It’s been nearly eight years since the Howard government passed a law that marriage is between a man and a woman. The government took away our civil rights, but instead of feeling dejected and giving up, we fought back like never before. We organised the biggest LGBTI rights protests in Australian history, we shifted public opinion in our favour, and after we dragged them kicking and screaming for years, the Labor Party changed their position on marriage equality.
It’s time to take to the streets again. The next Equal Love demonstration will be on May 12, 1pm in the Supreme Court Gardens, Perth. Everybody who gives a damn has got to be there.
We have a right to feel confident after all we have achieved. But we haven’t won yet, and isn’t inevitable that we will. We have to keep protesting in large numbers until we achieve our goal of full marriage equality.
The ALP now has a position supporting full marriage equality, but it doesn’t guarantee us victory. Not by a long shot. The ALP also supports a conscience vote – that means when the vote goes to parliament, Labor politicians won’t necessarily vote according to their party’s position. Of course the Liberal Party intends to bind its politicians to vote against marriage equality, which means that if a vote were to go to parliament now it would be lost. This is a disgraceful cop-out and we need to take to the streets to show we won’t stand for it.
May 12 is sure to be a great day. We have some excellent speakers lined up, including comedian Hannah Gadsby.
So come along and stand up for your rights. Click “attending” on the facebook page. And if you want to get active in the campaign contact Sam Cavallaro on 0458 641 375, or sacavallaro@gmail.com.
Farida Iqbal
