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Gay activists and supporters march in protest through central Melbourne - Source: Reuters -
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Gay activists staged mock weddings across Australia as the
governing Labor Party voted against changing its ban on gay
marriage.
In the largest protest, about 2,000 people, many in bridal veils,
marched on the Labor Party's national policy-making conference in
Sydney, chanting gay, straight, black or white, marriage is a civil
right.
Similar rallies and mock weddings were held in the southern
capital of Melbourne and the Queensland city of Brisbane.
"Of course, we are disappointed there has not been a movement
forward on gay marriage," said activist Corey Irlam, adding he
believed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was swayed by church concerns,
including from Australia's Catholic cardinal George Pell.
Inside the Labor conference, 400 delegates earlier rejected changes
to the party's policy, despite declaring strong opposition to
discrimination against gay and lesbian people.
"The prime minister has made it clear that a Labor government will
not support any form of recognition of relationships that undermine
marriage," Attorney-General Robert McClelland told delegates to the
Labor Party conference.
Rudd, a church-going Christian, has long opposed formal recognition
of gay marriage and promised before he won power in 2007 that he
would ensure national marriage laws would continue to define
marriage as between a man and woman.
Gay marriage remains illegal in Australia, but the states of
Tasmania and Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory, all
allow a form of civil union, which gives gay couples similar rights
to married couples.
Labor promised to push for a national framework to register gay
unions, but stopped short of endorsing gay marriage.
Rudd's government is also committed to ending all other discrimination on the grounds of sexuality.
