Registering for protection
After four years of dating, former police officer Terry Harvey and his DJ boyfriend Man Lie are eager to have their relationship registered — for legal and personal reasons.
“We’ve been in a committed relationship now for a long time — something that’s rare nowadays — and this is a way of showing it,” Harvey told Sydney Star Observer.
The couple, who are not so concerned about the register’s lack of ceremonial options, are more interested in the ability to protect themselves.
“Personally, we’re not so interested in accessing marriage. All we want is to be able to protect our rights, and to be sure that we have the same rights as anyone else,” Harvey said.
“It’s perhaps a bit dark, but I suppose this would be more important to our relationship when things go wrong.
“I want to ensure that [Man Lie] has access to all his rights in the event that I get sick or something happens.
“I used to work as a police officer, and I’ve seen it too many times — same-sex couples being denied access to their partner after an accident. I don’t want that to happen.”
Your say: How do you feel about the relationship register? Email [email protected]
The reason access to full equal civil marriage is important, is that we be no longer be treated as aparteid 2nd class citizens paying 1st class taxes. It’s not radical- just ask them in South Africa, where they chose not to re-instate ANY kind of aparteid & granted same sex couples equal civil marriage.
In the UK though, they have an aparteid system. Think about it- you are with a group being inducted into a new job. Your straight counterparts tick single or married on the employment forms, and you tick “Civil Unionised”. Immediately you feel you are still different- that’s what aparteid does. If you were able to just tick married, no-one would even need to know who to- or to what gender- but with the U.K. aparteid system you lose that privacy.
Really, if you seriously look into the different systems across the globe- aparteid never works.
Good on you guys. My partner and I were the first in Melbourne to get the certificate from the Melbourne City Council. It is not Marriage, but an important legal recognition that you two exist and love each other.
Good luck guys!
This is exactly what my partner & I wanted & needed. I don’t think we’ve got that many friends to invite to a formal ceremony so the simple fact of knowing we’re being treated as valid, loving, compassionate human beings by those governing us will be enough. The drum-beating radicals, supposedly representing the gay community, have done very little in enhancing our call for basic human rights. Common sense and a begrudging compassion have won.
Love from Hell xo