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 Australian Coalition
for Equality

 


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12 January 2006
Brokeback Mountain: Poignant Reminder of the Need for Marriage Equality

"Maybe he’s not the marrying kind", says Heath Ledger's on-screen daughter about her father.
 
"To be released on Australia Day, Brokeback Mountain is a poignant reminder to Australia about the desperate need for marriage equality", said Luke Gahan from Australian Marriage Equality (AME).
 
Brokeback Mountain, the latest film from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee starring Australian Heath Ledger is a modern American love story.
 
"Brokeback Mountain is not a new story for gay and lesbian Australians", said Gahan.
 
"The reality of this story is being acted over and over again in the homes of ordinary Australians as we live in a nation that still grants absolutely no recognition to same sex relationships".
 
The film tells the story of two young men, a ranch-hand and a rodeo cowboy who meet in the summer of 1963, and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection, one whose complications, joys, and tragedies provide a testament to the endurance and power of love within same sex relationships.

 

"The tragic lives of these two men and their families would certainly have turned out differently had they been living in a country and time that not only respected their relationship but also legally protected it", said Gahan.

 

The film comes at a time when the federal government refuses to give same sex relationships legal status following their ban on recognising domestic and overseas same sex marriages in August 2004.

 

"This modern tragedy is a stark reminder to the Australian Government on Australia Day that homophobia and discrimination can not only destroy the lives of gay and lesbian people, but equally destroy the lives of their families, friends, neighbours and children", said Gahan.

 

The film, whilst set in the US states of Wyoming and Texas, was filmed in Alberta Canada, a part of the world where same sex marriage is now legal and where same sex relationships are no longer covered up from society.

 

"The irony of this movie being filmed in marriage equal Canada has made its message of equality even more significant to gay and lesbian audiences", said Gahan.
Copyright © 2008 Australian Marriage Equality Inc.