please let us marry

Australia’s National Day of Action for Same-Sex Marriage is 1 August 2009, which is tomorrow! Read more about the issue of Same-Sex Marriage in Australia here and here.

Per the Equal Love website: “the National Day of Action has traditionally been the anniversary of the federal government’s same-sex marriage ban. But this year it will be two weeks earlier – to coincide with the Australian Labor Party’s triennial national conference.

Party heavyweights will gather from July 30th to August 1st in Sydney at the Convention and Exhibition Centre to revise the party’s national platform so that it is “a modern, up-to-date document”.

This is an ideal opportunity for the Equal Love Campaign to pressure the governing party to change its outdated and discriminatory policy on same-sex marriage.

It is unlikely that the federal government will support marriage equality so long as the Labor Party platform clearly rejects it. This is why the national conference is so important.

By focusing attention on this triennial event, Equal Love demonstrators will see how their voices can directly make a difference. Our protests will have a more visible and immediate purpose. In addition, there will be plenty of opportunities for media coverage.”

However, as the ABC reports, “the move to push the issue at the party's national conference has hit a major stumbling block: the Prime Minister.

"We went to the last election being very clear-cut about our position on marriage, under the Marriage Act, being between a man and a woman," Mr Rudd said.”

I agree with Equal Love’s statement that: "the federal government, by opposing same-sex marriage, is effectively sanctioning homophobia".

There are protests happening in all Australia's capital cities, read the list here. Please join in the demonstrations! Help to gain marriage equality!

The info for Brisbane is as follows:

DATE: Saturday 1 August, 2009, 1.00pm

VENUE: Queens Park

CONTACT: Jessica Payne, jessicapayne86@hotmail.com

You will see us there for sure :-)

If you're unable to attend a demonstration, why not write to the government?

Australian Marriage Equality has some general ideas for topics to include in an email or letter. The statement that seems to resonate with me the most is:

The right to marry gives greater social and legal security to your family. Denying this to some families while giving it to others creates insecurity within society and weakens the fundamental Australian values of equality and belonging.

Kelly and Sam on their blog, The Muriels, have written a similar call to arms. However, they also include a list of the email addresses of all Australian Labor Party Conference Delegates for your easy reference.

Take action peeps!

An interesting point before I finish…

Equal Love notes: “Some people believe same-sex couples should ask for civil unions instead of same-sex marriage. But the Equal Love campaign firmly believes that there is no substitute for equality in marriage...

If Australia establishes a national civil union scheme instead of removing marriage discrimination, we will be entrenching the second-class status of same-sex couples, opening them up to greater discrimination, and defying a global trend towards full legal and social equality.”

We are entitled to full citizenship, to equality, to respect. We are entitled to celebrate our love for our partner, just as our straight counterparts are. Marriage is a basic human right.

I wonder how Mr Rudd would feel if he couldn’t be married?

Shan

PS. Remember that marriage in Australia is a civil institution, not a religious one.

shananananackroyd

July 31: Today we, again, spent 2 hours in traffic in order to get to work. Gah!

But guess what?! I only have one more week of work left (and Zanne has even less cos she finishes on Wednesday), which means very soon we won't have to sit through this terrible drive every day - or ever again really - wooooooot! July 30: My replacement has, well, replaced me at work. Seriously, she has taken over my desk, moved my stuff to a cardboard box. It was all very impolite if you ask me. I'm currently moving between Officers' offices in order to have somewhere to sit.

Today I've spent a bit of time in one Officer's office in particular. I work at a Union and peeps here love politics. This Officer appears to love our government so much that she has a massive poster of our Prime Minister next to her computer. I've been staring at Kevin Rudd all day and it's weird. What's weird-er (which is not a real word, I know) is the comic that she has pinned to her wall which calls K-Rudd "the thinking woman's crumpet". Ew! Really??

Shan

dear mr president

July 29: Here are pics from our day in Sydney. As mentioned here, the United States changed their travel visa requirements in January and, because we have a connecting flight in LA and then plan to spend more than 90 days somewhere in North America, we've had to go through the process of applying for a 5 year B1/B2 visa. It has been a long, costly and frustrating process. We both feel that the whole thing is unnecessary - why can't we be eligible for the Visa Waiver Program?? We will be in LA for all of 5 hours!!

Our day in Sydney sucked. The Consulate was total bs. Zanne has written a very long blog about our day, however we won't be posting it until after we receive our passports back (just in case). We don't know whether our visa has been approved - we weren't allowed to ask questions of the Consulate peeps - however I don't see why we'd be rejected. In any case, we won't know for sure until we receive our returned passports, hopefully with visas inside.

We were both full of rants on this day. In particular, I was all worked up about writing a stern letter to President Obama. However, a few days after the event, I think we've both realised that we'll just have to get over it, try to forget our attitude and frustration over this whole thing, and just be grateful when the visas come through...

July 28: We stayed overnight at Zanne's family's home in order to catch our Sydney flight from the Gold Coast (Zanne's Mum very kindly delivered us to the airport at 5.30am the next morning).

3 of Zanne's nephews were home as well - aren't they the cutest? Little Jimmy's hair is super curly now, just like his brother Koen.

