The image of Julie Maynard and Frances Bodel kissing amid a jubilant and emotional crowd in the public gallery of the ACT Legislative Assembly on Tuesday is one every Canberran deserves to see.
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This is the moment the members of our parliament enacted a historic change, one that ranks among the most significant in our short period of self government.
By publishing this image The Canberra Times is breaking the Assembly's rules. Broadcast guidelines ban cameras from focusing on people in the public galleries or recording any ''protests, demonstrations or other disturbances''.
Soon after the vote Assembly officials made calls to media organisations to remind them of the rules.
We publish this photograph not out of disregard for the Assembly, but through a sense of duty, as this city's main news organisation, to the people of Canberra.
We believe this moment deserves to be recorded for all Canberrans and not lost to history because of a rule.
This was a moment that belonged not to politicians, but to gay and lesbian people, their families and supporters.
It was the moment when, at last, their pleas for marriage equality were heard and officially acknowledged.
The happiness expressed in this photograph says more than words can convey. That's why we have published it.
