Two equal love activists were bundled off the stage at a Christian right breakfast held in Parliament House on August 13.
They interrupted ALP Senator Ursula Stephens, the parliamentary secretary for social inclusion who was addressing a National Marriage Breakfast. It was organised by a "National Marriage Day Committee" but addressed more notably by Mary-Louise Fowler from the Australian Family Association.
John Kloprogge and John Davey, from Canberra's Equal Love group, unfurled an "Inclusion = Equality" sign, after listening to Fowler talk of the importance of defending the institution of marriage. They were thrown out of the gathering.
The breakfast coincided with the anniversary of Australia's ban on same-sex marriage, passed on August 13, 2004. It is also traditionally the National Day of Action for Same-Sex Marriage Rights.
This year, the day of action was August 1 and it was the largest national queer rights protest in Australia's history.
The breakfast was a celebration of the fact that same-sex couples still can't marry.
Kloprogge and Davey's simple message was fuelled by Fowler's homophobic statement: "We are here to state the obvious: that marriage is a union between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others; and that children's needs are best met when raised by a mother and a father."
While the activists were dragged off by security, a conference organiser said: "Get out faggot".
Kloprogge was taken outside to be told by Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan that "asses are for shitting, not for penises".
Equal Love and NSW's Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) protested for same-sex marriage rights outside and inside the breakfast.
Equal Love's Farida Iqbal — also from the Socialist Alliance — told Green Left Weekly: "The Australian Christian Lobby was able to secure Parliament House as their venue because they have friends in high places.
"Yet we will win because we have the numbers on the ground. Sixty per cent of Australians support equal marriage rights for all. We just had the biggest queer rights protest in Australian history, but their homophobic breakfast this year was less than half the size it was in 2004."
The breakfast launched RISE (Restoring Integrity and Sexual Ethics), a group of young people ready to defend the institution of heterosexual marriage against the supposed tide of immoral same-sex couples seeking to undermine heterosexual lifestyles.
"RISE requests a new emphasis on marriage", says the National Institute of Marriage website, "for their children's futures, that are at stake."
More actions by Equal Love and CAAH have been planned to coincide with a Christian-right organised "National Marriage Week", starting on September 13.
[Rachel Evans is a Community Action Against Homophobia and Socialist Alliance member. She successfully took the NSW government to court over the right to protest against Pope Benedict in 2008.]