Australia PM unmoved by Obama on gay marriage

AUSTRALIA: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood firm on her opposition to gay marriage Thursday, despite US President Barack Obama saying for the first time that same sex couples should be able to wed.

Gillard said when a bill calling for the legalisation of gay marriage comes to a vote in parliament later this year “I won’t vote for it”.

Australia passed an amendment to its laws in 2004 explicitly defining marriage as between a man and woman, but activists believe pressure is mounting for Canberra to extend the right to same-sex couples.

The ruling Labor party overturned its official opposition to gay marriage in December after some 10,000 people marched on its national policy summit, and there are two bills on the issue currently before parliament.

But Labor has resolved to vote privately rather than along party lines on the issue, meaning there is little prospect of legal change because undecided voters, upon whom the government’s fate typically depends, tend to oppose it. AFP