ADELAIDE: Can you imagine South Australia without the Dunstan Decade? Ian Purcell explains how it almost never happened.

SYDNEY: In a further sign that marriage equality is becoming a touchstone issue for a wide cross-section of the Australian public, a parliamentary inquiry looking at plans for NSW to introduce state-based equal marriage laws has received a record number of submissions.

SYDNEY: Excitement for Saturday’s Mardi Gras Parade continues to build after a motion congratulating the long-running LGBTI festival was easily passed in NSW Parliament today.

SYDNEY: After receiving a torrent of criticism for not backing the rainbow crossing launched on Oxford Street yesterday morning, several City of Sydney councillors, including high-profile Liberal councillor Christine Forster, have defended their commitment to the local LGBTI community and have said the only reason they opposed the initiative was due to a lack of transparency by Lord Mayor Clover Moore.

Advocates and activists from the LGBTI community have largely welcomed the recommendations of a Senate committee looking at the Federal Government’s proposed national anti-discrimination laws, with the committee suggesting religious exemptions be tightened for service providers, protections be strengthened for transgender people and that intersex people receive specific inclusion under any new legislation.

Marriage equality advocates say the pressure on federal Coalition Leader Tony Abbott to allow for a conscience vote on equal marriage laws will only grow after Western Australia’s Liberal Premier, Colin Barnett, confirmed this week that he will allow for a free vote on the issue when similar legislation comes before state parliament later this year.

The controversial political career of Bernard Gaynor seems to have been short-lived with the one-time potential Katter’s Australia Party (KAP) Senate candidate for Queensland today announcing his resignation from the party.

Marriage equality advocates have called for LGBTI couples across Australia to send in submissions to the NSW parliament’s inquiry into proposed state same-sex marriage legislation as the current draft bill will preclude such couples from interstate marrying in the state.

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich will later today introduce a motion in NSW Parliament that “condemns” the Australian Christian Lobby’s attacks on the gay community which he hopes will lead to more politicians distancing themselves from the right-wing, anti-gay, fundamentalist Christian group.

SYDNEY: In what has been hailed as proof of the positive benefits brought on by recent changes allowing same-sex parents to be included on children’s birth certificates, it can be revealed that hundreds of children with same-sex parents now have both their parents officially recognised.

In what has been called a Valentine’s Day gift to the state’s same-sex couples, a NSW committee has released blueprint legislation for state-based same-sex marriage.

With France’s lower house of Parliament, the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly), passing a bill overnight allowing for same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, some local advocates have suggested Australia is fast falling behind on its obligations of equality for all citizens when compared to other western nations.

Recently retired Australian basketball and WNBA star Tully Bevilaqua has put her voice behind the campaign for equal marriage rights, saying she is planning to wed her female partner in the US later this year.

Well-known restaurant reservation website Dimmi is the latest company to announce its public support for marriage equality in Australia, saying it fully supports equality for same-sex couples.

Finance Minister Penny Wong has been selected as Labor’s Deputy Leader in the Federal Senate after a cabinet and frontbench reshuffle sparked by a number of retirements following Prime Minister Julia Gillard's decision to hold the next election in mid-September.