Bob Brown spent Wednesday evening celebrating the same-sex marriage survey result with his partner of 22 years, Paul Thomas, at their old home in Liffey Valley.
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The couple had a commitment ceremony at the same place in 2008, and are glad the option of marriage will be open to them soon if they decide they want it.
“The change in my lifetime has been stunning and in a good direction,” the former Greens leader said.
“Thank you, Tasmania.”
Brown and Thomas watched the postal survey results announced on television from Hobart on Wednesday morning and then drove up to Liffey to celebrate.
“We had an outdoor barbecue and a very nice glass of wine to celebrate,” Brown said. “It was wonderful watching the sunset over the valley.”
It’s not the first time the couple has seen a momentous change to gay rights.
They were in Launceston when Tasmania became the last state in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality in the 1990s.
“We’ve come a terrific distance since we took polls in the 1980s, which showed a majority of people were opposed to legalising homosexuality,” Brown said.
“There was a meeting on the North-West Coast where a big section of a crowd of 800 people stood up and chanted, ‘kill them’, when some young gay people came along to talk about why the law should be changed.
“That’s part of the history of change, and, a lot of the people who felt that way then have changed their minds, and I take my hat off to those people who were stringently opposed to that legislative change, who have voted for equal marriage now.”
Brown was particularly heartened to see Tasmania had one of the highest “yes” vote percentages in the country.
“The campaigns here have seen Tasmania go from the back of the pack - the last place to get rid of discrimination, to a bigger vote for equal marriage than the mainland. That’s a real tribute to Tasmanians.”
He said the damage that was done during the campaign would be repaired because of the “good heartedness of the people”.
“The world doesn’t change overnight, and one vote doesn’t change the world either, but the tide of events is totally positive.”
