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So my name is and I'm the conference chair for the Marriage Equality Conference. Um, we're about to launch into conference tonight, which we have a Have a look and look into the history from 1986 to the present date. Um, of homophobia, law reform, uh, human rights, Uh, the civil union. And currently we're talking about marriage equality. The conference is supposed to be as inclusive as possible. Um, we've made it free for everybody to turn up. We've tried to help [00:00:30] everybody who can to turn up who wants to turn up. And, um, we hope to have such an amazing conference full of discussion and looking forward into the future of other campaigns such as adoption, anti homophobia campaigns and making sure we get marriage equality for everybody. What kind of sessions have you got coming up? Uh, we've got human rights. Um, discussion happening on Saturday. We've got how to lobby MP S. How to make sure that, uh, groups and, um, people [00:01:00] come together and make sure that they organised able to do stuff and lobby MP S. Um, make sure that they eliminate, uh, organisational risk. Uh, And, um, how to deal with people like conflict and, um, fighting and all that stuff which naturally occurs when you're putting a few few people in a room. But yeah, hopefully we'll have. We'll be encouraging and inspiring people to go back home to wherever they come from. We've got people in here from Germany, Sydney, [00:01:30] um, and even the UK. So that's pretty exciting. And we're hoping that they'll be able to go home and help their campaigns out as well. But we've got people from Christchurch, Auckland, Hamilton and Dunedin, so hopefully that will be exciting for them as well. What has it been like to organise? It's been great fun, actually. The amount of people that want to help, especially uh, a minority group like, um, queer people, Um, the people who just want to get on board and just do stuff for marriage equality and make sure that we're [00:02:00] all acceptance. Uh, you know, the discourse out there in the community is we have no issue with this. Why? Why have have a problem at all, and this is almost a non issue. Let's just get it through Parliament and make sure that we are an accepting society in New Zealand. So submissions to the select committee have closed another hearing. Oral submissions. How has the campaign gone so far? Pretty good. It's a very positive campaign. We don't want it to be a negative campaign. We want it to be a celebration of sorts. [00:02:30] Um, this is a chance for us to have our say, and it's a chance for us to finally get married. Um, the Civil Union bill was a concession of some sorts for a lot of people, and what they really wanted was to get married, and this is an extra step to that. So, uh, the young people, especially, are very excited about the potential of getting married in the future. And, um, I'm pretty certain that we'll get it. Um, if it doesn't happen, we'll probably wait for another 10 years. Then I'm going to be 40 by that stage. But, you know, [00:03:00] um, marriage is on the cards, and I'm looking forward to the day that I say I do. And it's been so worth it. What do you want people to come away from this conference with, basically, uh, acceptance of all people and inspired to do stuff that they you know, some people just don't know what to do. So if they can be inspired to go back to their communities and help out, um, that will be you know, even if it's just one person, that will be enough for me. Um, but I hope to inspire, you know, at least 200 people, if not more, to go out there and, um, be [00:03:30] advocates for, um, Queer rights. Is this the first time that you've kind of done a political campaign? No, not at all. No, it's the first time I've done queer, um, being a queer advocate. But it's not the first time I've done something like this. I was involved in student politics quite heavily, um, student president for two years. And, um, I've done amazing things through that. And now it's my time to dive into the queer movement. Is there a difference between doing something in, say, general politics and [00:04:00] then in queer politics? No, no, not at all. I mean, it's, um, interesting that you still have to be a little bit cautious of the words that you choose. Um, but in all, we're all wanting the same thing. It's just how do you get there and you get that in any discourse. Um, when it comes to campaigning, you all have a common targeted view. Uh, it's just whether or not you agree on how to get there. Yeah, and that's the same. Wherever you go, it's It's the fun of the challenge.
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