When the rain got bad everyone sheltered under the trees taking the picnic with them, luckily the downpour didn’t last long.

George Allawi, 18, a youth worker said: “I don’t think rain will stop us now and I don’t think it will stop us next week at Pride.”

George will be one of the speakers at Saturday’s Pride event in Trafalgar Square, discussing issues affecting young LGBT people.

Tony Vasiliou, 19, who studies at London Southbank University said of the picnic:

“It is quite a chilled way to start the evening, this is just the start of my night.”

Tony said he did not know that many people there, but said: “It’s fine, I like mingling and meeting new people.”

The picnic was organised by OutZone, a group for young men in London, and its sister group Girl Diva, for young women, along with help from other London groups including Mosaic, from Brent, and ELOP from East London.

OutZone, which has just celebrated its 10th anniversary, will have a float next week at the London Pride parade next week.

21st century gay teenagers are certainly not lacking in confidence and many said they would be attending Pride London and were looking forward to the joining in the parade.

The large-scale poll, commissioned by Dublin-based gay magazine Gay Community News, sheds light on a community previously ignored in statistical terms.

Editor of GCN Brian Finnegan said the survey revealed a “two-tier world” in which, on the one hand, gay people are highly educated, professional, earning good money and leading fulfilled lives.

“But there is another world where this group are faced with inequality in society in terms of the law which leads to the situation where 50 per cent are not comfortable being out in the workplace.

“It is only when the law changes that they will begin to have the confidence to be out and feel comfortable in all parts of society.” he said.

Ian Johnson of Out Now, the international consultants which carried out the survey, agrees.

“Think of all that energy being wasted keeping your sexuality a secret from your employer or your colleagues, energy that could be devoted to your job. We should be alarmed.”

The survey also covered what earnings were spent on, relationship and family status and whether they would legally formalise their relationships given the chance.

GCN commissioned the survey to show advertisers the value of the pink euro and results show the estimated earnings of the gay community in Ireland comes to €8.75 billion before tax each year.

“Money really does talk,” said Finnegan.

“Gay liberation only grounded itself when the ‘pink pound’ emerged and the sector began to be identified as a marketing niche. It advanced our community in a way that grassroots political education could never have done.”

A significant amount of earnings is spent on grooming and clothes but the average spending on alcohol is more than both combined.

Though only 50% were out to everyone in the workplace, 60% were out to family and nearly 80% to friends.

If the law changed 90% would be keen to legally formalise their relationships and as many as 10% of respondents have children.

The survey’s findings were mostly very positive for a country that only decriminalised homosexuality 14 years ago.

In those 14 years the Irish gay scene has evolved remarkably fast with Pride marches up and down the country and next year the gay rugby world championships being held in Dublin.

Clapham Junction, starring Rupert Graves and James Wilby, will be broadcast in July as part of Channel Four’s season to mark the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

The drama, by playwright Kevin Elyot, also features actors Paul Nicholas and Samantha Bond.

It is a 36 hour snapshot of the mixed experiences of gay men in London.

From a civil partnership ceremony to a dinner party, five separate stories are woven into the fabric of modern day London from school and work, to bars and clubs in one hot summer in the capital.

When the middle class dinner party is interrupted by the arrival of police on Clapham Common to investigate a reported attack, the characters are drawn together with devastating effect.

Two men kicked, punched and stamped 24-year-old Jody Dobrowski to death on Clapham Common in October 2005 because he was gay.

The pair were later sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey.

“While there seems to be a greater acceptance of gays in society – consent equality, civil partnerships, higher media visibility, homophobic violence has not disappeared,” said Clapham Junction writer Kevin Elyot.

“Bigotry is still bubbling just below the surface and sometimes in the most surprising quarters.

Clapham Junction follows the stories of several groups of characters one hot summer’s night throughout London and across class divides.”

Elyot is best known as the author of the ground-breaking 1994 play My Night With Reg, which was one of the first productions to successfully engage audiences with the growth HIV and AIDS in the UK and won him an Olivier award.

Liza Marshall, Head of Channel 4 Drama says: “To mark this defining anniversary in gay politics, Kevin was keen to ask the pertinent question – how tolerant is society and why is homophobic violence on the rise?”

A week of programming in July to mark the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales will also include The Last Gay Trial, How Gay Sex Changed the World and Queer As Old Folk.

It is the only LGBT organisation to be honoured this way in 2007 and is only the second since the award was set up.

LGBT helpline Oxford Friend won the award last year.

LLGS, the UK’s biggest helpline dealing with LGBT issues, received the award in recognition of its history of providing confidential and non-judgemental listening, support, information and referrals for people across the UK.

“We are delighted to be chosen for the Queen’s Award.” said Steve Wilkinson, co-chair of London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard.

