Australian prime minister Julia Gillard will have to play dinner host to three same-sex couples at her official residence in Canberra.
The charity auction, which targeted corporations and business leaders, was won by community advocacy organisation GetUp and and same-sex marriage advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality (AME), which jointly bid AUS$31,000 (US32,715) .
Calling herself a "cultural traditionalist", Gillard is known to be opposed to same-sex marriage.
She was quoted in the Australian Daily Telegraph as saying that her opposition is "because of the way our society is and how we got here... I think that there are some important things from our past that need to continue to be part of our present and part of our future."
However, she is to allow her Australian Labor Party members a conscience vote on the issue at this year's conference.
GetUp has named a lesbian couple as one of the three couples to dine with the PM. Sandy Miller and Louise Bucke are engaged and live in Sydney with their two children from Miller's previous marriage.
"Our youngest often asks us 'Mummies are you going to be engaged forever? Why don't you get married?'," Sandy Miller said. "It has been hard trying to explain that our government won't let us get married and he doesn't understand why everyone else can get married and become a family legally and we can't."
"We don't want to be considered special or better than anyone else, we only want the same rights as every other person and couple in Australia, the right to be legally married," Sandy said in a GetUp statement. "Until the government legally recognises that same sex couples are no different to heterosexual couples and should have the same and equal rights in every area in life including marriage, this discrimination will never end."
GetUp's national director, Simon Sheikh, vowed the six dinner guests would be couples in same-sex relationships "to make the case for marriage equality".
“The face-to-face time with the PM was billed as a ‘unique opportunity for corporate Australia’, but rather than dining with executives and business leaders Julia Gillard will be forced to make the case as to why these couples cannot have their relationships recognised in the same way other Australians do,” GetUp National Director Simon Sheikh said in a statement last week.
According to SX, GetUp and AME were also successful with a bid of $12,100 in winning a meal with three key Independent MPs – Bob Katter, Rob Oakeshott, and Tony Windsor – whose vote will be crucial to the debate.
“All loving couples, regardless of sexual orientation, should have equal access to legal marriage,” Australian Marriage Equality’s Alex Greenwich said. “Our hope is that those same-sex partners attending the dinner will help change the PM’s mind and bring an end to discrimination, so that one day soon their families will have the recognition and respect that other families have.”