National Marriage Day is set for tomorrow, Tuesday 13 August.
In other states the movement is planning on marches to parliament house but here in Western Australia the day will be marked by a mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth.
The national day organised by the Australian Family Association is a rally to prevent the introduction of same-sex marriage.
The Western Australian event is sponsored by the Australian Family Association and the Knights of the Southern Cross, a Catholic fraternal association. The promotion of the event highlighted the screening of footage of thousands of people protesting against same sex marriage in Paris as part of the day’s events.
National Marriage Day spokeswoman Marry-Louise Fowler spoke to Fairfax Media saying;
“Children need a mother and a father.
“To define marriage as anything other than a union between a man and a woman is an attempt to remove this fundamental biological link between children and their parents.”
A counter protest against the meeting is being planned by the Cross Campus Queer Network. Spokesperson Andrew Markey said the planned protest was part of a long tradition of standing up to organisation’s that are against the equal marriage movement. Markey compared the rally at the Catholic Cathedral to last year’s event at Margaret Court’s Victory Life Church.
“We see it not only as an attack on equal rights, but also a dog whistle to people in the community that may then may go on to be more homophobic, or perpetrate more homophobic behaviour. Our goal really is to stand up to those behaviours and not let them grow within our community.”
Mr Markey dismissed the position of the Australian Family Association and described their statements as “illogical”.
“I think they go further than being illogical, just to be empirically unfounded..there are studies that show that in almost every single household where there is same sex parents there is no negative effect on children. More studies go one to find that the role that parents play in fighting for equality as a positive effect on children.”
“I think it’s just rhetoric to stir up homophobic behaviour and action,” said Markey.
The Mass for National Marriage Day is on Tuesday 13 August at 6:15pm.
OIP Staff
The Western Australian branch of the Australian Family Association was not available for comment this afternoon.
