The Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby has urged same-sex couples to take part in a "mass coming-out" when the national census is conducted in Australia next week, reports the Canberra Times.

The lobby said that the Population and Housing census was an opportunity for same-sex couples to prove to the Federal Government that gay and lesbian rights were not a minority issue.

This year's census will only be the second to count co-habiting same-sex couples. The previous 1996 census showed there were 10,215 lesbian and gay couples in the country.

The paper quoted Lobby co-convener Alex Sosnov in an Sydney Star Observer interview, "Unfortunately governments have used the low numbers of lesbian and gay couples in the 1996 census as evidence of gay and lesbian rights being 'minority issues'."

"We are calling upon gays and lesbians in same-sex relationships to come out and let [Prime Minister] John Howard and the Government know our relationships exist and are to be counted."

But the Star Observer noted that the census was likely to under-count same-sex couples because some would be unaware they counted as couples and others might have privacy concerns.