Bronte Scott is an activist with Resistance and Socialist Alliance. She gave this speech to the Marriage Equality Now! rally held in Wollongong on August 27.
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Thank you to Bree Parkes for inviting me to speak at this rally. My name's Bronte and I joined Socialist Alliance because it is committed to making marriage equality a reality. We have been active in the marriage equality campaign in Sydney since John Howard changed the Marriage Act in 2004 to exclude same sex couples. We believe marriage equality is a civil right.Â
Yesterday 20,000 people in Melbourne came out to say Yes to marriage equality. That is awesome and shows we can push the bigots back. This was the biggest marriage equality rally ever seen in this country.Â
The bigots have dreamed up this ridiculous  postal survey, even though they know 70% of Australians support marriage equality. We say that even though the result is not binding on the government, we should all still vote because it put moral pressure on the MPs to finally act.
So organise with your friends to get a hold of the postal ballot and make sure you vote.Â
But, don't just vote. Get involved in all the rallies, all the meetings, all the action because this will help build a movement that not only pushes the bigots and homophobes back, but also helps all the other progressive social movements to advance.Â
This is about our civil rights. But it's also about wanting to live in a tolerant, diverse, humane society where no one is a second class citizen.
We will overwhelmingly smash the Yes vote. And this will help create the rainbow world we want to live in. Come up to Sydney on September 10 and join the rally there.Â
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