Parramatta to rally for Yes

October 23, 2017
Issue 
Gay Egg. Photo: Peter Boyle

While polls are giving the Yes vote for marriage equality a substantial lead, campaigners for equality do not want to leave any vote to chance. 

They have and are organising across the country until November 7 — the final deadline to return postal survey forms to the Australian Electoral Commission.

Age and geography are considered to be weighty factors determining the final outcome of the survey. The ABC notes that three Labor-held seats in Western Sydney fall slightly below the 50% support mark, and are among the 10 electorates nationally which are the least supportive of equal marriage.

These are all predictions however, Gay Egg, told Green Left Weekly. Gay is one of those who took to the streets in 1978 for what was then known as “gay and lesbian rights”. She has continued to campaign for LGBTI rights since then, and said that she will be “dancing in the streets” when the marriage law is changed. "It's been a long struggle, but that applies to the struggle for all fundamental rights”.

Gay is one of a several 78ers and others who organising a Yes rally and march in Parramatta on October 29 at 11.30am outside of the Parramatta Town Hall. It will march to the annual Pride Picnic on the Parramatta River Foreshore.

“Western Sydney is for equal rights, and we want to say that loud and clear.

“In 1978, LGBTI people rallied in Parramatta and Blacktown following on from the arrests and police violence of the first Mardi Gras on 24 June of that year.

“Almost 40 years later, we are gathering again in Parramatta as we still don’t have the basic civil right to marry.”

The rally is being supported by Australian Marriage Equality, 78ers, The Greens, Socialist Alliance, Parramatta Pride Picnic, Parramatta Committee of ACON and Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbian and Gay (PFLAG) children. Speakers include Jenny Leong MP, the NSW Greens marriage equality spokesperson, Geoff Thomas from PFLAG, Mia Sanders from the radical youth group Resistance, Sarah Midgley from Australian Marriage Equality and a representative from the 78ers.

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