The wedding organiser … Joel Murray wants to give two couples an all-expenses paid public wedding in January next year. 56277
By Charlene Gatt
WANTED: two couples, preferably gay, to participate in a public all-expenses paid wedding in two months.
The ALSO Foundation and Footscray’s Dog Theatre are busy contacting local businesses to donate all the products and services that make up a wedding, from photography and suits to hair and make-up. The two weddings will be held on 22 January as a special event in the Midsumma Festival.
“The wedding is a celebration with our queer and local community in the West,” organiser Joel Murray said. “Queer culture makes up part of the diverse fabric which makes Melbourne’s West so unique.
“In a multicultural community, we may look different and hold different beliefs, however, love and marriage is something which we all relate to and share.
“There’s all these issues around the marriage equality debate and in order to support it, we don’t necessarily have to be out there and rallying and writing letters to parliament, we can just have a wedding. It may not be legal, but we can go ahead and do it anyway and show that it’s a celebration.
“Love is love and everyone deserves the right to get married. There are great couples out there who are raising kids and the non-biological partner has no right to the children. There’s all these issues and it’s not very fair.”
Mr Murray said he was ideally looking for one male and one female couple, but said he would also accept heterosexual couples.
Diverse religious and cultural backgrounds will be catered for.
Couples interested in celebrating and committing their love are invited to contact The Dog Theatre by emailing weddinginthwest@gmail.com or visiting www.thedogtheatre.com
