Just over a year ago, TV host and model Jesinta Franklin walked down the aisle and married her partner of five years, AFL star Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin.
Now, the 26-year-old has penned a powerful essay for Vogue Australia ahead of the release of same-sex marriage survey results on Wednesday, revealing that just a generation ago she might never have been able to marry the man she loved.
“Never in my entire life did I ever think that I wouldn’t be able to marry the person I loved. However, looking back on history, there was a time when our love story could have had a very different outcome,” she wrote.
“My husband is an Indigenous man and I am a Caucasian woman.
“There was a time in history when authorities had control over who Indigenous people married. We would have faced the same discrimination and treatment as same-sex couples are facing today.”
Having described her marriage to Buddy as one of her greatest and happiest achievements, the realisation that she might not have been allowed to marry him just decades ago “shocks and frightens” her.
LISTEN: Mia Freedman talks to Janine Middleton, the CEO of Australian Marriage Equality, about why she became involved in the cause. Post continues after audio.
“In the same way, the right of two loving people of the same sex to get married is controlled by archaic and discriminatory views of our current government,” she writes in Vogue.
“The colour of your skin, your race, religion or sexual orientation should never, ever be used as reason as to why you cannot marry the person you love. And none of these things should ever be used to divide society or nation.”
That’s why, she says, ‘Team Franklin’ will continue to fight for the rights of the LGBTIQ community, as the country awaits the results of the controversial same-sex marriage postal survey.
“We stand with you side by side, because there was once a time when we would have been in the same position as you,” she wrote.
“I hope that someone from the LGBTIQ community reads this and feels somewhat less alone and understands that so many people around them, even those they don’t know, have their back and will fight for their rights.”
To read Jesinta’s full essay on Vogue Australia, click here.