LANA Callus believes that it’s time for change. The Truganina resident was part of a mass same-sex wedding on ABC TV’s Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight and dreams of one day being able to legally marry her girlfriend, Marty Ghiller.
Ms Callus has started a petition calling for the federal government to legalise gay marriage and is urging Prime Minister
and Lalor MP Julia Gillard to listen to her electorate.
“I’ve collected 130 signatures since January, mainly around Wyndham,” Ms Callus said.
“People are generally supportive. We feel like now is the time to voice our opinions.
I want to get married and the law at the moment states that we still can’t get married in Australia.”
Ms Callus said the television wedding reinforced her desire to marry. She said everyone who took part understood it wasn’t legal, but approached the day like it was the real thing.
“It was a room filled with love … in our hearts we all wanted it to be a legal wedding.”
One of Ms Callus’s biggest supporters is son, Kayden, 8, who she said would love to see his “mums” get married and have the same rights as his friends’ parents.
“It’s so important for children because they don’t want their parents to be any different and there’s something like 25per cent of same-sex couples raising children,” she said.
“I don’t know why same-sex people can’t be married. We live in 2012, and more and more people are coming out of the closet.”
To sign Ms Callus’s petition visit, change.org/petitions/hon-julia-gillard-federal-member-of-lalor-support-marriage-equality
