My daughter is nearly four. Last night she excitedly asked us, “Mums, did you get married before I was born?”
We side glanced each other and felt a little piece of ourselves die inside. We knew this time would come, but we didn’t think it would come this soon or with such surety. We have never spoken to our daughter about marriage or the fact that, in our own country, her Mums are banned from marrying. It’s not that we haven’t wanted to get married – we’ve been together for 17 years – we’ve been to friends’ weddings and we’ve cried when the celebrant read out the bit about marriage being between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, and we have felt… well, exactly as the government intended us to feel – excluded.
