Students leaders from the city’s three major universities gathered on Friday to pledge their full support for the recent strides made in legalizing same sex marriage.

SAC President Ashley Morton spoke on behalf of U of T, along with David Adizes, executive coordinator of LGBTQOUT.

Morton noted that a recent SAC motion to support gay marriage was passed unanimously, an anomaly considering the diverse voting populace. “This is something that is incredibly exciting,” said Morton, adding “we are a part of a true human rights victory.”

The unanimous vote is especially eye-opening considering that many colleges have deep religious roots. Despite that, St. Mike’s, Trinity and Victoria’s representatives all voted in favour of the motion. Morton admits that the motion was pushed through fairly quickly. “We didn’t go through a long consultative process,” he noted, pointing out that “a long, consultative process on women’s rights would be ridiculous,” and therefore a similar measure on gay and lesbian rights would be treated the same.

When asked if some campus student groups, who did not have a say in the vote, were consulted over possible objections, Morton assumed implied consent. “They voted in the election that elected us.”

Another election that got a lot of attention at the press conference was the upcoming provincial election. Canadian Federation of Students and York University representative Katheryn Waters had a strong message for hopeful candidates looking for youthful support both provincially and federally: “I want to remind politicians, those 450,000 students [nationally represented by the CFS] are 450,000 voters and the future leaders of this country.”

Morton echoed the sentiment, saying “We know where we stand…and we’re not going to have anyone take this away from us,” referring to an upcoming Canadian Alliance challenge on the issue. According to Canadians for Equal Marriage, the organization which sponsored the event, the Alliance will table a motion on Sept. 17 against same sex marriage in the House of Commons. The group also notes that MPs are receiving a great deal of opposition to same sex marriage, and that supporters need to be more vocal.

Denise Hammond, a member of the student council at Ryerson University, says that “there is a very small minority, but that minority is very vocal.” Hammond and her colleagues have been marshalling support for same sex marriage by carrying a laptop around the Ryerson campus and urging students to email their members of parliament.