A mock wedding to highlight to highlight the inequality in marriage legislation regarding same-sex couples was held in Front Square by Trinity Q Soc and DU Amnesty.
The December “ceremony” was attended by dozens of activists who witnessed four couples being married.
Gay, lesbian and heterosexual couples went through the proceedings two by two in what the officiating “priest” termed “a veritable Noah’s Ark of sexual diversity.”
The event featured a choir and a standing congregation, attracting passers-by as it continued. The message to legalise same-sex marriage was summed up in the traditional wedding formula: “Is there anyone here present who can think of any good reason whatsoever why these people should not be allowed to get married?”
“If two people love each other they should be allowed to marry, regardless of gender,” said one spectator. At the ceremony, Junior Sophister English student Matthew Corbally said: “The event was a lot of fun, as well as highlighting current marriage laws which are absolutely despicable.”
Max Kryzanowski, an activist from LGBT Noise, spoke at the end of the ceremony, saying that the event was “a wonderful way to illustrate the
inequality that exists, by using irony and humour to lance the boil of stigma and discrimination.”
Speaking to Trinity News, Kryzanowski addressed the objections that are often put to him regarding marriage law – that the purpose of marriage is for the raising of children, and that gay marriage is proscribed by certain religions. He dismissed these arguments as “neurotic beliefs followed by post-hoc rationalisations for bigotry.”
“You can slice and dice society and come up with sectors of it that have worse health outcomes,” Kryzanowski said, “but we should afford LGBT
relationships equal dignity and respect.”
Last year saw a similar mock wedding organised by Q-Soc, then known as the LGBT Society. “The more we do things like that, the more the message spreads to places where people aren’t surrounded by LGBT people all the time,” said one participant at the post-ceremony wedding reception. “We’re very lucky in Trinity, it’s a bit of a gay bubble.”
Photos: Sam Heavey
