After voting against a 2012 same-sex marriage bill while Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard now says she’s changed her mind. Via the Sydney Morning Herald:
“Given the 1970s feminist in me saw much to be concerned with from a gender perspective with traditional marriage, I thought the better approach was not to change the old but to create something new,” she said during The Michael Kirby Lecture at Victoria University. “In my time post-politics, as key countries have moved to embrace same-sex marriage, I have identified that my preferred reform direction was most assuredly not winning hearts and minds.” Ms Gillard said she assumed at the time the Coalition would have eventually allowed a conscience vote on the issue and marriage equality would have became law. “My position would have been overtaken by history, something which would have caused me no heartburn,” she said. “Now, given the discussion of a plebiscite or a referendum, I find myself in a world where these assumptions have been upended.” Ms Gillard called for a conscience vote on the issue soon after the next election, and said she would vote in favour of same-sex marriage if she was still in parliament.Australia’s first female prime minister, Gillard held office from 2010 to 2013. She is a self-described atheist, which is virtually unheard of for a major head of government.
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