Around 200 people turned out in support of the Equal Love rally for marriage equality in Albury’s QEII Square on Saturday.
“If I don’t go, who else will?”
That was Daniel Witthaus’s message to family and friends when they found out that he was embarking on a 266-day journey around regional Australia to challenge homophobic ideas.
Many expressed fears about his safety, but in 2010 he made the journey and found out that regional Australia was crying out for the conversations he brought.
As the founder of the National Institute for Challenging Homophobia Education, the Geelong local has since continued his work in challenging homophobic views around the country.
On Saturday it brought him to Albury’s second Equal Love rally for marriage equality, where he spoke to around 200 people gathered in QEII Square.
“What I found (on my journey) was regional Australia was saying ‘It’s about bloody time we had these conversations’,” he told the ABC.
“‘We need to have these conversations because either young people are taking their lives or they’re actually leaving for the big smoke’.”
Other speakers at the rally included National Tertiary Education Union’s Virginia Mansel, Anglican Archdeacon Peter Macleod-Miller and youth activist, Stephanie Meachen.
‘We were able to be ourselves’
Youth activist Stephanie Meachen said Albury’s 2012 Equal Love rally marked the first time she and her partner “were able to be ourselves”.
“Maddison and I we came to the rally last year, it was the first time we’d hung out since we sort of admitted that we liked each other,” she said.
Ms Meachen said that compared to Melbourne, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Intersex (LGBTQI) people in regional areas were treated “really badly”.
“Holding hands with Maddison in Albury was awful, we’d walk down the streets and get called awful names, it was ridiculous,” she said.
Ms Meachen said the Coalition Government’s attempts to challenge ACT same-sex marriage legislation in the High Court were “ridiculous”.
“We’re not fighting for special rights, we want the same rights as everyone else,” she said.
“I think that we will get the right to marry, whether in the Abbott Government or not.”
‘I didn’t want to be me’
When Peta Comitti realised she was gay as a teenager, she sent herself away to boarding school so she could commit suicide.
“I didn’t feel I was going to be accepted by my friends, because my own parents weren’t going to, so I thought.”
Despite her reservations, Ms Comitti’s parents did accept her sexuality, and she is now in a happy relationship with her partner, Deb Rendina.
Ms Comitti’s parents even joined her at the Albury Equal Love rally.
She said that by going to the rally, she hoped to support the younger generation.
“Not just supporting myself and my partner as a lesbian couple but more-so for the next generation.”
Peta Comitti (front-right) at Equal Love Albury with her partner, Deb Rendina (front-middle), parents Sylvia and Max Comitti and friends, 12 October 2013.
Shepparton will hold its own Equal Love rally on 17 November.
Daniel Witthaus Speaks to ABC Goulburn Murray below, he says family and friends feared for his safety when he told them he was going on a 266-day tour of regional Australia in an effort to challenge homophobia.
Stephanie Meachen speaks to ABC Goulburn Murray below
Peta Comitti speaks to ABC Goulburn Murray below
Photo: ABC Goulburn Murray
Author: Nick Fogarty
Publication: ABC Canberra
Date: 14 October 2013