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.

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.

Outrage is spreading as Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) has found itself in yet another anti-gay controversy after not one but two candidates of the newfound fledgling party likened gay and lesbians to paedophiles who are not fit to teach children at kindergarten.

Anti-gay Liberal firebrand Cory Bernardi, who recently suggested same-sex marriage will lead to a moral slippery slope ending at bestiality, has kept his position on top of the party’s South Australian Senate ticket for next year’s federal election ahead of Simon Birmingham, a supporter of marriage equality.

Under fire Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has pulled out from a speech to conservative youth groups in the UK after the British Conservative party distanced itself from the visiting South Australian senator following his comments linking bestiality to same-sex marriage.

Marriage equality advocates have vowed the battle will now turn towards the states after the defeat of two separate marriage equality bills in both houses of Federal Parliament.

The Senate has voted down a marriage equality bill 41-26 only a day after a similar bill was defeated in Federal Parliament’s lower house.

Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has resigned as parliamentary secretary to Coalition Leader Tony Abbott after coming under fire from within his own party as well by marriage equality advocates for claiming same-sex marriage laws would lead to bestiality.

Ahead of tomorrow’s vote in the federal Senate on a marriage equality bill, the Australian Human Rights Commission (HRC) has today released a position paper outlining its support for same-sex marriage as the “next step” towards achieving full equality for LGBTI people.

Emotions were high as debate today in the federal Senate on a marriage equality bill intensified ahead of a likely vote later this week, with Labor Senator Louise Pratt close to tears while describing the discrimination she and other LGBTI people face when it comes to having their relationships recognised by the state.

Marriage equality advocates have said it is not too late for the public to attempt to change the minds of politicians who may oppose the reform ahead of a vote in Federal Parliament on the issue next week.

Marriage equality advocates have called on federal politicians to work together to achieve same-sex marriage reforms after a fourth bill calling for marriage equality was introduced into Parliament today.

The debate on Senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s marriage equality bill will get underway in the Federal Senate tomorrow.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has distanced itself from a doctors group who claim children are better off with heterosexual parents while the Greens as well as human rights experts have also blasted the controversial Doctors for the Family group led by a one-time candidate for the Christian Democratic Party.

Retired High Court judge Michael Kirby and former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally have together fronted a Senate committee hearing into marriage equality in Sydney today, with the former judge telling the inquiry that despite his successful career in the judiciary he was and remains “a second-class citizen”.