Two brothers have admitted attacking a lesbian couple and calling them ‘dykes’ on a night out in Burton town centre. (more…)

The Westboro Baptist Church – notorious for its ‘God Hates Fags’ protests – has announced it will picket the graduation of Constance McMillen, who was prevented from attending her school prom with her girlfriend. (more…)

A new support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans doctors in Ireland will hold its first annual general meeting next month. (more…)

A Tory candidate has been sacked after writing a blog in which he described being gay as “not normal”. (more…)

The first ever mainstream gay film festival is being held in India this week. (more…)

The British government has apologised to the Vatican following the leaking of a “foolish” internal memo suggesting that the Pope could bless a gay marriage during his forthcoming trip to the UK. (more…)

The top boss of Brighton Police will take part in Stonewall’s Equality Walk in the city this weekend. (more…)

Where many gay couples in Texas are fighting for the right to have their unions recognised by the state, one couple is fighting to get theirs dissolved.

Due to a legal loophole,  a Texas-based lesbian former couple have been told by the courts that they cannot get a divorce  - even though it doesn’t recognise their marriage. Angelique Naylor and Sabina Daly got married in Massachussets, where gay marriage is legal but by the time they separated three years ago, they had moved to Texas. They had initially been given a divorce by a judge in Austin, but Texas Attorney Greg Abbott has overruled the decision, claiming that it would undermine ”traditional definition of marriage”.

The two women share responsibility not only for their son, but also their business. Talking about their struggle to The Daily Telegraph Naylor, who initiated divorce proceedings, describes divorce as a “courtesy” that the state should be in a position to offer them.

The Conservative shadow minister for Defence has declared that the age of consent for gay men should be raised from 16 to 18 because he believes that younger men should be protected from ‘dangerous’ sexual practices. (more…)

A lesbian couple from Brighton have become the first gay couple to be jointly named on their child’s birth certificate. (more…)

President Barack Obama has ordered US hospitals to give same-sex partners the same visitation rights as straight partners and family members.

The mandate will apply to any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding, which is almost all hospitals.

It also states that a gay person can act as a legal surrogate if their partner becomes incapacitated.

“Gay and lesbian Americans are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives – unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated,” said Obama.

“[A]ll too often, people are made to suffer or even to pass away alone, denied the comfort of companionship in their final moments while a loved one is left worrying and pacing down the hall.”

The mandate will become law within a few months, according to government officials.

US star Jennifer Knapp, a Grammy-nominated evangelical folk singer, has come out as gay and in a relationship. (more…)

A Ugandan MP who is trying to impose the death penalty for gay people in Uganda will be banned from entering the UK if the law passes. (more…)

Former presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has said allowing gay marriage in America would be comparable to legalising polygamy, incest and drug use.

The Republican told a New Jersey student magazine that lifestyles which don’t fit “the ideal” should not necessarily be accommodated in society.

“That would be like saying, well there’s there are a lot of people who like to use drugs so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, should we accommodate them?” he said.

“Why do you get to choose that two men are OK but one man and three women aren’t OK?” he added.

Huckabee, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, also said that gay couples should not be allowed to adopt, saying “children are not puppies”.

The politician has since accused the student magazine of sensationalising his “well known and hardly unusual views of same-sex marriage”.

In 1992, he called homosexuality “an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle” and has previously supported an Arkansas policy which prevented same-sex couples from serving as foster parents.

The famous annual street party for Brighton Pride has been cancelled after £10,000 suspiciously vanished from its budget. Sussex Police have confirmed that a 33-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of theft and fraud. He remains on police bail until 25 June, pending further enquiries. No other details have been released. (more…)

The Conservatives will consider ending the ban on same-sex marriage if elected into Government, according to the Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

Mr Osborne met gay rights campaigners Peter Tatchell, Tamsin Omond and Deborah Grayson just before a gay flashmob picketed the Conservative Party HQ on Sunday.

He told them that party leader David Cameron would be “very happy to consider the case for gay marriage” – meaning that couples in a civil partnership could legally say that they were married.

Mr Tatchell said the 50-minute meeting with Osborne and fellow Tory frontbenchers Theresa May and Nick Herbert showed the Tories had “good intentions” but were “weak on coherent policy”.

“It was positive that they met us but disappointing that they had nothing to tell us,” he said.

“George Osborne was full of good intentions but very weak on very specific gay rights policies.”

“The best he could do on gay marriage was say he would consider it.”

A Populus poll for The Times last summer found that 61% of the general public believe that lesbian and gay couples should be allowed to get married in a registry office, like their heterosexual counterparts.

Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is using a new form of pest control that involves turning moths gay. (more…)

A nightclub owner in Leicester is planning to create an unofficial gay quarter in the city centre. (more…)

A crowd of people showed up outside the Conservative Party headquarters in London yesterday, for a protest with a difference. Advertising itself as a ‘gay flash mob’, LGBT film distributors Peccadillo Pictures were handing out free copies of their film, The Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror, in protest at MP Chris Grayling’s support of The Swiss Bed and Breakfast, whose owners refused entry to a gay couple.

Simon Savory, who helped organise the event, said that although the film was billed as a ‘horror comedy’, ”it is nowhere near as horrifying and unfunny as the opinions and ideals of the Cookham B&B owners”. Copies of the film were also sent to Mr Grayling and the Cooksons, who own the B&B in question, as well as to David Cameron. Whether or not the potential future Prime Minister enjoyed the film is left unanswered – as of this morning, he was unavailable to comment.

