Counting down – anxious partners await decision
Andy Jalfon and Skot Barnett will be on edge on Wednesday waiting to see if they will be allowed to marry.
‘‘ People will be nail- biting after what happened in Australia,’’ said Mr Barnett, 37.
He and Mr Jalfon, 32, plan to invite friends to their central Auckland apartment on Wednesday night to watch Parliament debate the final reading of Louisa Wall’s bill to legalise same- sex marriage.
But they are not taking anything for granted, after a similar bill was defeated in Australia last September.
‘‘ Even though we are only five days away now, what if something terrible happens?’’ Mr Barnett said yesterday.
‘‘ In Australia, the first two rounds made it look as if it would continue, then it just completely fizzled out.’’
Mr Barnett, an employment transition consultant, and Mr Jalfon, a film- maker, met last year through the Gay Auckland Business Association, and say they are not interested in a civil union.
‘‘ We have never looked at a civil union because it’s not the same,’’ Mr Barnett said.
‘‘ To be honest, we haven’t really got to the point of going ‘ let’s get married’, but what is really important for both of us is having the right to make that
My family has always been completely supportive, which is a big milestone because I come from a relatively religious family.
Skot Barnett
decision when it comes up.’’
The men refer to each other as ‘‘ partners’’ and hope they can use that term if they marry, rather than ‘‘ bride’’ and ‘‘ groom’’ —‘‘ Who would be the bride?’’ Mr Jalfon asked.
Both their families wrote letters to MPs supporting Louisa Wall’s bill, even though Mr Barnett’s family is Catholic.
‘‘ My family has always been completely supportive, which is a big milestone because I come from a relatively religious family,’’ he said.
Mr Jalfon said his parents were shocked when he told them, in his final year of university, that he was gay. But they got used to the idea.
‘‘ My folks love Skot and he’s part of the family.’’
An Australian- born member of the Campaign for Marriage Equality, Jackie Russell- Green, said many gay Australians would come to New Zealand to marry if the bill passed.