Student campaigns for gay marriage
A 17-year-old student from Burwood Girls High School has started a petition calling for the legalisation of same-sex marriage which she intends to send to Kevin Rudd in the near future.
With 600 signatures collected in just three months, it is a strong message from Australia’s youth that they don’t want sexual inequality to be a part of their future.
Lucy Kiely, who is currently in her final year of high school, started the petition after completing a case study on same-sex marriage in her legal studies class. She is considering taking up a BA in Law when she starts university next year.
We were studying discrimination and did a focus study on same-sex marriages and it became obvious to me that blatantly discriminatory laws did exist, Kiely said.
I know a lot of same-sex couples with children, so it is an important issue to me. Kevin Rudd has given same-sex couples the same status as de facto couples but I just think that’s the first step and more needs to be done.
Starting out with an old-fashioned paper petition, Kiely was able to collect 600 signatures in three months and has now decided to move the petition online to meet the demand for people wanting to sign and to spread the word nationwide.
I started circulating it around school at first and I didn’t really know what the response was going to be like, but people have been really supportive and in fact quite passionate about it, she said.
I think only two people out of 500 that I asked didn’t want to be a part of it. People from all different cultural backgrounds, straight and gay, have been keen to sign and lots of people have asked to help out with spreading it around.
When it’s done I’m going to send it to Kevin Rudd. I mean, I figure he’s the best person to speak to about this.
info: You can sign Lucy Kiely’s petition online now
at www.ipetitions.com/petition/samesexmarriages.
Our next battle!
We demand equal rights including the right to marriage.
Thanks Lucy
Remember can we just focus on the 100 “de facto” federal laws and constistant-state/terrotory based relationship registories first, then we can legalize same-sex marriage. I “fully” support same-sex marriages, but the Same-Sex Marriages Bill 2008 “always” fails to pass in paliament house. Can we just be realistic and focus on amending the 100 federal laws for de facto couples. At the moment only opposite-sex couples are recognised in federal law, all states and territories include both opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples under “de facto” or “domestic partnership”. NSW, WA and NT “urgently” need relationship registories, but provide de facto cohabitation in written law (but no registory). SA, VIC (commencing 1 December 2008), ACT, and TAS have de facto relationship registories (civil partnerships in the ACT). QLD will soon indroduce a relationships bill (providing relationship registries), which might be indroduced into the QLD chamber sometime in August/September 2008.
I signed it too, also I am campaining for “relationship registories” in NSW on facebook also!
You are a champion, young woman! You have given our generation hope for a betetr world. Keep on doing your thing!
we completely agree with the young girl.
we hope that gay marriage will be the future of australia and that would be so great to become apart of the world like california has done. then australia would have moved forward.
regard’s
shane + margaret gay son and mother who loves and supports him very much.
p.s i also love the gay community.
Good on you Lucy!! You’ve restored my faith in today’s youth and that our gay future is in good hands other than by our own means. You’re inspirational and a pioneer and if Kevin Rudd doesn’t pay any attention to what you’ve done I hope he understands the consequences of your generations voting decision. Well done girl!