Thousands of Australians sign gay marriage petition

More than 140,000 thousand Australians have signed a petition calling for marriage equality.

The petition has been handed to the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the Labour Party’s annual conference. The petition calls on the Australian government to support marriage equality – a campaign that has gained considerable ground in the country in recent months. A video, It’s Time, promoting marriage equality by the group GetUp has become a You Tube hit around the world.

Julia Gillard is on record as stating she doesn’t support gay marriage but it could work out that despite her objections her party will support marriage equality. The party is expected to debate the issue at its annual conference and some are already predicting it will endorse marriage equality. Several Australian states that already enacted laws to officially recognise same-sex partnerships and have also called on the government to legalise gay marriage. States such as Tasmania, South Australia, New South Wales and, earlier this week, Queensland are amongst them.

A number of countries around the world have legalised same-sex marriage such as Spain, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Iceland. Gay marriage has also been legalised in Mexico City and some American states such as New York. Denmark, Germany, Colombia and the United Kingdom are amongst countries that have indicated they will legalise it in the near future or at the very least will debate the issue.{jcomments off}