Canberra young people to walk for marriage equality

Organisers Ally Hocking Howe, Laura Goodwin, Ciara Scott and Angie Shillington said they were moved to action by recent developments in the debate in Australia, including after literature opposing same-sex marriage was distributed to some Canberra school students.

Federal Parliament could consider a cross-party bill on the issue this year, following Ireland's historic referendum backing gay marriage in May and a ruling by United States Supreme Court in June.

The walk – to begin from Queen Elizabeth Terrace at 11am – is open to people of all ages and has attracted more than 2500 likes on Facebook.

Ms Hocking Howe, a year 10 student at Merici College, said some material produced by the Catholic church in recent months did not encourage acceptance and inclusiveness.

"To share the other side of the argument, we decided to organise the walk for marriage equality and we hope thousands of people will come," she said.

"We want to let Australia and the government know that we, the younger generation, support change. We thought it was time for us to become change makers."

Two polls last month found most Australians were in favour of same-sex couples having the right to get married.

The Fairfax/Ipsos poll on June 14 found 68 per cent of voters supported gay marriage while 25 per cent were opposed. Voters aged 18 to 24 supported same-sex marriage at a rate of 86 per cent.

A Newspoll released on June 17 found 58 per cent support for same-sex marriage.

"Eventually young people are going to be the ones voting, and influencing and leading Australia," Ms Hocking Howe said.

"We're 15 years old and we're not expecting to get married anytime soon but it's still important to us."

Posters advertising the walk have been placed around Canberra. Participants are invited to wear rainbow colours for the event.