Lesbian couple become first to get married in Pride Parade in New Zealand
(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)
A lesbian couple in New Zealand has become the first same-sex couple known to tie the knot during a Pride parade in the country.
Victoria Envy, 28, and Sinead O’Connell, 25, married each other on a float that was part of the parade on Saturday evening.
The couple first met at the same Pride parade years earlier, but nothing happened as O’Connell was in a relationship at the time.
“We had some ‘meaningful eye contact’, but I realised very quickly that she was there with someone else,” Envy explained.
Auckland Pride (Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)
However, months after the parade the pair matched on Tinder and the first question asked by Envy was if her now partner remembered her from the parade.
“The first questions was: ‘Do you remember me from the Pride Parade?’ and she did, so we hit it off,” she explained.
From there, their love blossomed and grew.
They got engaged six months after their first date and they moved together to Feilding away from Auckland.
(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)
The pair began to plan their wedding but they were worried about costs, then they saw that they had the opportunity to enter a competition to get married on a Pride float.
When they won, they were overjoyed.
They said: “We are so humbled and stoked. It has just made our lives so much easier. It’s just awesome.”
“It just means so much that we’re able to be the first gay couple to get married on a float… you could never really realise unless you’re a gay person that has either struggled yourself or have been fighting for it forever.
“It’s because of their hard work that we get to do this and show everyone that love is just love. That’s it.”
(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern became the first premier to march at an LGBT Pride parade.
The ex-Mormon Labour leader joins in the Auckland Pride joined 25,000 for the parade.
Speaking at the event, she admitted that there was still far to go for LGBT rights in the country: “Ultimately this is a parade about diversity and inclusiveness.
“And I’m really proud of the work the team has done to make that real over the years and in our laws,” Ardern told TVNZ.
“But we can’t be complacent. As long as there are kids in New Zealand, if they are LGBTQI, if they have high levels of mental health issues or self-harm, that tells us that we still have work to do.”
