It was a weekend of high emotion. Flowers, vows, tears and champagne marked the first legal marriages between same-sex partners in Australian history.

The significance for the couples and families involved is obvious.

But what is the significance for marriage equality and for LGBTI people generally?

The millions of Australians who tuned into the weekend’s TV news bulletins saw what this reform is really about.

They saw that it goes far beyond politics and protests, and is, at its core, about love, commitment and family.

They saw that it is about valuing marriage as much as it is about achieving equality.

They saw that it is not an abstract issue, an activist issue, or an overseas issue but one that affects their community here and now.

They saw that it is about people just like them.

No amount of scare-mongering by the religious right can ever undo this.

Whatever the High Court decides about the ACT Marriage Equality Act and the marriages solemnised under it, the marriage equality campaign has turned a corner.

The significance for LGBTI people is just as great.

Images of happy couples tying the knot with the support of their friends and families will do more to counter old myths and stereotypes than just about anything else.

hinton teoh xlrg

Above: Australian Marriage Equality deputy director Ivan Hinton and partner Chris Teoh were among the first to get married under the ACT’s recently enacted same-sex marriage laws.

They will dispel the myth that same-sex relationships are unstable, short-lived and entirely sexual.

They will dispel the equally perfidious myth that LGBTI people are an alien other with no real connection to our families and the community.

On Saturday, on my way to the wedding of a Canberra friend, I bought a buttonhole from an elderly, suburban florist from a non-English speaking background with a crucifix over her counter.

“The colour should match the bride’s dress”, she advised me.

Then, with barely a pause, she added “or the grooms’ ties, if there’s no bride”.

This is a portent of the Australia that marriage equality will help usher in.

It will be Australia which is blind to sexual orientation and where LGBTI people are integrated into the society around them.

It will be an Australia where each of us is judged not by who we love but by how well we love.

Video: ABC News
Author: Rodney Croome
Publication: Gay News Network
Date: 10 December 2013
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