File photo A ‘counter vigil’ is being planned for a prayer vigil against marriage equality at Parliament on Wednesday. Creators of the site New Zealand Conservative are holding a “New Zealanders for Marriage, Inter-Faith Prayer Vigil for Marriage,” from 6.45PM to 8.45PM outside Parliament on Wednesday 27 March. New Zealand Conservative is a blog site, where the writers “follow a Catholic moral line and a Conservative political bent”. They are asking people to “bring a glow stick” and says “Let us give a united witness to our MPs and the nation that marriage is a unique covenant between one man and one woman and therefore needs to be protected in our law.” After an exchange with Bob McCoskrie that left her angry, Wellingtonian Liz Cleary was reading through the Protect Marriage Facebook page and saw one of the regular Protect Marriage supporters had posted a comment about the vigil. “So I thought, bugger it, I'm sick of it all, let's all head down on Wednesday evening and have a peaceful love in and counter to the vigil.” She is urging marriage equality believers to come to the “Support love at the anti-marriage equality vigil,” she has planned, saying “let’s have a peaceful get together to show our support from same sex couples getting married”. Cleary says it will be about supporting the bill in a friendly, fabulous and diplomatic manner. “We’re planning to wear pink, purple or just plain freakin’ and awesome rainbow, balloons, sparklers, glitter, plastic flowers, you know the drill,” she says. “Please invite your buddies – as a family we can make this happen.” The news of the counter vigil has ruffled feathers on the New Zealand Conservatives site, with one person posting: “Yeah. If this gets on TV, they'll be the martyrs. Amazing how things get turned around!”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 21st March 2013 - 10:21am