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.

Considered to be the first intersex mayor of any town or city in the world and a long-time human rights and intersex activist, Hobsons Bay councillor Tony Briffa has this week joined one of Australia’s leading intersex groups, Organisation Intersex International (OII) Australia.

A public hearing in Sydney yesterday into the Federal Government’s proposed new anti-discrimination laws heard that it was of utmost importance to provide specific legal protections for intersex people as well as remove or significantly tighten exemptions allowed for religious organisations.

As a Senate committee prepares to hold public hearings in Sydney this week on Labor's draft national anti-discrimination laws, there’s growing outrage within the LGBTI community and elsewhere over the wide-ranging exemptions offered to religious bodies and other groups that will allow them to continue to legally discriminate against people on several grounds including sexual orientation and gender identity.

Australia’s LGBTI Health Alliance has declared its support for International Intersex Awareness Day, which has been observed on October 26 since 1996.

Intersex and other sex and gender diverse people are celebrating the release of the Tasmanian Government’s proposed amendments to the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act which will provide stronger protection for the transgender community and for the first time anywhere in Australia include specific protections for intersex people.

The first public screening in Australia of the groundbreaking documentary Intersexion will take place early next week at Sydney’s Red Rattler Theatre.

LGBTI people across Australia will be forced to wait some time longer for same-sex marriage laws after Tasmania’s Upper House last night scuttled a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to enter into marriages recognised by the state.

A major new multimedia campaign launched today by national depression and anxiety initiative Beyondblue will urge the wider community to stop, think and respect LGBTI Australians in a bid to help reduce discrimination and bullying.

A schism has developed in one of the country’s most vocal LGBTI community groups with Organisation Intersex International Australia (OII) quitting Sydney-based Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) amidst claims of branch stacking and a lack of communication by members of the new leadership team.

Advocates for the intersex community have written to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to congratulate her recent landmark speech on LGBT rights, while also calling upon her to include the intersex community in her “quest to protect the dignity and rights of all humans”.

Marriage advocates and others have welcomed an apparent change of heart by new Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, after the country’s first female Attorney-General revealed in a newspaper interview today that she now supports marriage equality.

SYDNEY: Two key events are being held over the next fortnight to pay tribute to people from the intersex and transgender communities.

Over the next fortnight the intersex community of Australia will be commemorating Intersex Awareness Day which for the past 15 years has been celebrated on October 26, after a number of activists decided to picket an American Association of Paediatrics conference in 1996.

The National LGBTI Health Alliance has indicated that it holds a positive outlook for the future as it looks to expand services and capacity, following its annual general meeting (AGM) held last Thursday.