Prominent US Christian activist and LGBTI ally Andrew Marin is set to hit Australia’s shores in time for Mardi Gras.

The annual Pride in Diversity LGBTI workplace conference took place at the headquarters of banking giant NAB early last week, with over 115 people attending the two-day event which also heard from representatives from the Top Ten employers for LGBTI people according to the 2012 Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI).

Author, coach and social entrepreneur Anthony Venn-Brown has been awarded a lifetime membership of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Business Association (SGLBA) following this month’s AGM.

Advocates for gay Christians and others have said the “completely outrageous” actions of a Sydney doctor and member of the controversial Exclusive Brethren Christian sect to “cure” a young gay man of his homosexuality by chemically castrating him should serve as a reminder to the community about the dangers of so-called reparative therapy.

The US psychiatrist responsible for a controversial and much criticised 2001 study claiming that gay people could change their sexual orientation if they were “highly motivated” enough has disavowed the research in sensational fashion after admitting to a magazine that  “the critiques are largely correct”.

A forum in Sydney this Mardi Gras weekend will bring together gay community leaders and representatives of Christian churches and organisations, with those involved suggesting that it’s a clear sign that progress is being made in the volatile and hostile space where sexuality meets religion.

Gay Christian advocate Anthony Venn-Brown says the latest statement from the leader of an ex-gay movement - that no-one can alter their sexuality - is a sign the movement is on the way out.

Tennis legend Margaret Court has been slammed by a wide cross-section of the LGBTI community as well as a number of former and current representatives of Christian churches following her latest remarks about homosexuality and gay and lesbian people.

Pope Benedict has labelled gay marriage a threat to “the future of humanity itself” during an annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corps on Monday, while at the same time calling for an end to discrimination faced by Christians which “frequently relegate them to being second-class spectators of national life”.

Australian tennis legend Margaret Court has come out swinging against marriage equality, with the one-time sporting ace turned evangelical Christian pastor this week decrying “abominable sexual practices” while claiming gay relationships to be “unhealthy, unnatural unions”.

It’s no surprise the Church’s stance on homosexuality is turning people away. Fortunately, writes Anthony Venn-Brown, this anti-gay attitude is now in the minority, replaced by gay-affirming Christian leaders.

SYDNEY: A GLBTIQ youth support group as well as a high-profile gay Christian advocate have denounced an anti-marriage equality video released this week by a senior member of Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party (CDP) for trading in homophobia, misinformation and “conspiracy theories”.

BRISBANE: Psychologist Paul Martin has blasted Queensland LNP Shadow Minister for Communities and Women, Fiona Simpson, over comments made in a 2002 speech that homosexuals can “grow into heterosexuality over time.”

An Anglican church in the Central Coast is defying convention by publicly declaring its support for marriage equality. It’s parish priest, Father Rod Bower, tells Serkan Ozturk why.

Former Christian preacher Anthony Venn-Brown has criticised a recently released US study which purports evidence that some people can change their sexual orientation after undergoing years of 'conversion' therapy, as harmful and divisive to families.