July 27: Zanne's Mum took this photo of Zanne's super pregnant sister, Sally.

Sally and Brandt's first baby, a little girl, is due Saturday 8 August. She will be the first grand-daughter for the family. We can't wait to meet her!

Shan

tramps like us, baby we were born to run

July 26: Today was my Stepdad's birthday. Lunch at a local country pub was followed by a family dinner of birthday nachos.

Happy birthday to Ned!

PS. There are pics here of little Noah celebrating his Grandad's birthday. Noah enjoys "helping" now - helping to cook, to eat our dinner, to dry dishes, to put candles in the birthday cake, etc. Note Noah's first black eye! He fell into his Mum's bed frame, poor chook. July 25: We attended a wonderful lunch today at Dame Sybil Von Thorndike's home. Dame Sybil is a 70 year drag queen named Laurie. Zanne became acquainted with Laurie and his partner of 30 years, Wayne, during her organising of the inaugral Queens Birthday Community Awards. The Community Awards were borne out of the Queens Ball, an annual Brisbane Ball established almost 50 years ago by Laurie and Wayne.

We were invited to lunch, along with Martin and Gary and another lesbian couple, Carol and Annie. Carol was the lead singer of local band Railroad Gin in the 70s - my Mum was impressed by this! Laurie and Wayne have a wonderful home, complete with two chandeliers, and were perfect hosts. Considering we were seedy from our night out though, it was a bit of a struggle to keep up, especially when we were handed a margherita almost immediately upon arrival!

We particularly enjoyed the conversation during lunch... The other guests were a generation or two older than Zanne and I and recounted tales of the "old" days (only 30ish years ago) when homosexuality was underground - the Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen days, the days of police informants and poofter bashers - stuff that, thankfully, we have no experience of. And I'm so grateful for that.

So what has a picture of a cat got to do with any of this? Nothing. But our camera died after taking this picture of Zanne's workmate's (Dave) cat this morning.

PS. Thank you to Dave for letting us stay the night!

July 24: Zanne's workplace had a picnic in the park this Friday afternoon, which quickly became a very drunken and fun night out. Here are various pics of everyone in various poses and states of soberness. Such fun peeps!

Shan

the pineapple head it spins and it spins

July 23: Dinner with the Pride Committee.

We had such fun at Martin and Gary's place - great company, great food, great home, great art and antiques, great rainbow chandelier!

I left dinner wishing I was as cool as a gay man.

July 22: We received another gift from my parents for our baby - a super cute Bonds onesie.

As I said here (after our first baby gift), I'M NOT PREGNANT! However, my parents would prefer us to have babies than leave the country, and apparently they like to be blatantly obvious about it... Fair enough I suppose. But we are indeed moving to Canada, super cute onesie or not. Sorry Mum.

Here is Zanne with the only "baby" we can currently dress in the onesie - a borrowed teddy bear. My Stepdad Ned joined in the shenanigans with his "mini me", Shrek.

Things just got weird eh?

Shan

less than a month

It is Friday 24 July today - this time next month we will be in Vancouver! Oh boy, if only the days could pass faster. This week I've been distracted by thoughts of new creative projects, new community projects, a new career, new excursions and fun ways to pass the time - but all of that is on hold for now. We're still here, and we have to finish up our jobs, and save last minute cash-ola, and continue putting our various paperworks and documents in order, and pack our belongings and, and, and... I'm just keen to start the next part of our life is all. I'm so excited for the first day we wake up in Vancouver...

In other news, Zanne's replacement started last Monday and the handover is well underway. My replacement begins next Monday. My job really isn't very difficult so I'm not sure how I'm going to stretch the training thing out to two weeks. I fear my last week might involve a lot of sitting around. Luckily I am a master in the art of time suckage.

Enjoy your weekend, peeps.

Shan

an ode to Champ

The day has arrived for us to sell our car, Champ. This was the first car I ever got to choose. It was the first time I was earning enough money to get something I really wanted and not just whatever fit my budget. From the moment I saw Champ, I knew this was the car for me. I loved the blue, I loved the grey racing stripes. I loved that the car felt a lot bigger on the inside than it looked and I loved that I could run around all week in it on only 1 tank of petrol.

I've owned Champ since before I met Shan so he's been there through our whole relationship - from the first morning I drove Shan home to now when he drives us safely to and from work everyday. Champ has been an awesome car for us and if it weren't for the move, I think it would be the car we'd keep until it stopped running. I know it's just a car, but it's the car we've had through every adventure, every big step of our relationship so far and we've always had so much fun and so many great conversations in it. I really will be sad to see him go.

Here's Champ attempting a jumping shot with Shan, Kylie and myself during a trip to Noosa. That day he got us to our destination after a river crossing on a barge and a drive down a long dirt road. He's so fruity!

All packed and ready to go on our first summer holiday. Champ carried all our camping gear for the whole week away. On our trip to the Bunya Mountains, Champ stopped on the side of the dirt road to look at giant cacti. Even when it's freezing outside, Champ always ran fine. Such a trooper!This was my fault, not yours Champ. And all the times we hung out with Noah. Noah loves Champ too. We always not-so-secretly loved seeing Noah's little seat in the back.

I hope we find a new home for him that will love him as much as we have.