Following the news of the High Court reserving its judgement on the ACT’s marriage equality act until next Thursday, same sex couples have powered ahead in getting hitched as soon as the law physically allowed, with Alan Wright and Joel Player marrying at 12:01 am this morning, being the first same sex couple to marry legally in Australia.
“We’re doing it at midnight because that’s what we want to do … but at the same time we took it in our stride to use it as a bit of marriage equality shining at the same time, and helping get the voice out there that we are no different,” Joel Player told The Age. “It’s a bloody giant leap forward for Australia.”
The ceremony, reportedly held a secret until Friday night and attended by 25 guests, was, naturally, a hugely significant milestone in Wright and Player’s lives, with Player saying, “We’ve been who we have been for 15 years – we’ve been through coming out, we’ve gone through the hate we’ve copped all our lives, and it was just this one time I didn’t want the hate.”
Despite the news heralding a cause for celebration and signalling the start of dozens more weddings to be held in the ACT this weekend, the unfortunate downside of the history-making marriages is their inherent risk of not holding the same legal rights or significance if the High Court repeals the ACT’s marriage equality act in proceedings that will begin next week. However, Joel Player remained optimistic while telling The Age, “even if it does get overturned, we’re happy enough and proud enough with each other and everyone in Australia following the story with us and watching other gay men and women get married – it’s already powerful as it is.” Read Anne Twomey of The University of Sydney’s excellent break down of the arguments that infuse the High Court’s judgement with two strong and divisive sides.
But srsly, High Court, pls. It’s Time.
Via The Age.
Title photo by Torsten Blackwood via Getty.