“Since our inception in March 1974, we’ve provided a vital service for gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, as well as their friends and families. Receiving this accolade is a recognition of our volunteers’ hard work and our ongoing place in the LGBT community.”

The award also recognises the work that LLGS has been doing on the Turing Project, a network to share information with other gay organisations across the country.

The Turing Project website at www.queery.org.uk provides a web-based database of venues, organisation and services for the LGBT community.

The award began in 2002 to mark The Queen’s Golden Jubilee, and emphasises the importance of continuing recognition of voluntary and community work. There were 71 winners in 2007.

Winning groups receive a certificate signed by The Queen and a commemorative piece of crystal for display at the group’s main place of operation. The Awards are presented on behalf of The Queen by the local Lord-Lieutenant or Lieutenant-Governor.

CiC have published a fact sheet of problems affecting men and what employers can do to help.

Men are traditionally seen as the dependable ones who support others but men don’t seem to be looking after themselves all that well.

HIV and AIDS affects 40,000 men in the UK over twice the number of women affected.

The most common cause of death for men aged between 15 and 44 years old is suicide.

Cardiovascular disease is the second most common problem. Over 1.5 million men living in the UK are estimated to have had either angina or a heart attack.

Over 30,000 men in the UK are diagnosed each year with prostate cancer, many of whom live with it for many years with or without treatment.

These problems may in part be blamed on unhealthy lifestyles of many men in UK, studies have found that two in five men drink too much, more than one in four smoke, and one in three younger men use illegal drugs.

According to CiC, employers can help by encouraging men to think about their lifestyles and also be more open with each other.

Despite the many health problems, men are much less likely to consult a doctor than women and think that seeking assistance shows weakness.

Pink’s is supported by a number of major organisations including the NUS and Stonewall. The first edition will feature a foreword by Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill.

The magazine is co-written by students and will provide inspirational and impartial careers advice to the LGBT student and graduate community.

Pink’s is produced by Arberry Pink, the diversity careers specialist behind leading titles such as KAL, Number Ten and The Arberry Profile.

Prospective employers and training scheme providers will be able to use Pink’s to directly reach and communicate with students from this under-represented talent pool.

The first edition will feature articles on how to get into investment banking, law, and the retail industry to name but a few.

Major employers and training scheme providers who have already advertised include Barclays Capital, Simmons and Simmons and TeachFirst.

Pink’s will be a bi-annual magazine, with 10,000 copies printed for the launch edition and 20,000 digital copies sent by e-mail.

It will be distributed to all UK university careers services, university LGBT groups and societies, university LGBT officers, Student Union Groups and Lesbian and Gay business associations, as well as MBA schools and Connexions centres.

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and Congressman Barney Frank wrote in the letter that they were very concerned by reports that “Iraqi homosexuals have been systematically persecuted in Iraq under a violent campaign led by Islamic groups and militias.”

The Iraqi people, they wrote, had adopted a constitution that guaranteed “life, security and liberty” for everyone yet this does not seem to have been the case for LGBT Iraqis who live in constant fear of execution.

Baldwin and Frank asked Secretary Rice to raise the issue and express her concerns to Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, while urging the Iraqi government to step up its protection of LGBT Iraqis and stop these senseless attacks by militias.

The letter mentioned news reports that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the chief spiritual leader of Iraqi Shia Muslims, issued a fatwa, or religiously-inspired legal pronouncement, in October 2005, calling for death for all gays and lesbians in “the most severe way possible.”

While the fatwa was eventually removed from Sistani’s website, it was never revoked, and the fatwa has led to the deployment of anti-gay death squads by the military arm of the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq.

As a result there was a surge in violence against LGBT Iraqis in 2006.

A report by the Institute for War and Peace also documented that religious courts are now believed to exist in Iraq where homosexuals are sentenced to death and executed under the supervision of clerics.

Iraqi LGBT, a London-based human rights group, said that twenty-six of its members have been killed in Iraq since 2003, including the murder of two minors, eleven-year-old Ameer and fourteen-year-old Ahmed, who were forced into child prostitution in 2006.

In April of this year, Iraqi LGBT said that eight additional murders took place in 2007, while several other gay activists were arrested and tortured.

The letter urged Rice to use every available diplomatic tool to engage with the Iraqi Prime Minister and President and to call on the Iraqi government to crack down on the systematic persecution of LGBT Iraqis.

The demonstration, organised by the British Youth Council (BYC) was well attended with organisers saying that at least 70 people came for the two hour event.

Young activists including young gay Polish people who now live in Britain and activists from Scotland took part.

They were joined by Derek Lennard, the UK organiser of IDAHO.

“The Polish government has shown a complete disregard for human rights,” said Mr Lennard.

Peter Tatchell of Outrage! and Sarah Ludford, Lib Dem MEP, also made speeches.

Peter Tatchell compared the way lesbian and gay people have been scapegoated in Poland with the way Jewish people were scapegoated in Poland during World War 2.

