Damian Douglas-Meyer writes: Two things happened this weekend that add momentum to the push for marriage equality here in Australia.
The Republican-controlled Senate in the US state of New York passed a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, which was signed into law almost immediately by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo.
And the Western Australian state conference of the ALP supported Opposition Leader Eric Ripper, and defied Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s public stance, by passing a motion supporting equal marriage and calling on the upcoming Federal conference of the ALP to add it to Labor’s policy platform.
I should state my bias for the record, I am a gay man and I am married; married to another gay man, in case that wasn’t obvious. My husband Graham and I were legally married in March 2004 by a Justice in Toronto City Hall, under the laws of the province of Ontario, Canada.
At that time, the status our marriage in Australia was unclear. Any opposite-sex couple married under the very same Ontarian law would be automatically recognised as married under Australian law as Australia is a signatory to the Hague Convention for the Celebration and Recognition of the Validity of Marriage.
For the full article, click here
Picture: Damian and Graham Douglas-Meyer at their marriage ceremony in Toronto