It was a week ago Monday on the 22nd of May when two courageous men took to the steps of their nation's government building and showed them that LOVE IS LOVE.
What do you do when the country you call home refuses to support your same-sex marriage? If you're Mark McLoughlin and Neal Rush, a pair of 22-year-old LGBTQ activists who have been together for two years, you throw one heck of a #BigGayWedding in protest.
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McLoughlin and Rush were approached by the Love Equality NI campaign — an organization that fights for civil marriage equality in Northern Ireland — which collaborated with the National Union of Students, and the Union of Students in Ireland to organize the mock wedding that served as part celebration and part protest. Last year, the organization staged a similar mock wedding for a lesbian couple. – aplus.com
The wedding was staged and of course not legal. Northern Ireland is the only nation within the United Kingdom that does not see same-sex marriage as a legal act. The 22nd was the two year anniversary of the Marriage Equality Referendum in Ireland, the same year a poll showed that 68% of adults in Northern Ireland were in favor of Marriage Equality.
For more on the Northern Ireland political scene and how an act designed to protect minorities is actually hurting the LGBTQ minority an their fight for marriage equality, head over to aplus.com.
"We just hope people will understand that all we are asking for is the same rights as everybody else. No more and no less," [McLoughlin] adds. "We hope people see that we are just normal people and that we don't want special privileges which some people seem to believe."
Bravo guys for keeping the fight going!
Our eyes have been turned on Germany and the nations of Asia, but let's not forget the other nations that are so close to having happiness for everyone.