Last month, eight-year-old Nicholas wrote about his mums Katherine and Roanne, and the national referendum asking Australians to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the rights of rainbow families. We asked him to write again about the result of the vote, and what’s next for his family.
Here’s some of what Nicholas wrote last month, while the vote was still underway:
I know my mums want to get married soon and I thought I could do a surprise little marriage at home. Like a practice.
I want my mums to be married because then they’ll be like the parents of all my other friends.
A marriage is when a couple get together and they can like go on dates and they can have fun together and they could have lunch out together, which is just like dates. Except that it’s in the middle of the day, not at the end of the day that you call evening. And that’s it.
A wedding is when a couple get together and it’s like marriage. It’s a special day. You’re like that for your whole life. Married.
Mummy and MumMum are my mums but they can’t get married yet. Even though we’re a family. The government is Malcolm Turnball and he is a bad prime minister and he should be a nice prime minister and let us get married. He lets a mum and dad get married, but not a mum and a mum and not a dad and a dad.
It’s super important, not medium important, or not important because Mummy and MumMum don’t get an official piece of paper signed by the government and the other people who get married do. That’s not fair.
You can read Nicholas’ story in full here.
The survey returned 7,817,247 (61.6%) “Yes” responses and 4,873,987 (38.4%) “No” responses. An additional 36,686 (0.3%) responses were unclear and the total turnout was 12,727,920 (79.5%). Behind the numbers are the stories of LGBTQIA children and their families who have suffered greatly from the vitriolic “debate” about their rights.
We asked Nicholas to share his feelings after the result came through.
Yay! My mums are getting married. The postal survey results came in as YES! I was so excited when I found out. MumMum and Mummy told me the news together. It was amazing and beautiful. My whole body felt like joy. My happiness was like a rainbow day and all my favourite things rolled up together. Even better than chips. I actually felt like crying because I had been thinking about my mums getting married for a long time.
It’s important for my mums to get married because it makes us a real family, because the piece of paper that MumMum and Mummy made for themselves when they had their first wedding, which wasn’t a wedding, isn’t a real piece of paper signed by the government. So because the results came in as yes, my mums can get a real piece of paper signed by Malcolm Turnbull (the Prime Minister of Australia).
The wedding is in October. I would like it a bit earlier, like February, because I can’t wait.
We need to design a cake. I’ve got an idea for a rainbow cake, with flowers on it. Maybe it could be a tree with a bird hanging from it. What about a spiral cake that goes up and up and up, like in Rapunzel? That one would be made of icing and layers. One layer is strawberry, one layer is chocolate, and the next one is vanilla.
We’ll have lots of food and drinks, like cider, wine, coffee, tea, and other things. I want a bowl of chips and popcorn and sandwiches and treats. The adults will like all that as well. I’m allowed to eat this food too. The food will be at a separate table, and the guests could take whatever they would like to eat.
I’m doing the music, which is a karaoke machine. There will be a slow song for my mums to dance to, but also lots of other songs for everyone to dance to. I get to choose the songs. I think the songs should all be slow songs because then everyone can spin around because weddings are about love and slow songs are usually about love.
Mummum and Mummy said I could give them away. This is not like giving away a toy. It’s when I walk them down the aisle and at the end I can hold their rings for them, and the special speaker (which is Aunty Cousin Bek) will say, “Will Nicholas please come up and present Katherine and Roanne’s rings please?” and I will step forward and give my mums the rings. And hugs.
They’re using the same rings as they gave each other last time, which was ages ago, before I was born. In their heads, they feel like they’ve been married for a long time.
Congratulations Nicholas, Roanne and Katherine, and all of the families in Australia who are planning their weddings.