It’s huge. 85 Federal laws that discriminated against same-sex couples and their families have been reformed. These historic 85 reforms reward decades of protesting. To celebrate, 85 artists are designing 85 T-Shirts inspired by each reform. 85 influential Australians are wearing these T-shirts with pride, to spread the knowledge across the country. Courtney Act & Shane Jenek are two of the spokes people for the campaign along side other influential Australians including Ruby Rose, The Veronicas, Richard Reid, Kylie Gillies.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte has dedicated her new single, “Love Like This”, to celebrate the Wear it with Pride campaign. This song and its video are key parts of the campaign, and the video features some of the influential Australian’s who have designed T-Shirts. Make sure you support this fabulous song and clip by buying it on iTunes. Look out for cameos by Shane & Courtney too!

Love Like This video clip:

Courtney is a key spokesperson for the Wear it with Pride campaign, stating that the reforms are “really important for everybody and they’re a really big step forward.” You can read an interview with her below:

Why did you decide to take part in the campaign?

This campaign represents real change and a step forward in human rights for our country.  Obviously we are all equal, that is a fundamental truth, and the law should have no standing or impact on our ability to feel so.

Having the law catch up and recognise our equality is important because along the way a lot of us, on both sides of the fence, have forgotten this. When people see each other as equal rather than greater or less than the human race comes together rather than apart.

In your opinion, why is this new campaign so important?

It’s extremely important that people know we are moving in the right direction because it is this awareness that inspires society and helps remind people that we are all equal. Bringing awareness that, under law, gay and straight people are now recognised as equal (except for that one itsy bitsy marriage thing) means legal segregation has ended and now hopefully social segregation can too. Perhaps when we stop focusing on our differences we will realise that they are far outweighed by our similarities.

There is lots more information, as well as the rest of the interview, online at http://www.wearitwithpride.com.au/law-reforms/workplace/courtney-act-shane-jenek/

Christmas is almost here, so we’ve got an early Christmas present for you – it’s the second session of Surf Camp!The action is starting to heat up in this session, with the harem of 5 gay boys reduced down to 4 in the first ever Surf Camp eviction.But who will go? Will it be chic geek Jesse or lifesaver Josh? Big boy Brennan or lovable clutz Ryan? Or will it be the boy-next-door Ben? You’ll have to watch to find out!Things are Surf Camp are starting to get interesting, including a burgeoning romance between  two of the boys. It’s all happening downunder on Surf Camp: Session 2.

Get ready for the release of Courtney Act’s 5 track Pop/Disco/Electro/Dance EP due for release in May 2008. Off and running with the music revolution Courtney’s independent release gives you an opportunity to be apart of history. You can buy one or more limited edition pieces of Courtney Act for AUD$10 each. We are dividing Courtney Act into lots of little digital pieces and you can purchase one or more to support the production of Courtney’s EP.

Click Here To Buy A Piece

To supplement the music we will be following the journey with a short weekly PodCast featuring The Adventures of Courtney Act and the road to writing, creating, producing and launching the EP. For the first time Courtney’s hair and makeup will be scrubbed off to reveal her alter ego Shane. See the boy behind the girl and follow them both on this crazy journey.

Courtney doesn’t fit the standard box, so it is only natural that she would think out side of it when making music. Having already had a top 30 single to the biggest label on the planet, Courtney is taking the creative power off the record company and rightfully putting it back into the hands of the artist. An inspiring lesson for any aspiring musicians and performers to see how music can be made 2008.

Click here to view article in Time Out Magazine

Photos from Time Out Magazine shoot by Daniel Boud