Peccadillo Pictures, who describe themselves as “not afraid to get political every so often”, are the distribution company behind the gender-bending romcom-with-a-difference, Butch Jamie, and this year’s London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival hit, Along Came Lola. Today also sees the release of their widely acclaimed lesbian drama,  Producing Adults.

The UK’s next general election is in less than a month’s time, writes Kim Renfrew. So which party will be most likely to stand up for your rights as a lesbian or bisexual woman?

Here’s a cut out ‘n’ keep guide to the major (and a couple of minor) parties’ take on LGBT matters, in terms of representation, policy and numbers. And on 7 May, you can always use it to play top trumps.
(more…)

A student who was banned from taking her girlfriend to the prom has been sent to a hoax prom by fellow students.

Constance McMillen, 18, made international headlines when school officials cancelled the official prom after refusing to let her bring her girlfriend to the event.

A US federal judge ruled that the ban violated Ms McMillen’s constitutional rights – but didn’t force the school to reinstate the prom, because it was understood that Ms McMillen would be invited to an alternative prom being organised by parents.

Instead, Ms McMillen and her date were sent to a country club event with five other students – while the rest of her class partied at a secret location.

“They had two proms and I was only invited to one of them,” Ms McMillen told The Advocate.

“The one I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to.”

Ms McMillen added that two of the students invited to the hoax prom had learning difficulties. “They had the time of their lives,” she said. “That’s the one good thing to come out of this, [these students] didn’t have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom].”

The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) has now invited Ms McMillen to its 33rd anniversary “lesbian prom” next month in San Francisco. The NCLR say it will pay for Ms McMillen’s travel costs to the event which attracts up to 2,000 people, and give her “a weekend she’ll never forget”.

Conservative Party leader David Cameron has been invited to a ‘coming out street party’ by lesbian environmental activist Tamsin Omond and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. (more…)

The female founder of the Conservative Party’s LGBTory group has spoken out against the party and pledged to give her vote in the forthcoming General Election to the Labour Party instead. (more…)

Chile’s Supreme Court has been rebuked for ordering a woman to hand over her children to her estranged husband because she was in a lesbian relationship. (more…)

Ahead of next month’s General Election on 6 May, Stonewall has published a detailed list of how all MPs have voted on gay rights issues. (more…)

Tennis ace Martina Navratilova has been diagnosed with breast cancer, according to reports. (more…)

Landmark legal changes came into force yesterday, which will greatly affect gay parents who have children through surrogacy. (more…)

A senior Conservative MP has voiced his support for the right of bed and breakfast owners to stop same-sex couples from staying in their properties.

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, was secretly recorded by the Observer newspaper stating that he believed that Christians, as well as the followers of other faiths, should be able to turn away lesbian and gay people who wanted to stay at their establishments.

He said: “If you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it’s a question of somebody who’s doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn’t come into their own home.”

Under the Equality Act, no business is allowed refuse goods or services to someone on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Grayling said that he did not believe the law should be changed, but that it should be a matter of “conscience” for individual B&B owners.

He said he believed that hotels, however, should be forced to admit same-sex couples: “If they are running a hotel on the high street, I really don’t think that it is right in this day and age that a gay couple should walk into a hotel and be turned away because they are a gay couple, and I think that is where the dividing line comes.”

For many gay rights campaigners, Grayling’s comment raises questions about the Conservative Party’s recent LGBT-friendly stance. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said the comments would be “alarming to a lot of gay people who may have been thinking of voting Conservative,” while Peter Tatchell says that the MP should retract his comments.

A senior Conservative MP has voiced his support for the right of bed and breakfast owners to stop same-sex couples from staying in their properties.

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, was secretly recorded by the Observer newspaper stating that he believed that Christians, as well as the followers of other faiths, should be able to turn away lesbian and gay people who wanted to stay at their establishments.

He said: “If you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it’s a question of somebody who’s doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn’t come into their own home.”

Under the Equality Act, no business is allowed refuse goods or services to someone on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Grayling said that he did not believe the law should be changed, but that it should be a matter of “conscience” for individual B&B owners.

He said he believed that hotels, however, should be forced to admit same-sex couples: “If they are running a hotel on the high street, I really don’t think that it is right in this day and age that a gay couple should walk into a hotel and be turned away because they are a gay couple, and I think that is where the dividing line comes.”

For many gay rights campaigners, Grayling’s comment raises questions about the Conservative Party’s recent LGBT-friendly stance. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said the comments would be “alarming to a lot of gay people who may have been thinking of voting Conservative,” while Peter Tatchell says that the MP should retract his comments.

A guide has been launched to give lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people housing advice. (more…)

Anna Paquin, the Oscar-winning child star of The Pianist and currently on TV screens in True Blood, announced yesterday: “I’m a bisexual and I give a damn.” (more…)

Cher’s son Chaz Bono has asked a Los Angeles judge to formally change his name and gender.

The gay rights campaigner was born Chastity Sun Bono and lived as a lesbian for 20 years. He began his transition in March 2009 and now wants to be known as Chaz Salvatore Bono, according to a petition filed earlier this week. (more…)

Home secretary Alan Johnson has called on victims of anti-gay hate crime to “blow the whistle” and report the abuse. (more…)

A nursery manager who said allegations of child cruelty were made against her because of her sexuality has been cleared of all charges. (more…)