Labor's plan to scrap its anti-discrimination reforms and go back to the drawing board has brought stinging criticism.

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.

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.

Politicians from all three major parties will be present at two community forums in Melbourne and Sydney this month as marriage equality advocates plan their next move in the wake of votes against reform in the federal and Tasmanian parliaments as well as victories for marriage equality in the recent US election.

A series of forums to be held in Melbourne and Sydney next month will offer an opportunity for people to discuss the way forward for the continuing marriage equality campaign.

MELBOURNE: A Victorian gay rights group is calling for a boycott of a US band’s Melbourne appearance at the Big Day Out music festival.