We’re here! We’re queer! We’re not allowed to get married!
The same-sex marriage debate seems to be reaching fever pitch at the moment. Our noble Prime Minister (who apparently doesn’t support any sort of marriage) has announced that her government will not support any changes to the law to allow marriage between same-sex couples.
So, on a rather sunny Saturday morning, I joined around 10,000 people who took to the streets to voice their displeasure at the current state of affairs. Sadly, Greig was busy due to other last minute commitments. He wasn’t happy – he’s been at every same-sex marriage protest that’s been held so far.
10,000 protesters in Darling Harbour.
It’s been literally years since I’ve been involved in political unrest. The last time I was on the streets screaming at politicians was when we were trying to change the age of consent laws back in the 90’s. Mind you, back then Greig and I were a couple of the head screamers. Along with a small group of like-minded friends, we managed to organise a rally that completely closed off Macquarie Street on more than a few occasions.
Ahhh. Those were the days.
Well, just when I was starting to think that people had become apathetic about such things, this rally occurred. There was a meeting in Hyde Park followed by a protest march right up George Street and then down to Darling Harbour, where the ALP National Conference was being held.
It was kinda successful.
Just hours before the rally started, the Prime Minister changed her position to allow for a conscience vote on the issue of same-sex marriage. (She knew that not to do so would result in a revolt in the party – something she can not afford at the moment.) Without the full backing of the party of course, it will almost certainly not get through.
“Oh well, what a shame”, she will say. “We gave it our best shot. Go back to your little lives as window dressers and try not to let it worry you.”
Dessert
Back in October Greig and I celebrated our 25th anniversary. A couple of months prior, Jeff & Dominic had also celebrated their 25th so we decided that we should have a nice lunch somewhere to commemorate our collective century. We chose Café Sydney, perched high on top of the old Customs House building in Circular Quay for the event. Café Sydney offers rather lovely views of the harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour if you are into that kind of thing.
And some rather yummy food and drinks.
It’s the silly season! “YAY!”, I hear you cry.
We had two events to commemorate the birth of Santa.
The first was a big boozy dinner at Will & Mike’s home. They went all out to make it a great night. From the fresh shucked oysters to the Champagne Granita for dessert, everything about the evening was absolutely first class.
We spent hours sitting around afterwards sipping dessert wine and deconstructing the year that was. I should have been no surprise that by the time we staggered out of their house it was well after 4am.
A picture-perfect christmas.
Bailey also held his somewhat traditional Christmas event. As he is currently saving for what is bound to be an incredibly expensive overseas trip, it kept on being downgraded from roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings to a BBQ.
In the end, it ended up being a BBQ with a roast turkey with all the trimmings.
There were six of us all up. Baily and Leon (his newest house-mate and occasional photographic muse), Aaron, AJ, Greig and myself. All the ingredients you need for a very boozy night with good friends.
And speaking of occasional photographic muse Leon, Bailey and I did a shoot earlier this month with said muse. As a bonus, he brought along a somewhat nervous young guy by the name of Jessie. With a little bit of encouragement we managed to convince him to have a turn in front of the camera as well.
It was an opportunity to try out the new strobes that Greig bought me as an anniversary present.
What can I say? The strobes, and Leon, worked brilliantly. We are struggling a bit to get the hang of them, but we agree that the light from them is just wonderful. All I need to do now is find more muses.
 Leon |
 Jessie |
(Both of these images are dual credit to Bailey and Rocky.)