Continuing our look back over the many different news stories of the year, let’s focus on what happened in February.

Politics

Having lost the marriage equality fight, Lyle Shelton resigned as Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby and announced he would run for parliament, a few days later he revealed he was joining Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives, in one of his first interviews as the Australian Conservatives spokesperson he said he’d like to see the marriage laws changed back. Nationals party leader Barnaby Joyce complained about people talking about his private life after a newspaper revealed he was having a child with his former staffer, Joyce resigned from his position soon after. Michael McCormack became the new leader and concern was raised about his history of homophobic comments, Concern was raised that the Ruddock Religious Freedom Review was being conducted in secret, PFLAG WA also raised concerns after appearing before the panel, Michael Kirby said he worried the review would try to wind back anti-discrimination laws, and it was suggested that Philip Ruddock should stand down from the review, the WA government was urged to look into the issue of discrimination in schools, the Historical Homosexual Convictions Bill passed the lower house of the WA parliament, Senator Dean Smith became the patron of PFLAG WA,

In the News

Transgender woman CJ Palmer was sentenced to six years in prison for passing on HIV to another person, which raised questions about whether the laws are outdated, Figures revealed almost 400 Australian same-sex couples got married within the first month of marriage equality being a reality, Anti-marriage equality campaigner Margaret Court complained that she was being bullied by fierce gays, Indonesia moved to have homosexuality classified as a mental disorder, Greens senator Janet Rice raised concerns, later an Indonesian MP says gay people should be executed, ASEAN nations urge Indonesia not to criminalise homosexuality,   Christine Forster and Virginia Flitcroft got married, marriage equality came to the Jersey Islands, In the USA Fox News pulls an online article that complained there were too many gay athletes in the US Winter Olympics team, PrEP is put forward for listing on the PBS, a Malaysian newspaper publishes a ‘How to Spot Gays‘ article, a man who was arrested for protesting at Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival vows to return in 2019 with a megaphone, Perth’s new Youth Pride Network launched, the health department said it had no plans to find a replacement hormone treatment for trans men after a popular brand was removed from the PBS, the Australian Christian Lobby described a drag performance in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall as live pornography. The state government suspended the City of Perth council.

Celebrity

Boxer Anthony Mundine shared his view that homosexuality should attract capital punishment penalties, actor Craig McLachlan filed defamation proceedings against publications that had suggested he had acted inappropriately while playing Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, Courtney Act won Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, there were rumours the Spice Girls were reforming – we’d have to wait another nine months for it to be official, Frazier actor John Mahoney passed away, Producer Quincy Jones claims a string of well known Hollywood icons were gay, Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson died aged 48, Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black announce their starting a family, actor Jeffrey Tambor was fired from Transparent, Joel Creasey said gay men need to get over their body obsession, Stephen Fry revealed he’d been treated for prostate cancer,   

Culture

We went out and reviewed hundreds of Fringe World shows, Fringe performers complained about late night homophobic threats of violence on the streets of Northbridge, Kylie Minogue released her bootscootin’ Dancing video, the musical American Idiot opened at the Crown Theatre- when the show moved to Melbourne leading man Linden Furnell was sacked for making inappropriate comments to a colleague, we chatted to Perfume Genius, 80’s pop star Kim Wilde released new music, William Yang was in town for the Perth Writers Festival, photographer Richard Hedger released his book capturing Mardi Gras memories, British drag star Velma Celli visited, we chatted to the man behind Mrs Brown’s Boys, Delta Goodrem got a bit sexy with her tune Think About You (The Look Book), Club Swizzle host Reuben Kaye did a one-night-only solo show, we chatted to Louise Post from Veruca Salt, Damon Herriman told us about his role in Riot, Stefan Elliot answered questions about his new film starring Swinging Safari and Elska magazine announced they were heading to Perth.       

Take a look at what happened in January.