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On Saturday 13th of March, supporters of Marriage Equality across Australia including almost 200 Canberrans took part in rallies to condemn the defeat of the Greens' Marriage Equality Amendment Bill in the Senate.
They met in Petrie Plaza in Civic and a range of speakers addressed the topic of marriage inequality. Speakers included representatives from workplace unions, the ACT Greens, Community action against homophobia and Equal Love Canberra.
The event kicked of the 2010 National Year of Action for Marriage Equality. Gabrielle Hitch, of Equal Love Canberra, describes the recent vote taken in the Senate as being "cowardly".
"The majority of Australians support equal marriage rights for our gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex community. The Government and Opposition reject this democratic advance on the grounds of dogmatic notions of the 'ideal marriage', ignoring their constituents who oppose this archaic idea being enforced on them", Hitch says.
"This is a federal election year, and is therefore the perfect time for us all to stand up and point out that placating the conservative minority who want to uphold the current inequality will certainly cost them votes", Hitch argues.
"Most importantly, for a Government who trumpets their prioritisation of human rights to deny such a basic right to their own citizens creates a climate of absurd hypocrisy which voters will not accept."
"The Green's Bill's defeat in the Senate reminds us all of both Labor and Liberal's bigoted stance on GLBTI families and this Saturday, we will be showing the Government that the community does not support their gender policing", Hitch concludes.
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