By Luke Voogt
Moriac’s Sharyn Faulkner can finally look forward to her son tying the knot after Australia voted to legalise same-sex marriage.
Her son Ned has been with his partner for three years and got engaged in April.
“He’s already rung me and said ’you’d better start planning a wedding’,” she said.
Sharon joined hundreds of ‘Yes’ campaigners and revellers at the Piano Bar in Little Mallop St on Wednesday night after the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced the result that morning.
“It’s an awesome result,” she said before the champagne flowed. “I think it will be a great night.”
Almost 72 per cent of Corangamite residents and 68 per cent Corio residents who voted in the survey supported same-sex marriage, well above the national average of 61.
“That’s a resounding result and Sarah Henderson needs to take note of that,” Sharyn said.
“She definitely needs to be pushing for a non-discriminatory Bill in Parliament. They need to be completely equal with the rest of Australia.”
Australian anti-discrimination laws would protect religious leaders from being forced to marry same sex couples, she added.
Stonehaven farmer Dave Formosa-Urquhart was thrilled with the vote, which further “cemented” his family as “socially acceptable”.
“Who isn’t?” he said. “Well … there’s probably a minority.”
The 35-year-old had been with his partner for 15 years and together they had three children through surrogacy in India.
“I’m glad (the vote) was positive,” he said. “I don’t know how we would have told (our children) everyone voted against it.”
The couple had been in a registered relationship, aka a civil union, for eight years, but still lacked the same rights as married heterosexual couples.
“(The Yes vote is) one step closer to getting the same rights,” Dave said.
But more importantly the vote provided recognition of his family, he said.
“There’s many different types of families at school now – families where parents have split up, where children are raised by their grandparents.
“Our family’s a little bit different but the same.”
The Indy was unable to reach the Geelong branch of the Coalition for Marriage for comment.
