Days before the Australian elections, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd publicly and passionately defended same-sex marriage during a question and answer session.
A pastor of a local church who works for National Christian Radio Network attempted to pin Rudd down about his stance on gay marriage. "They [citizens] won't be voting for you because they're disillusioned because you seem to be chopping and changing your beliefs just to get a popular vote with regards to things like marriage," said the man in the video above.
After announcing in May that he supported same-sex marriage, many speculated that Rudd would lose a significant percentage of Australia's Christian vote. Rudd, however, sees his support as faith-based.
"I concluded in my conscience, through an informed conscience, and a christian conscience, that it was the right thing to do," said Rudd in the above Q&A, "and let me tell you why. Number one, I do not believe people when they are born choose their sexuality. They are gay if they are born gay -- you don't decide at some later stage in life to be one thing or the other. It is how people are built. And therefore, the idea that this is somehow an abnormal condition is just wrong. I don't get that -- I think that is just a completely ill-founded view."
Support for same-sex marriage in Australia has steadily gained traction this year with a July Parliamentary Inquiry finding that New South Wales could become the first state in the country with the political power to pass such legislation. Australian politicians not supporting the initiative have also come under fire lately, with Katy Perry publicly blasting Tony Abbot over the issue of same-sex marriage during a a radio interview in mid-August.
The Australian federal elections are slated to taken place on Sept. 7.
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.