Lukasz Konieczka, 23, a gay man from Poland who now runs Mosaic Youth an LGBT group in Brent, said that new legislation in the Polish parliament was bad for everyone as it prevented teaching children about safe sex.

“STIs are likely to go up in the next few years. There will be no such thing as sex education,” he said.

The event, while not a loud demo, (police in attendance had warned organisers to keep it quiet), did bring together a wide range of protesters, including several elderly people and a some activists with mohawks.

Maeve McGoldrick, 23, BYC Campaigns intern and organiser of the event was delighted by the turnout.

“It really sums up how we need to do something,” she said.

Ms McGoldrick is from Ireland and said that the demo was being mirrored in Dublin with the Irish NUS protesting outside the Polish embassy there.

A clothes line of letters written by people in attendance at the demo was hung up outside the embassy on Portland Place.

BT’s recent online customer survey, despite being only two questions long, managed to offend twice with possible answers: “pronounced husband and wife” to the first question and “scoring a date with the opposite sex” for the second, with no gay equivalent.

Daniel Lee, 43, a customer of the telecoms giant and PinkNews.co.uk reader, decided not to ignore the matter.

He called BT, only to be rebuffed by the complaints department who Lee said told him it was “irrelevant” and would not pass him onto to anyone in authority despite him asking them three times.

Mr Lee continued to pursue the matter with BT.

“Discrimination is wrong and often continues because its victims decide to do nothing about it,” he explained to PinkNews.co.uk

He was passed onto the designers of the survey, eDigital Research, who said: .

“The questions were provided by BT. Please accept our apologies if any offence has been caused.

“Unfortunately our contact for BT is away on annual leave today.” said Chris Russell of eDigital said in an email to Mr Lee.

BT did finally apologise to Mr Lee over the issue but he is still not satisfied.

“All I wanted was a timely response from BT, a genuine one not spurred by media to try to quiet me from a press conference.” he said.

PinkNews spoke to BT representative Leslie King who believed the matter had been resolved.

When asked about the negative response when Lee first complained King said “We never did get to the bottom of that.”

Mr King said that the survey had finished now, when told it was still accessible online he said “It should have been taken down.”

Mr Lee said that at present he is considering suing BT over how he has been treated perhaps making use of recent discrimination legislation that he said, “ironically came into effect less than three hours before my initial call to BT.”

BT’s survey was closed yesterday.

The “Family Day” rally in St John Lateran piazza drew people from across Italy. The protest was organised by lay Catholic groups and family associations but not formally backed by the Vatican.

The legislation proposed by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s centre-left Cabinet stops short of legalising gay marriage, as has occurred in Spain and other European countries.

It would give unmarried couples who live together to rights including hospital visits and inheritance.

“Living together is not family,” one of the protestors Anna Manara, 58, told the International Herald Tribune.

“Other models make it easier to be together and therefore end up making it less valuable.”

Figures vary widely as to the number of protesters on Saturday. Organisers claim it was as many as half a million while police at the piazza estimated about 250,000.

The demonstrators, including many children and grandparents were entertained throughout the day with singers, speakers, clowns, stilt walkers and even a video of the late John Paul II.

The “Family Day” has proven embarrassing for the government, with at least two ministers taking part, while other coalition politicians attending the counter-demonstration.

Many opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, attended the pro-family rally.

Pope Benedict XVI sent a clear message from Brazil, on the eve of the rally, saying popular culture promoted sexual immorality and destroyed the sanctity of marriage.

In a speech to the region’s bishops, he also decried what he called the “plague” of extramarital unions.

The pope said recently. “Only on the rock of marital love between a man and a woman, solid and faithful, can we build a community worthy of a human being.”

“The concept of traditional family is an anachronistic one,” said 33-year-old Alessandro Rotondi, speaking at the counter-demonstration in a piazza two miles from the pro-family rally.

He dismissed the idea that the bill would deal a blow to families, saying: “The problems for a family today have to do with job insecurity or difficulties in finding a home.”

The event, organised by the British Youth Council (BYC) with the support of Outrage! will be part of events in over 50 countries to show a united international stand against gay hate.

Poland is being targeted because of attitudes within the country and also because of new legislation the government there is trying to bring in which is likely to encourage homophobia in schools.

“We condemn rising homophobia in Poland and the increased persecution of Poland’s lesbian and gay citizens,” said David Allison of OutRage!.

“Poland’s new Education Bill includes a Section 28-style clause that will outlaw any objective, factual or sympathetic mention of homosexuality in schools. It is feared that gay teachers may be sacked.”

Earlier this year Polish junior education minister, Miroslaw Orzechowski, told a recent press conference that the new law will: “punish whoever promotes homosexuality or any other deviance of a sexual nature in educational establishments.”

