Tag: Australia

Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe has condemned Australia’s lack of same-sex marriage. The openly gay, gold medal-winning icon has called on his home country’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his Liberal party to approve of marriage equality, an issue that’s been heavily debated this year. Ian made the comments during an appearance on the Morning Show – his first television interview with partner Ryan Channing – on Tuesday, where he called the government’s plebiscite a “stalling tactic”. “We don’t have the right to...

'Today the government broke the hearts of gay and lesbian people in Australia' Australia’s Liberal Party government has just voted to retain its policy to decide marriage equality with a public vote – known as a plebiscite. The party has just finished an emergency meeting to resolve the issue. Only seven out of 83 Liberal politicians voted for a free vote. Last year the government tried to pass plebiscite enabling legislation but it was shut down in the Senate. Since then, Prime Minister...

We're not crying, you're crying. A farmer came out to his family this week on the Australian TV show This Time Next Year, and it’s got us a bit misty. The show profiles Australians looking to make a big change in the next 365 days, and follow ups with them at the end of the year. Brad Purdy, 36, went on the show with the goal of finding a partner. But he knew to do that he’d have to come out to...

The black and brown stripes were for 'the LGBTI majority, which is not Anglo-Saxon'. A proposed Pride Centre in Australia has updated its rainbow logo with two new colours. Brown and black were added to represent LGBTI people of colour. The proposed Victorian Pride Centre in Melbourne will be an LGBTI hub to bring the community together in a single space. The Victorian State Government has backed the centre with $15 million in funding. It will be built in the LGBTI-friendly...

'From now on, no spouse will have to face the indignity of having their relationship denied.' South Australia’s reforms for recognition of same-sex couples married overseas and anti-discrimination against intersex people came into effect today. The changes to the law happened after UK citizen David Bulmer-Rizzi died on his honeymoon in South Australia in 2015. His husband Marco Bulmer-Rizzi was initially not recognised as Marco’s husband on his death certificate. This led to practical difficulties organising funeral arrangements and other sensitive matters...

Senator Dean Smith confirmed that he is drafting a bill to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia. Many MPs want the bill debated when the Australian parliament returns in August. This comes after a new poll suggested Australian voters want to go to the polls for same-same marriage, rather than let politicians have a free vote in parliament. Senator Smith, who is openly gay himself, has been seeking to end the “embarrassment” of the nation and legalise same-sex marriage. Leader of the opposition, Bill...

A gay couple living in Australia were overjoyed when over 40 women responded to their advert for a Maori egg donor. Nelson and Baden Marino-Hall were shocked with the outpour of support and love that they were met with after they placed an advert seeking a surrogate egg donor. The couple wanted to honour Baden’s Maori decent by having their children with an egg donor who was also of the same lineage. The couple, who hope to have two children together, wrote...

'It was beautiful and I hope Margaret Court sees it.' Two long-time marriage equality advocates were ‘illegally married’ outside of the namesake arena of tennis legend Margaret Court. Court, 74, was one of the world’s greatest tennis players, winning 24 grand slam titles in her career. But she has courted international media attention in recent years for her controversial stance on LGBTI issues. Most recently she boycotted Qantas airlines because its CEO supported marriage equality. In May, she compared trans children to...

Find out why they're getting a civil partnership and not married They may be from opposites sides of the world, but one Brit-Aussie couple are going global when they celebrate their civil partnership this August. James Besanvalle, a Gay Star News 26-year-old journalist, and fiancé Matt Horwood, a 28-year-old who works at UK LGBT charity Stonewall, will be holding their ceremony in London. The couple decided to get a civil partnership rather than a marriage for one main reason: same-sex marriage isn’t...

Matthew Leveson's parents finally get the chance to lay their son to rest A gay man’s remains have been found in Australia – ten years after he vanished. Matthew ‘Matt’ Leveson was last seen leaving ARQ, a night club in the Sydney neighborhood of Darlinghurst, on 23 September 2007. He was accompanied by his then 45-year-old boyfriend, Michael Atkins. CCTV footage shows Atkins buying duct tape and a mattock (a pickaxe-like tool) on the same day. He has been tried for Leveson’s murder and...

'This doesn’t even begin to compare to how furious you would be if you were told you were not allowed to marry the person you love,' say Ben & Jerry’s Ben & Jerry’s announced today that it was barring customers at is 26 stores in Australia from ordering two scoops of the same flavor. It’s doing so to highlight the lack of marriage equality for LGBTI people in Australia. ‘Imagine heading down to your local Scoop Shop to order your favorite two...

Quote: 'I'm gonna didgeridoo you in the ass' A gay porn studio is being called disrespectful after using a didgeridoo as a dildo in a new scene. Etitled ‘Didgeridoo Me’ (because of course it is), the Men.com scene sees two roommates with one having recently gotten back from Australia. While they do not go into detail of the frustrations of getting it through customs, his playing wakes his roommate up. His roommate decides to take out his frustration by penetrating his roommate with...

Alan Joyce, a fierce advocate for same-sex marriage, was giving a speech to 500 at the time Alan Joyce, the openly gay Chief Executive Officer of Australian airline Qantas, has been hit with a pie in the face. The incident occurred yesterday at a business breakfast in Perth, when Joyce was addressing an audience of 500. The mystery man stormed the stage when Joyce was two minutes into his speech. He returned to the stage unharmed after cleaning his face to a...

58% of the same-sex couples were from Australia and 17% were from China Same-sex couples from across the Asia Pacific are flocking to New Zealand to get married. New Zealand is the only country in the region to legally recognize same-sex marriages. Stats NZ today revealed that almost half of all of the same-sex marriages and civil unions were couples from overseas. Last year 954 same-sex weddings or civil unions were performed in New Zealand in 2016. 483 of those were couples living...