SYDNEY — On June 18, 160 people attended a relationship equality forum organised by the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL) NSW. Among the featured speakers were New Zealand Labour MP Tim Barnett, former GLRL convenor David McLachlan, University of Sydney law professor Jenny Millbank and Luke Gahan from the Australian Marriage Equality (AME) campaign group.
Members of the Australian Greens spoke from the floor explaining that their party's attempt to get a private members bill on same-sex marriage adopted in NSW had stalled and they were supporting an AME and Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) national day of protest on the August 13 — the first anniversary of the federal government's same-sex marriage ban.
Simon Margan from CAAH urged those attending the meeting to participate in the protest action and asked the GLRL to support it. The GLRL responded by announcing the release of a joint paper on relationship recognition with the NSW Law and Justice Foundation, a liberal non-profit think-tank and lobby group that aims at "improving access to justice for the people of NSW".
Rachel Evans
From Green Left Weekly, June 29, 2005.
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