Protest draws biggest crowd

In the biggest action of its kind in years, thousands of community members rallied in support of same-sex marriage around Australia on Saturday.

In Sydney more than 1000 people gathered next to the Sydney Town Hall to hear Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Lord Mayor and Sydney MP Clover Moore, and others speak in favour of same-sex marriage at a rally MCed by comedian and ABC TV host Wil Anderson.

Others who spoke included Jim Casey the NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union and Janice Waters who confronted Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the issue of same-sex marriage at a forum at Rooty Hill RSL earlier that week.

Protesters then marched to Taylor Square along the route of the original Mardi Gras, with their numbers swelling to close to 2000 by the time they reached their destination.

Crowds in their hundreds and thousands also turned out to rallies in other state capitals and regional centres, with celebrities showing their support including TV host Ruby Rose in Melbourne and comedians Meshel Laurie and Josh Thomas in Brisbane.

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Hanson-Young told the Sydney rally to cheers that she would introduce legislation to legalise same-sex marriage “first thing” in the new Parliament after the election. Later that day, Greens leader Senator Bob Brown called on the major parties to allow a conscience vote on the issue.

Janice Waters told the crowd that it was wrong for the Government to treat gay and lesbian Australians as second-class citizens.

“I’m a lesbian,” she said. “I commit to my work, I commit to my children, to my two beautiful grandchildren and I commit to serving my country.

“But yet why can’t I commit to marrying a woman I love?”

Clover Moore reminded the crowd of the City of Sydney’s long record of supporting recognition of same-sex relationships and encouraged people to write to their local state members to ask them to support her bill to legalise same-sex couple adoption.

Speaking after the rally, Wil Anderson told Sydney Star Observer he’d wanted to attend the previous year’s rally but had been overseas.

“Every year when it comes around to me writing a show, it seems like it’s a big issue again,” Anderson said. “Someone asked me recently, ‘You’ve had material about same-sex marriage in your last four shows.

Why are you always talking about it?’ And I said, ‘When they can get married, I’ll stop talking about it’.”

info: You can find rally pictures from around the country HERE.