“It will be an honest and open discussion,” Russell says.

“The majority of her party wants it. She doesn’t. And yet she’s a member of an electorate where, if she had a really good look, she’d be surprised by how many gay people live here.”

Dini agrees: “It’s who’s the loudest really. For so long the conservative right have just been louder, but now we’re making our voices heard. We’re not pushing for churches to be forced to perform same-sex marriages; we just want the same legal rights as any other couple.”

While same-sex couples have been entitled to the same legal rights as heterosexual de facto couples in almost every area of life, including tax, health, superannuation and aged care since 2009, marriage – together with adoption and surrogacy for gay men – remain a last sticking point. Just last week federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon announced that Australian same sex couples wanting to marry overseas could apply for a certificate of no impediment, which would allow their marriage to be recognised in that jurisdiction.

Russell and Dini believe that despite the prime minister’s resistance, it’s not a matter of if same-sex marriage will be legalised in Australia, but when.

Russell points out that 20 years ago, the prospect of an unmarried female prime minister would not have been tolerated. He believes Gillard is out of kilter with the pace of change. “I thought she would respect others and be more open-minded. Obviously we were wrong. At the end of the day it’s not an issue that’s going to go away. It will happen, it’s just a matter of who’s got the guts to do it.”

Public opinion seems to be mounting in Russell and Dini’s favour. In July last year a Roy Morgan poll found 68 per cent of Australians support gay marriage. In the past two weeks celebrities including Hugh Jackman, David Stratton and Olivia Newton-John endorsed a statement by advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality calling for same-sex couples to be allowed to marry. ‘‘Australia is at its best when we value equality over prejudice and fear,’’ the statement says. ‘‘That’s why we support marriage equality for same-sex couples.”

As more and more Australians view gay relationships as wholly unremarkable and same-sex marriage as entirely acceptable there comes the release of a new British film, Weekend. The touching and believable drama depicts a whirlwind romance between two strangers, Russell and Glen, and has received rave reviews overseas. The film picked up a clutch of awards, including the Emerging Visions gong at the SXSW Film Festival at its debut in Austin, Texas, and even made the best films of 2011 list in The New York Times. “That’s just insane,” says the film’s director, Andrew Haigh.

But perhaps its most surprising achievement is that it hasn’t attracted the outrage or condemnation prominent gay movies often do.

Haigh says his aim was to portray two normal blokes who just happen to be gay. “When you make a film about gay characters there’s this pressure that you’re supposed to represent the whole gay community. You can’t do that, and also you shouldn’t. I’m not trying to make an advert for being gay. I’m just making a story about two people and trying to be honest about how they live their lives.”

As for whether movies such as Weekend can change public opinion, he says: “The problem is, the people who’ll see the film are those who don’t need changing. I did an interview for [news site] The Daily Beast the other day about gay sex in Hollywood, and you just had to look at the comment section at the end to realise there’s still so much hatred.”

He staunchly defends anyone’s right to marry, regardless of sexual preference. As far as he’s concerned, Prime Minister Gillard’s decision to allow Labor MPs to hold a vote of conscience on the issue (a move which is almost certain to defeat change) is unconscionable. “The government should just stand in and say, ‘Right, this is happening’. It’s an unfair situation and we can’t trust politicians to make the right decision because they often don’t when it comes to voting for these kinds of things.”

He notes that even though same-sex unions have been recognised in Britain since 2005, they are still deemed “civil partnerships” rather than “marriage”. The difference may be semantic, but Haigh says it’s still discriminatory. “It’s a stupid halfway house which is frustrating. You’re saying it’s the same thing, but it’s not. It’s a two-tier system.”

Get Up!’s own salvo in the campaign for marriage equality is an online video, It’s Time, which features a young man at various stages in his relationship. Viewers see moments such as the man meeting his partner, through to his mum dying, right up to proposing in front of his family – and it’s only at the last moment that it is revealed his partner is male.

The campaign started life as a viral YouTube video, garnering more than 4.5 million hits, before wide public support and a fund-raising drive led to it being aired on national TV on the eve of the December ALP conference, where the prime minister refused to support gay marriage – despite her party’s vote to endorse it.

GetUp! campaign director Aaron Hulse is optimistic that a non-sensationalist approach to gay relationships will play a part in swaying public and political opinion.

“We wanted to show a love story with moments that anyone can connect with,” explains Hulse. “At the end, you realise, ‘Oh, I do have more in common with these folks than I realised’. The bottom line is love should be equal. It doesn’t discriminate, and it doesn’t make sense that the law does.”

Hulse says the campaign carries a powerful message that, along with movies such as Weekend, can influence change. But he insists it’s everyday people such as Russell and Dini who are at the forefront. “The real stories of everyday Australians who have been in loving relationships but who are denied the right to be recognised by the federal government are even more compelling. People are starting to realise this is about their friends and family. There is a correlation between the civil rights and the marriage equality debate. Martin Luther King said injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and I think that’s true.”

Relaxing on the sofa in Werribee, Russell and Dini hope their dinner with the PM later this month will generate some much-needed headlines and put the marriage equality debate front and centre again.

“The Pope says marriage will be undermined and the world will end, but at the end of the day plenty of countries have had gay marriage for years, including largely Catholic ones,” Dini says. “Society hasn’t fallen apart. It will only strengthen marriage, with more people able to commit.”

Russell says it’s just about ‘‘moving forward”, a sentiment surely the PM can get on board with. He says supporting gay marriage would lift Gillard’s profile. “It would show she’s willing to accept change and be progressive. At the moment she seems to be going against everything people want.”

* The Prime Minister’s office did not respond to CW’s questions for this article.

To support the marriage equality debate, visit

getup.org.au or australianmarriageequality.com