BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-left rivals said Tuesday they would seek a parliamentary vote this week on legalizing gay marriage after the German leader backed off her conservatives' long-standing refusal to budge on the issue. Parliament's upper house and the opposition Greens and Left Party have proposed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, but it has been stuck in the lower house's legal affairs committee because the current "grand coalition" government of Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats was divided. In nearly 12 years as chancellor, Merkel has moved her party to the center and away from conservative orthodoxy, speeding up Germany's exit from nuclear power and ending military conscription among other moves.