Western Australians Support 'Love In Rally' In Perth

A demonstration pushing for legal marital rights for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual community in Australia was held on Sunday. For a gathering with the name “Love In Rally,” supporters congregated at Russell Square in Perth at 1 pm to support same sex marriage in the country and to try to break the record of the biggest marriage equality rally.

According to WA Today, rallies for the same cause in Sydney attracted around 2,500 people, the same with Melbourne. The marriage equality rally in Canberra, however, surpassed both by having about 3,000 participants. This time, Perth's demonstration gathered about 17,000 people who pledged to join the event in their Facebook page. However, it rained on the day of the rally, which may have caused some of those who pledged to join to opt to stay home. An update from one of the organisers, Australian Marriage Equality, estimated there were about 5,000 participants who came despite the unfavourable weather.

The organisers of the event are GetUp! and Australian Marriage Equality: one a non-profit organisation the other a political organisation both united by the cause of legalising marriage for everyone regardless of sexual orientation. Participants in the gathering were requested to wear brightly coloured shirts and bring signs to show support and to make the occasion festive and fun.

The organisers also made a line-up of speakers for the event including, Joey Cook-man McAuley from Playgroup with Pride Western Australia, Rev. Father Peter Emmanuel of the Anglican Church, Alannah Mactiernan a member of the Parliament of the Labor Party, Senator Rachel Seiwert of Australian Greens, Ivan Hinton-Teoh of Australian Marriage Equality and Sally Rugg of Getup!.

The demonstrators are calling on the government, especially the Liberal party, to permit a free vote on gay marriage set in August. This may be in response to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to legalise same sex marriage in all its 50 states last month.

The event was supported by other organisations including All Out, Equal Love Western Australia, Equal Marriage Rights Australia, the National Tertiary Education Union, the Australian Services Union, and the Socialist Alliance Perth.

For those who want to keep up to date on any other events or support the same cause, organisers GetUp! and Australian Marriage Equality both have active Facebook accounts.

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