By DANIELLE GALVIN
BEING a Christian gay couple has presented its fair share of hurdles for Kath Yates and Sue Townsend.
Kath, who is originally from Emerald, has settled in Tecoma with her partner Sue but the past six years haven’t always been easy.
But when the news broke that New Zealand, France and a number of US states had legalised same-sex marriage, the pair felt they were one step closer to equality.
“It’s good and encouraging, we don’t have rights in Australia that are equal to ordinary married people, and that would be the aim,” Kath said.
There are no plans to be married overseas yet, despite the latest allowances, because the pair want their relationship recognised in Australia.
Their relationship evolved organically over time.
“Sue and I have been friends for a long time, I had been on my own 12 years before Sue and I thought about being in a relationship,” she said.
“Circumstances changed for Sue and we started having coffee, going on bike rides and going camping, and then we realised there was more to the relationship and it just sort of evolved from there.”
The Christian couple have not been deterred by the rejection from their previous churches, which did not accept their relationship at the time.
They now attend church at the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in Melbourne, where Sue is a pastor.
Kath works in Pakenham in aged and disability care.
“We are Christians, there is nothing in the Bible that says it’s wrong,” Kath said.
“You get rejected from the church because you’re gay and you get rejected from the gay community because you’re Christian.
“You can’t win, you just have to be strong.”
Sue said it might take the next generation until same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia, but she had her fingers crossed.
“We had a lot of rejection from within our churches at the time,” Sue said.
One of the most touching moments for Sue when the legislation that went through New Zealand parliament was a quote from one of the ministers.
“He said for those who want to be married this changes everything but for you nothing will change at all,” she said.
Kath said she anticipated that it was inevitable that same-sex marriage would be legalised eventually.
“I had always said I would never get married again but if we had the rights everybody else had, I would get married to Sue,” she said.
When the pair came out and told their friends and family, some struggled with the news.
“When we were struggling in those early couple of years of being together, were very fortunate we had people in the gay community that were there to back us up and support us, they mentored us,” Kath said.
“We have some great, Christian friends.”
