Mountain Views
Mail Covering the foothills of the Yarra Ranges & Murrindindi Shires
5 Tuesday, 21 November, 2017
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Jason Ball and friend Jill Stark, centre, at the announcement outside the State Library of Victoria as the vote result was read.
Picture: JULIAN MEEHAN
Vote buoys Ball By Kath Gannaway Jason Ball is celebrating a major step forward in achieving equality for LGBTI people. The 2017 Victorian Young Australian of the Year came out in 2012 as a gay, 24-year-old player for Yarra Glen Football Netball Club. “We have to celebrate the win as a community, and put our arms around each other because we have been through some tough times,” he said, following the announcement on Wednesday 15 November that 61 per cent of Australians voted to
legalise same-sex marriage. But, he admits his reaction was mixed. “When I was waiting for the result, I felt sick in the stomach,” he said. “It was the same feeling I had when I was young and coming out. That feeling of worrying about what friends would think of me except this time it’s the whole country passing judgement on me and my relationship.” He said the result with 12,720,920, or 79 per cent of eligible Australians, voting in a voluntary
survey and 61.6 per cent of those people voting ‘Yes’, confirmed what was already know, that over 60 per cent of Australia supported same-sex marriage. While it has been described as a ‘resounding’ endorsement, the reality is that Jason, and others in the LGBTI community, still have to deal with a not insignificant ‘No’. “To know that 38 per cent still voted ‘No’ is still hard to hear for many of us,” Jason said. “We don’t know their reasons, but we think a large number were hoodwinked by the No cam-
paign trying to conflate things like sex education and freedom of speech, things that have nothing to do with marriage. “While we can celebrate that the pathway has been cleared for marriage equality, we still have to keep looking after each other, particularly in areas where the No vote was high.” Seventeen electorates voted ‘No’ and the top 10 were in areas with a high multicultural population, or a high proportion of newly arrived communities. Continued page 2
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