"I’m proud of our continued progression to full equality under the law," Louisa Wall says. A year to the day the first same-sex weddings happened in New Zealand, Louisa Wall is expressing pride in the way her marriage equality legislation has been implemented. Special feature: Celebrating a year of marriage The Labour MP says it has been “really empowering for everybody, including our religious organisations. Nobody’s been forced to do anything that fundamentally doesn’t correlate to their definition of marriage.” Wall continues: “I think that is something for us to be proud of. That actually the practical side of things in society’s experience of this legislation has been really positive.” She has congratulated Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Jeff Montgomery, and his team. “I think the way that they have implemented the legislation has meant that New Zealanders who may or may not have supported it, their lives haven’t been affected detrimentally. And all that’s happened is that families are being united because two people have chosen to get married. And it’s fantastic. I’m really proud of that. And I’m proud of our continued progression to full equality under the law.” Wall says it’s wonderful to see the marriage stats, and that the community’s embraced the “opportunity of choice”, which she says is what the legislation was always about. “It was making sure that as equal citizens in our country we had access to what is a beautiful institution.” Wall says that’s why a competition being run by a radio station offering two straight male friends a trip to the Rugby World Cup if they get married is “so terrible”.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 19th August 2014 - 9:54am