During the Marriage Equality Plebiscite in Australia in 2017, AAA and AAuRA took the lead in pushing for the Asian Australian community to vote “YES”. The message that AAA and AAuRA put out was that this is about “families” and as Asian Australians we all should know how it feels to be discriminated against. We also reminded the community that there are many fellow Asian Australian siblings who identify as LGBTIQ and it is important that we support our community. AAA and AAuRA held 2 press conferences during this period – 1 in Sydney and another in Melbourne sending this message through the media in the hopes that Asian Australian voters would reflect critically on their vote.
It was important to ensure those talking to the media were diverse in terms of generations, sexual orientation and genders. At all press events there were Asian Australian “elders” as well as influential community leaders to push through this message. In addition to the press events, AAA and AAuRA were involved in grassroots organising as well as waged a huge social media campaign.
Here is the video of our press event in Sydney:
Here is the video from our press event in Melbourne:
