Marriage equality support grows in ALP

The Australian Labor Party’s national president will be a supporter of marriage equality, no matter who is elected.

All six candidates — from both the Left and the Right of the party — support marriage equality.

Transport Workers Union federal secretary Tony Sheldon and Canberra MP Gai Brodtmann, both candidates from the party’s Right faction, told Rainbow Labor they support marriage equality.

“I support marriage equality,” Sheldon wrote. “I believe people should be able to form their own families free from any discrimination or judgement by the state.

“I’ll be participating in the campaign waged by Rainbow Labor and others to persuade the community of the merits of this reform.”

“I voted in favour of same-sex marriage at the ACT Labor Conference,” Brodtmann wrote.

“I believe government must legislate in a way that does not discriminate on ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation.”

From Labor’s Left, incumbent ALP president and Rainbow Labor member Jenny McAllister will stand again. Queensland Senator Claire Moore and Victorian state MP Jane Garrett are other candidates from the Left faction who support marriage equality.

A sixth unaligned candidate, John Lannan, also confirmed his support of marriage equality to Rainbow Labor.

“If two single adults, of whatever gender or sex, wish to marry under Australian law, they should be allowed to do so,” Lannan wrote.

Australian Marriage Equality (AME) national convenor Alex Greenwich welcomed the support from candidates.

“It’s certainly a sign of the level of support within the Labor Party that all the candidates for Labor president are supportive,” Greenwich said.

“It shows how far the debate has come that whoever the next president of the ALP will be is keen to not only embrace marriage equality but declare it as a part of their candidacy for being president.”

Greenwich also revealed that on Monday AME would be having the dinner with the four federal independent MPs that the organisation won at the Canberra Press Gallery’s Midwinter Charity Ball auction in June.

“We will be having dinner with the four independents — Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter,” Greenwich said.

“Coming along with AME will be Shelley Argent from PFLAG, Rodney Croome, [anti-homophobia educator] Daniel Witthaus and people from each of the independent’s electorates who will be sharing stories about why marriage equality is important to them, to their families and to their communities.”