White’s lawyer, Belinda Rigg, said her client was gay and had been concerned that his homophobic brother would find out. White had met Johnson in a nearby bar in suburban Manly, and Johnson had taken off his clothes at the clifftop before he died, Hatfield said, adding that the gravity of the killing was significantly elevated because it was motivated by the victim’s sexuality. Prosecutor Brett Hatfield said that the precise details of the murder were not known and that White’s accounts had varied.

The Australian Parliament voted on Thursday to allow same-sex marriage across the nation, following a bitter and divisive debate settled by the government polling voters in a much-criticized ballot survey that strongly endorsed change. Australian Parliament votes to allow same-sex marriages