Illegal wedding to boost rights
Organisers are anticipating one of the largest turnouts they have ever seen for this year’s National Day of Action.
More than 60 couples have registered to take part in the planned mass -˜illegal’ wedding on the day, outside the Labor Party national conference.
It’s well under the initial call for 400, but the theme of the day has galvanised scores of others to take part according to organiser Emilia Lawonski.
This year’s event is looking a lot bigger, especially because marriage, at the moment, seems to be on everyone’s mind, she said.
There’s a lot more interest this year I think because of the wedding that we’re having, I think people are really interested in that and the fact that it’s being staged in front of the ALP conference as well.
A lot of the couples are really passionate about that, about being able to have a wedding and stand up for their rights at the same time.
Lawonski said she expected a smooth, incident free event.
We’ve been running the NDA since around 2005 and we’ve never really had anything negative happen, she said.
So far the response has been pretty positive, like we haven’t had any hate mail from conservatives or anything. The only kind of negativity we’ve had has probably been from some people in the queer community who just don’t believe in the institution of marriage, so that’s a good sign.
To ensure it stays that way though, organisers have put out a call out for anyone wishing to volunteer as a marshal to guide marchers.
Anyone who would like to be involved in that way, can fill out an online registration form at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDF0bldLTWJhcElLNV9DQnNDclJxV2c6MA.
Anyone that wants equality for marriage should take part. We want to get as many people as possible to come down on the day and watch the couples getting married, Lawonski reminded anyone who was undecided about whether to attend.
Rally-goers will further be able to show their support for same-sex marriage on the day, by signing on to Australian Marriage Equality’s submission to the marriage inquiry currently underway.
Australian Marriage Equality members will pass out postcards for people to register their details on, which will be sent in with their submission.
The NDA will take place on August 1, starting from the steps of Town Hall at noon before marching down to the ALP conference in Darling Harbour.
info: For more information go to http://www.caah.org.au/nda
David, it’s a good idea. The divorces would clearly be on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.
As an aside, it would send the statistics for divorce way up, indicating that fewer and fewer “man and a woman united for life” pairings actually survive for life; it would highlight the farcical nature of the law as it currently stands.
The current position of marriage is “the union of a man and a series of women or a woman and a series of men to the exclusion of all others except extra marital liaisons, voluntarily entered into for as long as is convenient.” Perhaps that’s what the Marriage Amendment Act should have said. It might have been more effective at communicating the farce.
Aprpacietion for this information is over 9000-thank you!
David, I like your idea much very much. You could literally clog the courts up with VALID marriages using that strategy.
A friend once told me about his idea for a demo: a mass wedding but gay men and lesbians marrying rather than same-sex couples tying the knot. Paul is right in that a mass wedding of same-sex couples would be void rather than illegal. But gay men and lesbians getting married would be valid as per current legislation and it would really show what a farce the marry laws are – especially if the rally then marched down the road to the Family Court to get divorced.
We should all be thankful we live in Australia- in Nigeria you can be sent to prison for up to five years for taking part in a same-sex wedding- even if you’re just a guest and even if the wedding was held in another country.
But that’s no reason for complacency and hope to see you all at the NDA!
So, if we have a mass “illegal” wedding (it’s actually void, thanks to Howards 2004 amendmetns to the Marriage Act), then why not a mass of Applications for Declaration of Nullity since they are not recognised as marriages.