Razorfish and LGBT community advocacy organization GLAAD have teamed up in a pro-bono assignment to call on people worldwide to express support for 31 Australian couples whose marriages were deemed invalid nearly a year ago.
On December 7, 2013, a bill went into effect that was passed by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), making the territory the first part of Australia to legalize same-sex weddings. However, just five days later, the national government challenged the decision, saying it was inconsistent with federal laws, and Australia’s High Court overturned the legislation making all of the couples’ unions invalid.
The 5 Days of Equality campaign encourages people to join the human rights movement, creating a global initiative that sends messages of congratulations to the 31 couples during the five-day span of their one-year anniversary, Dec. 7th – 14th. The campaign kicked off with a video asking the world to send anniversary wishes using the hashtag #5daysofequality.
Each positive message received will be put in an anniversary card specially created by Smudge Ink which will be snail-mailed to a central meeting place in Canberra, where a special event on December 14 will see the couples come and read their special messages of congratulations. The entire process—from message retrieval to card development and delivery, and finally the Aussie couples being overwhelmed with love from around the world—will be captured and distributed in video form, as well.