What has been consistent throughout this entire process, is that there has been strong community support. All the polling indicates that there is strong community support for change to the Marriage Act to enable gay and lesbian couples to marry. Indeed, it was raised with me the other day, "What about trans people, and intersex people?" If you have a transgender person who hasn't transitioned to the extent that Kevin did, in that case of Kevin and Jennifer, then can they marry? The answer is that it's a grey area. As for intersex people, depending on how they identify, are they truly "of that gender" and are they entitled to marry? I don't know the answer to that. There's an old case that essentially says "If you are a hermaphrodite, then tough luck."

In terms of intersex people, we know that intersex people get married, but their marriages may not be valid. I think that this is just really rough, whereas if you remove that discrimination - I know I'm preaching to the converted - but if you remove that discrimination, you say that "adults can marry other adults." You still keep all the rules about consanguinity - so, you can't marry your father, for instance. All that discrimination goes out the door.

I don't think the issue has gone. We have the Government saying "Well, we'll have a plebiscite." There was discussion about a referendum, but of course we know that, as a matter of law, it can't be a referendum, despite what Scott Morrison said. It has got to be a plebiscite, but what concerns me is whether Liberal Party politicians will be able to have a free say in the running of the plebiscite. Are they going to be told, "We've got a party policy that says we're against this, so therefore you vote against it." If that happens, it will doom it. Then, a conservative Prime Minister will come along and say, "Well, it's been doomed by plebiscite," and the change will never happen.

I think a fundamental of any plebiscite - and I don't see that there is a need for one, I might add - if our politicians actually showed the gumption of what is reflected consistently by the polls, it would just be legislated. It didn't take that much effort to change the Marriage Act in 2002 - there was nowhere near as much controversy back then as there is now. If we are to be burdened by a plebiscite, then that plebiscite needs to ensure that the politicians of both major parties are not burdened by party rules - that they are able to vote with their conscience."

Wil: "It seems that most people outside of the LGBTI community think that marriage equality is the be all and end all - what are some other legal issues that you think the LGBTI community faces?"

Stephen: "I'm going to work backwards first. When I went to that award, the Queen's Ball award, it made me reflect on what changes have happened. In 2000, the first baby steps happened. There was an industrial award that, for the first time, allowed a man or a woman to take time off to be with their same sex partner. That was an extraordinary development, and we didn't know at the time whether there'd be rioting..."

Jocelyn: "... or the apocalypse..."

Stephen: "... or mass chaos, that kind of thing - cats and dogs living together... But that change managed to go through, and then there was some extraordinary change. We saw, in Queensland, within a couple of years, virtually all discrimination go, under state legislation - it was just amazing. Within a few years, with Kevin Rudd getting elected, there were about 100 pieces of Commonwealth legislation that were then altered. Largely, Commonwealth legislation doesn't discriminate, which I think is great, but there's unfortunately still discrimination at state level.

Across the country, it's not consistent. For example, if you're a gay couple in Brisbane, and you want to make a baby, you can access surrogacy. If you're a gay or lesbian couple in Adelaide, you can't. If you are a single man in the ACT, you can't - sexuality doesn't matter, but you cannot be single. So, we see discrimination in various states when it comes to family formation. In WA and South Australia, there is quite clear discrimination. In South Australia, only married or de facto heterosexual couples can access surrogacy - so singles, and gay or lesbian couples can't. In Western Australia - bizarrely - married or de facto heterosexual couples, lesbian couples and single women can access surrogacy, but gay couples and single men can't. Go figure.

Four jurisdictions - and Queensland is one of them - discriminate on the basis of sexuality when it comes to adoption, so that's got to go. Tim Wilson, the Human Rights Commissioner, he has written an excellent report which sets out the 'shopping list' of things that have got to change, which for Queensland includes the differential age of consent. Typically, the age of consent is 16 years old, but for anal sex it's 18 years old. How did that come about?

Prior to the Fitzgerald Report, it was all sodomy and illegal for men to have sex with other men, as a result of which, men were getting blackmailed, so this was the basis for corruption. Fitzgerald said to get rid of it. Wayne Goss, in 1990, brought those changes in, and he copied what Neville Wran had done, which was from the age of 18 years. Everyone has moved on, but Queensland hasn't moved on since 1990. We have, unfortunately, gay teenagers who are having sex with each other, and putting themselves at risk of being charged as sex offenders, even though they are having consensual sex between the ages of 16-18 years old.

Other discrimination we've seen is the 'gay panic' defence, expungement of prior criminal convictions for gay sex - those are two that stand out. If you go to our Anti-Discrimination Act, it has specific exceptions for religious schools that employ teachers. The deal that Peter Beattie did, to get through his anti-discrimination legislation in 2002, was to let that exception go through because the Catholic church got all upset about it. There are any number of gay and lesbian teachers employed in Catholic schools who could lose their job because of that exception.

There is also an exception for Assisted Reproductive Treatment (ART), or IVF, so it is lawful, under our state legislation, for an IVF clinic to say "We're not going to treat you because you're a gay couple." We've seen that happen in the past: Queensland Fertility Group was sued by a lesbian who wanted IVF treatment. It went to the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal, she was successful. QFG appealed to the Supreme Court and they were successful, so she was declined treatment. Terrible outcome. I'm pleased to say that QFG and other clinics do not discriminate - I think they've learnt the lesson. But the legislation is still there, and it ought to go.

Another thing is that, if you talk about when families split up, thirty years ago it was common to see women separating from their husbands and getting the care of the children. Then they find another woman, and there would be an order that they couldn't spend time with the other woman in the presence of the children. There are a number of reported cases where they would give an undertaking to the court that they would not do it, and they breached the undertaking - surprise, surprise. One of the things that was taken to account was whether or not there was a homosexual lifestyle which "placed the children at risk." I'm pleased to say that the family law courts have moved way past that now.