Gay Marriage Rally

On March 26th, Melbourne united to rally for the legalization of gay marriage. Thousands met in front of the State Library to hear speakers from many different queer departments in Australia.

After the speeches, the two hosts performed Glee's version of "Don't Stop Believing." The entire crowd sang along, myself included despite my hatred of Glee.

The crowd was super excited to march after hearing the speeches, singing along to Glee, and partaking in a sign and donation collection competition. The winners of the sign competition were two guys who were dressed like devils with a sign that said something like "20 years of living in sin" and they won a night in a really trendy Melbourne hotel. The winner of the donation collection won tickets to "Rock of Ages" which is currently showing in Melbourne's Theatre District. After this photo, the crowd left to march and sing for gay marriage down Swanston street!

Although I consider myself an active supporter of gay rights, this was my first rally. Long story short: I cried like a child. It was truly beautiful to see so many different people united together for the same cause. I also loved that the rally was organized without anger or frustration. There was only music and performance and acceptance in the name of equal love. Rather than putting down the politicians, the speakers told us about the true love that they have found in their lives and how they plan on proposing. The message was vocalized in a positive way.

Epilogue

After the rally, I met up with a bunch of friends to go check out the shopping in the Direct Factory Outlets. Thinking nothing of it, I still held my "Equal Love" as I browsed through clothing. In one store, my friend Mellanie and I picked up the same dress and headed towards the dressing room where there was a HUGE line. I got to the front first, and asked the girl working if Mellanie and I could share a dressing room to make the line move faster. 

She took a look at my sign, which up until then I forgot I was holding, and said no.

I couldn't believe it. I was incredibly offended, not because she thought I was a lesbian because I think everyone who knows me knows how little I care about that but because she discriminated based on her rash judgment. This was especially shocking after coming from the rally where there was so much love and openmindedness.

The worker did change her mind in the end. I don't know if she noticed how long the line was or if she realized that she had done something incredibly immoral, but Mellanie joined me in the dressing room a couple of minutes later.

Taking this "walk in someone else's shoes" really did put the rally in perspective for me. I guess going to Brandeis and being part of the theater/dance/arts community at home and in Melbourne makes it easy to forget that homophobia still exists in the real world today. 

What this worker doesn't know is that I'm thankful for the experience. Because now I'm even more motivated to spread the word and join the movement!