A new campaign in support of marriage equality has emerged in the City of Rockingham, following local government support recently from the councils of Bayswater and Fremantle.
Mmerit (Motion for Marriage Equality in Rockingham – It’s Time) co-convenor Jordon Steele-John explains that community support is on the rise.
“The Mmerit campaign was kicked off less than a month ago now, with the aim of urging and convincing the City of Rockingham to follow the 50 other local councils across Australia and the local government peak body in supporting a motion for marriage equality.”
“This came up because a friend of mine who’s new to the community found an article that Fremantle and Bayswater had recently passed such a motion and she was worried that she might get a bad reaction if she shared it.”
“I urged her to share the article because people really do support marriage equality here and she had a wonderful reaction… and someone even tagged a local councillor in the post. He expressed concern that it wasn’t a local government issue, and although he supported marriage equality he didn’t believe it was something a local government should do.”
“I was keen to get involved because when she was worried about sharing the article, what was really being said was ‘Do I belong in this community? Am I welcome? and having lived in Rocko for several years, I absolutely believe that the community does and if you’re an LGBTI resident and you live in a local government that hasn’t passed one of these motions, you deserve to know that the community – through your local government – support you.”
Steele-John says the campaign is an opportunity for councils to promote community inclusion and tell LGBTQIA+ people they belong in their city or town, and implores Rockingham residents to get involved.
“You can contact us through our Facebook page (Mmerit) and if you live in the city you can send us a picture with one of our signs to share on social media, we’ve had a wonderful community reaction that way.
“You can also sign our petition online and if you are a resident, we really need people to email their councillors and let them know you are supportive of this issue.
We’ve gone out to the community and taken our petition around and we’ve gathered nearly 500 signatures… so the community reaction from locals and local businesses has been overwhelming.”
Steele-John urges those who don’t live in the City of Fremantle, Bayswater, Vincent or the Town of Port Hedland to contact their local councillor and make their voice heard on marriage equality.
OIP Staff
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