Chris & Ivan OUR MARRIAGE OUR LOVE
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We had not taken advantage of the various civil partnership options available to us locally, despite providing some legal recognition. Those terms didn’t resonate positively within me. They reminded me that we weren’t equal, that we were lesser. That we had to take crumbs, rather than be entitled to the cake. They motivated me to work to change the laws, rather than use the existing ones. In 2013 the ACT decided to do what it could, within what it thought it’s capacity was, to provide what no other jurisdiction had. It wasn’t federal equality but, for my Nan, who had presided over an informal commitment ceremony years beforehand, it was marriage, finally. My Nan didn’t live long enough to see marriage equality achieved in Australia, but she was able to see her grandson marry the love of his life, surrounded by family and friends and, for a matter of days and as far as she knew, we were married.
FUSECOMMUNITY
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