COMMUTERS at Melbourne Airport were agog yesterday when a flamboyant - and very tall - cabin crew strode through Terminal 3 towards the boarding gate for flight DJ 857. To celebrate Sydney's gay and lesbian Mardi Gras weekend, Virgin airlines had a special themed Melbourne-to-Sydney flight, complete with a drag queen cabin crew, dance routines and champagne at the boarding gate and the kind of in-flight entertainment one would normally find at the Greyhound Hotel.

See the video here >

NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos yesterday announced Government plans to establish state-based registers along the lines of those in the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania.

“The register will ensure NSW is aligned with Commonwealth Government moves to remove discrimination against unmarried people in heterosexual and same-sex relationships,” Hatzistergos said.

“Couples who choose to register their relationship will be provided with one document that helps prove their relationship and will be spared the frustration of constantly having to supply agencies with copious amounts of paperwork.”

Couples eligible to register will need to be over 18 and in an exclusive relationship. One member of the couple will need to be a resident of NSW, and the couple must not be married or registered overseas.

Full story :  http://www.starobserver.com.au

LEGAL counsel Martin Bennett has a short message for those who allow themselves to attack reputations over the internet, imagining they are safe under the cloak of anonymity. ''You can be hunted down and found,'' he said yesterday.

Full Story at Source: http://www.smh.com.au

The Greens say all politicians should be given a conscience vote when a bill to extend equal marriage rights to all couples is debated in Parliament next Thursday.

The bill was introduced by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young last year and was considered by a Senate committee.

Senator Hanson-Young says the bill will finally be debated in the Senate next week.

Both Labor and the Coalition are opposed to changing the marriage act to allow for same-sex marriages.

But Senator Hanson-Young says 60 per cent of the public support same-sex marriage and that should be reflected in the debate.

"Many private members bills do just sit on the shelf because they don't get the time allocated to them in the chamber - I'm very thankful that we've been able to get the time to debate this bill," she said.

"It's a really important issue - 60 per cent of Australians support the idea of removing discrimination in the marriage act.

"I'm calling on Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd to allow their members to speak freely on the issue and to have a conscience vote. It's important that our parliamentarians represent the wills and needs and desires of their communities and on this issue more than ever."

Source : http://www.abc.net.au

ASHLEY HALL: Gay and lesbian groups say they expect the passing of the laws will smooth the way for more legislation giving equal rights to same sex couples.

Paul Martin is from the lobby group Queensland Association for Healthy Communities.

He told Annie Guest some of the views expressed in Parliament by the Liberal National Party were well out of step with community sentiment.

PAUL MARTIN: There were some comments around that children brought into the world through surrogacy would be viewed as pets or possessions or those types of things and I've never heard anybody in the real world consider children in that way and certainly not people who have gone through a very long journey often to get to the surrogacy position.

So I think that was unnecessary. The talk about parents not being able to take children to the toilet because of their gender was also strange as well.

Queensland became the last Australian state to decriminalise altruistic surrogacy in a surprise move last Thursday evening.

In the states local government meeting a free ‘conscience’ vote was held, which saw  the Bligh Government’s surrogacy bill was passed,     this bill allows gay couples and single parents to have children through surrogacy in tropical north eastern state.   Local media reported that after hours of debate the law was passed 45 votes to 36. Seven MPs chose not to vote.   Some MPs said that they could not support a Bill that sets out to separate a child from its birth mother.   The issue of supporting same sex or single parenting was also considered by some of those MPs as ‘problemati’.

Surrogacy,  has been legal in all the other Australian states and territories,  as long as it is ‘Altruistic’   Commercial surrogacy remains illegal. Australian gay groups and equal rights campaigners have welcomed the change in the law.

The news comes just days before the entire countries gay and lesbian population cenebrate one of the biggest gay pride events in the world, The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras!   This year the great gay festival kicks off this weekend with the main huge parade and massive party  behind held the weekend after, 27 Feb.

Sydney plays host to a whole load of celebrities, including gay novelist Paul Burston, Gay porn star Brent Corrigan,  John Waters and Whitney Houston during the festival that brings millions of visitors to the city.   This years event promises to be no different and is the biggest gay festival in the world!