’s very very important that this movement keeps going no matter what the numbers.”
Learn more about the Equal Love campaign at their website.
