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Gay Tasmanian Couple Gives Thumbs Up to Official Relationship Ceremony

■ Isha Cavan (left) and Sonja Plitt: among the first Tasmanian gay couples to enter into a Deed of Relationship. photo courtesy Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group

HOBART, March 16, 2010  –  One of the first couples to have an officially-recognised Tasmanian relationship ceremony has gone public on what having a ceremony means for them.

Isha Cavan and Sonja Plitt entered a Tasmanian Deed of Relationship (a form of civil union) on Saturday in an official ceremony before family and friends, conducted by registered marriage celebrant, Terese Tanner, at Isha and Sonja's home near the Tasmanian fishing village of Orford.

According to Isha their ceremony was an important way to foster a sense of “belonging”.

“It’s important for us to be part of the community we live in, and to publicly acknowledge our relationship so people can support it and rejoice in it.  Ceremonies also help give children a sense of belonging, something we feel is important for our son,” she said.

Sonja pointed out that official ceremonies help break down preconceptions about same-sex relationships.

“Having our relationship recognised in this way helps our families and the community understand that our love is as real and as valid as heterosexual love,” she said.

Isha said that while the couple support full equality for same-sex couples, including in marriage, they prefer a Deed of Relationship because it treats all personal relationships equally.

“Given the choice between a marriage and a Deed of Relationship we would probably still have gone with the latter because it provides the same rights to a more diverse range of relationships,” Isha said.

Isha and Sonja moved to Tasmania two years ago, drawn by what they say is the island’s “changing attitudes to same-sex couples”.

Isha told the Hobart daily newspaper, The Mercury, which featured their ceremony in its Sunday edition: “Sonja and I were laughing this morning, there’s so many reasons why we could have been ostracised.  Firstly, we are both immigrants, secondly we are both from the mainland, thirdly there’s a 25 year age gap and fourthly, we’re lesbians.  But we have found the opposite.  Tasmanians take you as you are.”

Isha and Sonja’s ceremony is one of the first under Tasmania’s new arrangements for officially-recognised relationship ceremonies.

In November last year the Tasmanian Government announced that it would officially recognise the ceremony of a couple entering a Deed of Relationship by ensuring their Deed is registered on the day of the ceremony, and by providing the couple’s celebrant with an official state relationship certificate, that must be signed by the celebrant, the couple and two witnesses before it is legally valid.

Since December, gay community representatives have conducted a series of training sessions about the new ceremonial arrangements for Tasmania’s registered marriage celebrants. A list of celebrants who are familiar with the new arrangements can be found HERE.

The Tasmanian relationship registry, under which Deeds of Relationship are issued, was established in 2003 and was Australia’s first civil union scheme.  Ceremonies were introduced in response to complaints from couples that entering a Deed of Relationship was formerly a “cold”, “bureaucratic” or “paper” process.

Same and opposite-sex partners in Deeds of Relationship have virtually the same entitlements as heterosexual married partners in both state and federal law.  The relationship registry also formalises companionate and familial relationships.

Since 2004, 156 couples have entered a Deed of Relationship which is proportionally the same as the number of couples who have entered New Zealand civil unions.

Schemes for the formal recognition of same-sex and other relationships also exist in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Victoria, with the ACT also offering an official ceremony.

The New South Wales Government has announced its intention to introduce a scheme, but has ruled out any official ceremony.

Same-sex marriage is not allowed in Australia, although polls show 60% of Australians support it.

 

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