The mother of one of the brides in Australia’s fast-tracked first same-sex marriage has said she believes the wedding kept her daughter “alive long enough to have one last Christmas with her family”.
On Wednesday, the attorney general of Queensland, Yvette D’Ath, revealed to the state parliament that the wedding of Jo Grant and Jill Kindt on 15 December was the first of its kind to take place in the country.
“Jo and Jill were approved, married, and registered all in one day, after the registrar ruled exceptional circumstances,” she said. “Jo’s mum Sandra believes the marriage renewed Jo’s spirit, keeping her alive long enough to have one last Christmas with her family.”
Grant and Kindt had been together for eight years when they tied the knot, and enjoyed 48 days together as a married couple before Grant died from cancer on 30 January.
“I know there are other couples that were married that weekend,” Kindt told ABC. “The reason we did is a tremendously sad one, and I’d trade everything for not having to stand here and talk about this story. But I’m glad the story’s been told for Jo, and I loved hearing her name being said in parliament today.”
The couple were married in the garden of their home, a week after Australia became the 26th country to recognise same-sex unions, and a month before services in Melbourne and Sydney that had previously been believed to be the first same-sex marriages in the country.
In being granted exceptional circumstances the couple avoided a 30-day waiting period before the wedding could take place, and ABC reports that staff from the attorney general’s office went the extra mile to make sure the event could happen. One staff member drove from Brisbane with the necessary paperwork to hand it over at a service station on the way to the couple’s home.
The wedding had remained private until it was revealed, with the family’s permission, in Brisbane’s Parliament House on Wednesday.
The women were among the 159 same-sex couples who have been married in Queensland since the marriage equality laws were passed, said the state government in a statement.
D’Ath described Grant and Kindt’s wedding as “a story of hope that reframes Queensland as a modern, trailblazing state which recognises equal rights and the most fundamental principle – that love is love”.
