Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich is in a stoush with the Christian organisers of a conference on families to be held in Sydney later this month.

Senior police will join Sydney MP Alex Greenwich and other LGBTQI community representatives at a community forum in Sydney on Thursday March 14 to discuss policing practices at this year’s Sydney Mardi Gras and start to develop a plan to improve policing at future Sydney Mardi Gras festivals and events.

NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann has called for an independent investigation into policing at this year’s Mardi Gras following numerous allegations of excessive force being used.

This year’s Sydney Mardi Gras Parade and after-party has been hailed a success with over 9,000 participants on almost 110 floats creating a line of glitz and glamour up Oxford Street and Flinders Street, with messages reminding the community about equality and the need for acceptance and not discrimination.

With the excitement near palpable, the sequins flying, and toned bodies being put through their dance moves one final time, more than 10,000 people from the LGBTIQ community and their friends and allies are preparing to march at tonight’s eagerly awaited Sydney Mardi Gras Parade as the festival celebrates its 35th birthday.

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: 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.

SYDNEY: It seems Sydneysiders and many more across the country have already fallen in love with the rainbow crossing installed across Oxford Street at Taylor Square overnight.

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.

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.

The marriage Equality activist and founder of the Victorian branch of Australian Marriage Equality (AME) has resigned as convenor of the branch, intending to continue that campaign and other issues from with the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

SYDNEY: Parramatta Mayor John Chedid has sent Twenty10 a letter of apology following the widespread community outrage and ensuing social media backlash that met the Council after the queer youth support agency was ordered to remove signage during a family fun day last week.

SYDNEY: Parramatta’s Lord Mayor, John Chedid, has been accused of homophobia and become the target of a social media campaign following reports he was involved in pulling down banners promoting queer youth support agency Twenty10 at a community festival late last week, supposedly on the grounds that they were “offensive”.

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.

The NSW Government’s plan to trial three “sobering-up centres” in Sydney and Wollongong has been attacked as a “stunt” that could potentially put people at risk of further harm while doing nothing to address the root issues of binge drinking and alcohol-related violence.