Life

Australian pro-equal marriage group wins Australia’s human rights award

By Matt Moore

16th December 2018

Flickr

Australian Marriage Equality (AME) was honoured with the award on Friday.

The pro-equal marriage group AME has been honoured for their work in helping to legalise same-sex marriages in Australia by winning the Community Organization Award at a ceremony held in Sydney.

The group was honoured for  “its work championing the rights of LGBTI+ Aussies.” After the initial postal vote was announced, AME challenged this court, fearing that it might lead to a campaign of vicious homophobia, which sadly it did.

The Australian Human Rights Commission congratulated the AME on Twitter, writing: “AME mobilised people across the country to support marriage equality.”

The award was accepted by AME’s director Peter Black and co-chair Janine Middleton. Congratulating AME on their win, Alex Greenwich, a member of the Australian parliament and a co-chair of AME, wrote: “Congratulations to the @AMEquality family on winning the Community Organisation Award at the @AusHumanRights Awards.

“The journey to #marriageequality was a long one powered by the leadership of inspiring Australia to shape our country as a fairer and more equal place for all.” He finished his post with a rainbow emoji.

Writing on Twitter, Peter Black said it was an “honour” to accept the award.

The ceremony also recognised Catia Malaquias for her work in promoting inclusive education and featured a performance from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir.

Australia legalised same-sex marriage last year with 61.6% of the public backing its legalisation. However, during the campaign, LGBTQ Australians were subjected to awful instances of homophobia.

Some instances include a newspaper comparing gay people to Nazis, someone paying for a plane to write “Vote No” in the sky, and a poster claiming that gay parents were more likely to abuse children.