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The National Union of Students (NUS) will rally in Melbourne this Saturday in support of same-sex marriage. The rally, which takes place at 1pm at the State Library, will culminate in the handing over of signatures, collected as part of the NUS petition supporting gay marriage, to Greens’ Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Hanson-Young will take the petition to Canberra, where they will be tabled in the Senate. The petition, Equal Rights for All: Support Same Sex Marriage, End Legal Discrimination, has attracted over 30,000 signatures since January. James Vigus, queer male officer with the NUS, told MCV support for same-sex marriage covers a wide demographic. “The signatures show that it’s not just a narrow range that supports same-sex marriage. To get so many signatures from so many different places, whether it was regional or inner city, shows that there is a large sentiment for equal rights beyond the gay ghettoes. “We have signatures collected from as far away as Townsville.” Vigus said the response to the petition was in line with opinion polls that have shown the majority of Australians support the right for same-sex couples to marry. In May this year, 79 per cent of respondents to The Age readers poll, ‘Should gay couples be allowed to marry?’ said yes, while only 21 per cent said no. Last week before the Senate the Greens asked the Liberal and Labor parties to permit their senators to exercise a conscience vote on the issue of same-sex marriage. The vote was not granted, with the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, once again stating that the Labor Party stance on marriage is that it is between a man and woman. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Labor and the Liberals had both “trumpeted” their commitment to removing discrimination against same-sex couples in Commonwealth law. “However, the Marriage Act has been a glaring omission from the suite of bills that will bring us into a new age of equality for same-sex couples. “[The Greens] are hopeful that, with a conscience vote, the issue will be debated fully, and party lines will be overridden by the understanding that true equality in law for same-sex couples includes the right to marry.” Halley Conway, co-convenor of the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, is one of the speakers at this weekend’s rally. She told MCV the NUS petition sends a strong message to politicians. “If people are willing to put their name and contact details on a petition it shows elected officials that this is something they believe in,” Conway said. “Petitions are an effective way of communicating what people think en masse and NUS has done this particularly well.” Conway said she will be addressing the issue of future strategies needed to push legalising same-sex marriage. “I will be talking about where we go from here, why there is a need for concerted and multi-pronged activities across the board to see change.” In related news, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, which will allow for lesbians and single women to access fertility treatments and broaden surrogacy laws, last week passed a second reading in the state’s Upper House. The bill has now been referred to the seven-member Legislative Committee, which will report back to the Upper House on December 2.
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