Published: 12 Sep 2017
I’ve been an MUA member for over 22 years. My partner Sheena and I have been together for 12 years and have been engaged with the intention to get married, for over 11, we have 3 beautiful kids.
Marriage Equality (ME) is important to us for many reasons, as if something happened to either of us the current laws would mean that our parents are considered our next of kin as opposed to our life partner. We are in a committed relationship yet are legally not given the same considerations.
ME is also important to our kids, as currently they know that the laws do not value and recognise our relationship as equal to that of their friends with heterosexual parents. The laws do acknowledge our family as equal when it comes to paying taxes and calculating any child allowances, so we count when dollars and cents are in favour of the Government.
We ask you to vote YES in favour of ME as soon as you receive your postal ME survey in the next week and post it off straight away, before it gets lost, so that we can have the same rights as everyone else. Every vote matters - we need a strong message of support sent to our politicians.
It’s true, not everyone wants to get married, that’s the same for all sections of the straight as well as the LGBTIQ community. It would be good for us all to have the ability to choose to get married or not. Exclusion is not a simple act. Excluding people from the institution of marriage is not just.
To have a resounding YES result would signify that the community, our peers and our nation believe us to be equal under the law.
