Aussies to see politician’s gay wedding
As if election campaigns are not busy enough, try running one while also planning a wedding for the eve of the election.
The Opportunities Party (TOP) Mt Albert candidate Dan Thurston will marry his partner Thomas Crow in Auckland on September 22.
The couple plan to video the ceremony in virtual reality and broadcast it to Australians to highlight marriage equality.
Thurston is new to politics, fresh from a couple of decades in business.
He spent 13 years running his own small business in Auckland and for the past four years lived in China as the co-founder and chief product officer of a tech startup.
While in Beijing he met his partner. They met on the internet and it was ‘‘love at first sight’’.
Thurston proposed on November 1, 2014 but due to laws in China banning same-sex marriage they had to wait.
‘‘We set a date to get married in Vietnam which I thought would be enough time to get a divorce. I was with my ex-wife for 25 years,’’ Thurston said.
‘‘By February 2016, the date of the wedding rolled around and I still wasn’t divorced so we had a ceremonial wedding.’’
Thurston’s divorce finally came through in August and they went straight to get a marriage licence.
‘‘We went to the births, deaths and marriages on Albert St and said we’ll just do a registry thing to get married and they gave us September 22.’’
Facebook invites and save-thedates went out and a friend in Australia heard about the wedding and pitched it to a advertising company.
An Australian production company would film the day in 360 degrees and promote it so people in Sydney could experience what a same-sex wedding is like through virtual reality goggles.
‘‘The same-sex thing is so normalised here,’’ Thurston said.
Thurston and Crow watched the United States election unfold and were inspired by Bernie Sanders. Crow is originally from Austin, Texas.
‘‘It’s not about winning Mt Albert but getting TOP into Parliament and that voice of progressive change,’’ Thurston said.
‘‘I love New Zealand and I’m really proud of it.
‘‘I think we’ve got some incredible potential and I just want to put my effort to helping us move forwards.’’