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Thousands take to Melbourne streets for rally in support of marriage equality

Glitter fluttered through the wintry air on Saturday afternoon as more than 20,000 Melburnians took to the city streets to rally for same-sex marriage ahead of a postal vote on the issue. 

A sea of protesters, many draped in rainbow flags and clutching colourful balloons, gathered outside the State Library for what organisers said was Australia's largest marriage equality rally.

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'Largest ever' rally for marriage equality

More than 20,000 people took to the streets of Melbourne on Saturday, with placards, rainbow flags and balloons.

The event was organised by Equal Love, an organisation that has been campaigning for marriage equality for 13 years.

"It's incredible ... there is an endless sea of people," the group's convenor Ali Hogg told the crowd, which stretched down Swanston Street.

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"We need to keep fighting until every single person in this country is equal," she said.

Comedian Joel Creasey was among the entertainers, politicians and advocates who took to the stage. He said that marriage was a basic human right.

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"I am such a diva these days, food, shelter, marriage, what's next? Clean drinking water?"

He joked that the only people affected by gay marriage were those who ran the Fitness First gyms.

"They are empty while every gay man and lesbian is right here at this rally."

Each of the speakers criticised the $122 million postal survey, but urged people to vote and campaign for a 'yes' vote. 

"To overcome this pointless, expensive, voluntary non-binding survey we still have some steps to go," Victorian Equality Minister Martin Foley said. 

"This is about making sure one group of Australians are treated the same as everyone else."

We need to keep fighting until every single person in this country is equal.

Ali Hogg, Equal Love convenor

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus told the cheering crowd that laws needed to be changed to achieve equality, dignity and respect. 

"We cannot have equality when one part of our human family is denied it," she said.

Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said same-sex marriage "would happen", regardless of the outcome of the postal vote. But he called on people to campaign for a 'yes' vote. 

"It doesn't matter that it's a stupid survey ... but we'll make sure the answer is a resounding 'yes'," he said. 

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Equal Love rally for marriage equality in Australia

He reiterated Labor's commitment to introduce a marriage equality bill to the parliament within 100 days if it won the next federal election.

Greens Senator Janet Rice took to the stage with her "rainbow family", including her transgender wife, Nobel Prize winning climatologist Penny Whetton.

"We are going to fight and we are going to win," she told the cheering crowd.

Couple Aidan and John exchanged rings in front of thousands of spectators as part of a mass illegal wedding. They wore matching rainbow pocket handkerchiefs. 

They met at "some dingy nightclub in Jan Juc" nine years ago and have been engaged for five years.

Celebrant Coral Teague staged the event, saying it was "in protest of this nation's hateful and exclusionary laws that refuse to grant legal recognition to such unions". 

Led by the Dykes on Bikes on their revving motorbikes, the crowd marched along La Trobe, Elizabeth, Bourke Street Mall and Swanston streets. "What do we want? Equality. When do we want it? Now," they chanted. 

Many held placards spelling out when gay marriage had been legalised in other countries. 

One read: "who voted on your marriage?" 

Claire Fricke wore a T-shirt with 'I love my wife' emblazoned on the front to the rally. 

She married her partner in New York six years ago – but their marriage isn't recognised here. 

The 46-year-old therapist said that while she was opposed to the expensive postal vote, she would still vote yes.

"Why wouldn't you want there to be more love in the world? It's a total cliche but we need love."

Michael Castro, 20, and his partner Dylan Bradshaw, 21, met six months ago and the pair want to get married. 

"We are already deciding who is taking whose last name," Castro said. 

"I think everyone should have the right to love who they love," Bradshaw said. 

The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey will give people an opportunity to have their say on whether same-sex marriage should be legalised.

The survey will be conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which will send out forms to registered voters over two weeks from September 12.

The Turnbull government decided to hold a postal survey, which doesn't require legislation to be passed, after it failed to get its plebiscite legislation through the Senate. The result of the plebiscite is non binding.

On Friday, the Australian Electoral Commission released figures showing that 90,000 new voters had registered ahead of the postal ballot on same-sex marriage.

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