AUSTRALIA - Jewish drive for same sex marriage
Over a dozen members of the Jewish community marched alongside J4ME (the Jewish Community supporting Marriage Equality) in this weekend’s rally, with many others participating in the 5,000-10,000-strong crowd that marched from Hyde Park to the Labor Party Conference in Darling Harbour.
Following months of lobbying, the Labor Party voted at the weekend to support marriage equality. However, to placate the party’s right wing, an amendment was added allowing for a conscience vote which means that any bill is likely to fail before Parliament because of Labor’s slim majority. This news had already hit the streets by the time the rally began and the atmosphere was one of excitement. We knew progress had been made and that the Labor Party platform had been changed in favour of marriage equality, but there were feelings of frustration and betrayal about the conscience vote as the realisation sunk in that more work will still need to be done before there’s a change to the law.
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