People are adorning the front of their homes with fairy lights and it’s got nothing to do with early holiday celebrations – though the organiser does want to make your street “gayer than Christmas”.
Sydney man Steve Spencer wanted to find a positive way to contribute to the push for marriage equality and encourage Australians to vote ‘yes’ on their postal same-sex marriage survey. So last week he arranged fairy lights to form the word ‘yes’ on his front fence and encouraged others to do the same and share the photo with the hashtag #PutOutYourFairyLights, prompting people around the country to join in.
Spencer told Mamamia he thought the response had been “fabulous” so far.
“I’ve seen so many photos come through online of people putting their fairy lights out, and just walking the streets I see people putting out a big lit-up YES,” he said.
The 25-year-old said when he came up with the idea he wanted to create something simple and uniting.
“Fewer symbols and politics, just happiness, joy, and love – these are the things that are important to me, these are the reasons why people should vote yes, and they’re the things that I think represent marriage in modern Australia,” he said.
“So what more could invoke feelings of happiness, joy, and love than fairy lights?
“And most importantly, there’s nothing scary about fairy lights, and there’s nothing scary about extending marriage rights to all Australians.”
He encouraged everyone to contribute to making their street “gayer than Christmas”.
“And I particularly encourage people in the suburbs and in regional and rural Australia to do their bit and #PutOutYourFairyLights to show their support, show visibility for our community, and to spread the joy that a yes vote will bring.”
Australians can expect to see an envelope from the Federal Government in their mailboxes this week, which inside will contain a survey asking: “Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?”
The result of this survey is set to be announced on November 15.
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Listen: We could already be celebrating marriage equality… Just saying.