Marriage equality: for the love of all human beings

On 5 July 2013, I pasted up an image of a same sex couple in love on the side of a wall in front of Northcote Uniting church, the act was supported by the church as part of Northern exposure festival. The image was taken down 2 days later, we have no idea who did that. (I was told it was just a miscommunication between the event and a participant, the issue was quickly resolved and new paste up was done just in time before the festival taken place)

It’s time, the GetUp campaign about marriage equality

It was obvious us to me later, just exactly how much impact I have created, when I was asked to contribute an art piece for the Greens Party’s fund raising event. I sat down and had a good think about the whole thing and try to make sense of it all, and I have decided to go all the way.

There are too many issues in the world, I can not possibly act on everything at once. So why do I support same sex mariage this seemingly first world issue?

No one deserve to be treated like this.
Have you seen “It could happen to you” by Shane? It made me realise how much we have taken for granted in our heterosexual life. A gay partner can be completely invisible if they are not given the legal right to get married. This becomes particular hard when one or both sides of the family don’t accept them as they are. Every proof of two people in love and together is all they have to be “existing”. Getting married, buy a house together, adopt a baby together … the list goes on. If you have difficulty putting yourself in the same shoes, watch “Love is all your need” here:

This kind of equality has been happening to everyone, not just your gay friends.
The question is, why do we, as heterosexual people, care?
Have you or your friends been through a relationship where you have to fight for your existence in front of the other one’s family? It can be because you are from un expected religion, family background, race, or in this case, gender?
Haven’t we learned enough from arranged marriage? It’s pretty much the same thing. Personally I know a handful of couple who have been through struggles against arranged marriage, including myself.

It puts gender issue in a better position.
In a world where there are still plenty gender issues happening everyday, it only make sense to acknowledge all diversities in our gender and sexual orientation before we go on about gender issues. I mean, how can you fight for gender issue when a big part of the community is disregarded? Once I posted on Facebook about how I don’t see myself as a feminist, even though I fight for women’s rights. The problem with the word “feminist” is, it puts one particular gender in front of others. Ultimately I want all genders and sexual orientations are treated equally, not just women.

At the end of the day, it’s about freedom.
I appreciate every little freedom I have: Being able to do what I want as career, being able to love who I want and being able to stay healthy. That’s pretty much 3 most important things in our lives (self fulfillment, relationship & health) Once I told my friend I would do anything for freedom, wouldn’t you value your freedom the same way?

I think we are almost there. What do you think?