The fight for marriage equality in Australia is traveling by leaps and bounds in the community, as thousands attended a pro-marriage equality rally in Melbourne today, wielding GetUp! posters reading, ‘Love Is Love’.
Gathering on the steps of Victorian Parliament, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and ALP Senator Penny Wong addressed the crowd. Wong, the first openly-gay member of the Australian cabinet, labelled the swelling movement for marriage equality as “unstoppable”.
“We are here because we see and are living through this unstoppable movement towards equality, towards acceptance and understanding, a quality that unfortunately remains absent in some parliamentarians.”
A cross-party bill—aiming to change the current legislation’s phrasing of marriage: from a union being between a “man” and a “woman” to simply, “two people”—will be presented later this year; a conscience vote among the Coalition over the issue is yet to be confirmed.
Bill Shorten encouraged the Liberal and National parties to instate a conscience vote on the issue, saying, “let’s move on with this debate. Let’s have a free vote.”
This weekend, brands such as McDonalds, Twitter, Airbnb and Telstra have joined a full-page ad in The Weekend Australian along with 150 other major brands, calling for marriage equality in Australia.
Same-sex marriage in Australia? Becoming less of an “if”, more of a “when” by the day.
Lead image via Instagram.
