Who gets your vote?

Election candidate Tess Corbett who said pedophiles would be next asking for rights after gay people? Or Bernard Gaynor who said images of Sydney Mardi Gras would be used to defend child sexual abuse in court? Or National MP John Williams who said he wouldn't support gay marriage because he doesn't believe there is 'a lot of stability in their relationships'?

Local residents across Sydney have created their own rainbow crossings in chalk after the New South Wales (NSW) State Government dismissed public pressure and had a rainbow pride crossing installed for the Sydney Mardi Gras torn up in the dead of night on Wednesday.

Not even Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore had been told that road workers would be blocking off Sydney’s iconic Oxford Street to tear up the rainbow section of the road and replace it with black bitumen.

The festival finished at the beginning of March but the organizers of Sydney Mardi Gras got together last night to reward the best of the hard work that went into it.

At a ceremony in Beresford Hotel in Sydney awards were presented for the best stalls at Fairday, the best events of the month-long festival, floats in the parade and those who volunteered their time for free to make the festival happen.

Steve Johnson, whose brother Scott was found dead in Sydney in 1988, was at Sydney Mardi Gras this year as part of a campaign to dissolve the mystery around what happened to him before his body was found at the bottom of a cliff in Manly.

Johnson marched with Lord Mayor Clover Moore and MP Alex Greenwich in the 35th Sydney Mardi Gras parade on Saturday 2 March and found the experience bittersweet.

Sydney's MP Alex Greenwich has held a press conference to reassure the LGBTI community that allegations of police brutality at last Saturday's Sydney Mardi Gras are being investigated, before tonight's protest about the incidents.

'People are rightly angry about the serious incidents involving police during the 2013 Mardi Gras festival,' said Greenwich.

The 18-year-old who was seen attacked by a policeman at Sydney’s gay Mardi Gras has said he is not angry at the authorities, just the officer.

In the video, which has now been viewed over 200,000 times, Jamie Jackson is seen being held by the throat, slammed to the ground and stood on by a police officer.

Jackson is seen screaming ‘I did nothing wrong!’ as he is arrested by the police.

NSW Police has announced he was charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and using offensive language in public.

Sydney police are being accused of brutality during an arrest at last weekend’s Mardi Gras.

A video allegedly shot at the gay pride parade shows an unidentified partygoer in handcuffs thrown on the ground by a policeman, who then stands on the man’s back.

The footage does not show clearly what happened immediately before the man is thrown to the ground, and it is not known why the man was targeted by police.

Alex Greenwich, Independent member for Sydney, said the footage is ‘certainly distressing’.

Sydney’s 35th annual Mardi Gras Parade has been a success despite an early threat of rain from bad weather that thankfully cleared up at the last minute.

It had rained the previous night and all day but that didn’t deter the hundreds of thousands who turned up to line Sydney’s Oxford Street to watch the parade - which itself contained 10,000 people across 110 different marching groups and floats.

The radio station that made a prank call to the London hospital where Kate Middleton was receiving treatment had turned over a new, rainbow-colored leaf.

 2Day FM, based in Sydney, will become 2Gay FM in support of marriage equality and to celebrate Mardi Gras on 2 March.

Everything on-air will change for the day, including presenters, promotions, imaging, and the website.

‘2-Day FM are strong believers of marriage equality and the station hopes to make a difference in Australia, big or small,’ the station says.

Eurovision 2012 winner Loreen has joined the Sydney Mardi Gras parade after-party as a last minute addition.

Loreen will join Crystal Pepsi (Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters), Heather Small (ex-M-People) and Delta Goodrem at the party, Mardisgrasland, on Saturday 2 March.

If you were academically inclined, the evolution of LGBT ‘Pride’ events around the world would make an interesting dissertation subject.

What began in cities such as San Francisco and New York as small angry protests, demanding equality and an end to discrimination, has now become a fixture on the calendar of most major urban centers around the world.