Australia is a nation that loves its sport and its sporting heroes.

We spoke with Dane McManus from Team Melbourne who are working hard to ensure that LGBT sportspeople can continue to play an active role in the sporting life of Australia.

When was Team Melbourne established?

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard refused to change her opposition to gay marriage after New Zealand passed it today (17 April).

The leader of the Labor party said she will not be moved from her stance despite her country having close ties to the Kiwi nation.

She was asked by a member of the public in Melbourne last night (16 April) on why Australia was lagging behind New Zealand when it comes to equality, the AAP reports.

‘I doubt we're going to end up agreeing,’ Gillard said.

Popular American talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia are being treated like royalty on their Australia tour - with airline Qantas laying on personalized treatment and Victoria state premier Denis Napthine holding a black tie dinner in their honor tomorrow night.

The couple arrived in Melbourne today and were greeted by dedicated fans wearing Ellen t'shirts and displaying banners outside their hotel.

An Australian Liberal MP has come out in support of same-sex marriage and said that her party will 'evolve in step with society's views'.

Speaking in parliament this morning, MP for Higgins (near Melbourne) Kelly O'Dwyer said she believes the Marriage Act should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry.

'I believe that changing the Marriage Act by extending the definition to include same-sex couples will not lessen the status of families,' O'Dwyer said.  

Hollywood actor James Franco has taken time out from promoting Disney's Oz the Great and Powerful and speaking ambiguously about his sexuality to make a direct plea to the Australian Classification Board.

I Want Your Love, a film by Franco's friend and collaborator Travis Mathews was banned from showing at Melbourne Queer Film Festival and several other festivals in Australia.

Australian film censors have banned a movie that contains real sex between two male actors less than a year after they allowed a documentary that contained actual depictions of bestiality to screen at festivals.

I Want Your Love, by American filmmaker Travis Mathews had been scheduled to screen at LGBT film festivals around Australia this year but the Australian Classification Board decided to ban it instead.

Monster Pies, a film about two teenage boys who fall in love while studying Romeo & Juliet at school, is premiering at Melbourne Queer Film Festival next month.

The film is the second full-length feature from Lee Galea, 33, who said he wrote the story when he was 15 and 'wanted to fall in love'.

'I was studying Romeo and Juliet and I got the idea of telling a similar story with two teenage boys,' Galea told Gay Star News.

Australian Football League (AFL) players Jason Ball, Brock McLean and Daniel Jackson led a Pride march in Melbourne on Sunday, calling for an end to homophobia in the sport.

It was the first time in Victoria Pride's 18 year history that professional football players have joined the march.

Carlton Australian Football League club (AFL) midfield player Brock McLean has gone public with his support for his lesbian sister Ellie in an effort to combat homophobia in the sport and has called for fans who yell homophobic taunts to be banned from the sport.

‘The AFL needs to adopt a total zero-tolerance policy from grassroots footy right up to the elite level,’ Brock told Melbourne’s The Age newspaper this week.

Melbourne Surge and Sydney Stingers water polo clubs are to use their rivalry to raise cash for the bush fire-ravaged parts of the Tasman Peninsula.

Their traditional Australia Day grudge match will generate cash for the Red Cross Tasmanian Bushfires Appeal 2013 on Saturday (26 January).

Openly gay Aussie rules footballer Jason Ball is leading the annual Pride March Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.

Ball, who came out last September and immediately started fighting against homophobia, said:

'I am very proud to lead this year’s march, and grateful for the support of my team mates, my club, the No To Homophobia organizers and Pride March Victoria.'

Ball's Yarra Glen Football Club teammates will join him in the march, along with Victoria Police, Marriage Equality Australia and many other groups.