Last month members of European Parliament called on the Polish government to abandon the homophobic clause in the new Education Bill, which outlaws the so-called “promotion” of homosexuality in schools.

“Polish government ministers refused point blank to accept or debate these criticisms,” said gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage!, who will join Thursday’s protest.

Derek Lennard, IDAHO UK Coordinator added:

“It is extremely important to stand up for the human rights of victimised people in a neighbouring European country. We have to ensure that the Polish lesbian and gay community is not discriminated against by its government.”

“We urge everyone who feels strongly about Polish homophobia to join us on 17 May,” he said.

The protest is to take place between 12noon and 2pm outside the Polish Embassy, 47 Portland Place, London W1B 1JH (nearest tube Oxford Circus).

Last week State Duma Deputy Alexey Mitrofanov said the event should be allowed to go ahead.

To show his support Mitrofanov will be attending a press conference tomorrow, where Pride organisers will give details of the event.

Official notification of the proposed march in the city centre was delivered this morning to the office of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

Mayor Luzhkov banned the Moscow Pride event planned for May last year. Gay rights activist defied the ban, despite large numbers of vigilantes, tear gas and riot police.

The Mayor has already indicated that he will not permit this month’s march.

The march on 27th May, the day of the 14th anniversary since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Russia , is planned to start close to Moscow’s main Post Office at 3pm.

President Putin is being asked to permit a small-scale event between 1 and 2pm in Alexandrovsky Garden next to Kremlin Walls.

“This year it will be attended not only by foreign but also Russian politicians and famous mainstream human rights activists.” said Nicolas Alexeyev, Moscow Pride organiser.

“We welcome the participation not only of homosexual people but also of heterosexuals who share the principles of respect for the rights and liberties of all people irrespective of their personal characteristics.”

Mr Alexeyev was arrested last year by police when he and other campaigners including Peter Tatchell defied the ban on the Pride march by gathering by the Kremlin in Manezhnaya Square.

Tony Warren is the original writer of Coronation Street, one of the nations best loved soaps.

He revealed that the gay voices he heard on the streets made their way into the sharp-tounged female dialogue for which the soap is famed.

Mr Warren told an audience in Manchester that he came out before decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 and suffered abuse from other staff at Granada studios.

Speaking at a debate about whether Corrie is now the ‘queerest soap of them all’, Warren described the prejudice he had to put up with.

“On one occasion I sat there and listened and listened until I got to my feet and said, “I have sat here and listened to three poof jokes, an actor described as a poof, a storyline described as too poofy, and I would just like to remind you that without a poof you wouldn’t be in work.”

“One of them said, “but Tony, we didn’t mean you.”

“I said. “You call my brothers, you call me”.”

From then on he said: “I never pretended to anyone that I was anything other than what I am,” he said, according to the Manchester Evening News.

The debate, at Manchester’s Cornerhouse cinema, also featured current Corrie writers Jonathan Harvey and Damon Rochefort, as well as the soap’s Antony Cotton, who plays camp underwear factory worker Sean Tully.

When the show first began in 1960 it would have been unthinkable to have a gay character.

This didn’t prevent Warren putting language heard in Manchester’s gay village into the mouths of characters such as Elsie Tanner.

He said: “The gay village is not new. I’d known all these queens in the village.

“Some of them were sensational. I remember giving Elsie lines they would say.

“When you think of some of the things she came out with, how many straight women have you heard say that?”

When asked if Corrie is now the queerest soap of them all, Warren said: “Maybe now, yes. But we lagged disgracefully behind for a long time.

“But now, we’re hopefully queer enough,” he remarked, according to the Manchester Evening News.

In spite of a massive gay fan base the soap was well behind many other British soaps until 2003 when Todd Grimshaw finally kissed Nick Tilsley, played by gay pin-up and Tory candidate Adam Rickitt. Even then Todd was the only gay on the street.

Recorded and produced by young people as part of the youth section of Pride London, the podcasts aim to help others understand their identity.

The podcast Straight Talking: another perspective has been produced and presented by Ryan Haynes, and Bindya Solanki, who appears on BBC Asian Network.

It can be downloaded from the pridelondon.org website.

“We hope young people will tune into the podcast to get an idea of Youth@Pride activities,” said Haynes.

The first podcast visited the 21st London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival at the BFI, talking to directors and writers about LGBT representation in film.

The programme also has a discussion with seven young LGBT people under 25 about their experiences of gender and sexuality.

“When I get called poof – at least I walk down the road with pride about it” said one confident young person in the first podcast.

Haynes hopes other young people will contribute to the series of podcasts. “We’d like people participating through email, or submitting features and discussions of their own.” he said.

The move further into digital media space is part of a wider effort to get Pride London to reach out more people.

There will be live shows on 104.4fm or www.Resonancefm.com in the lead up to Pride London from this Sunday.

Haynes is looking for LGBT people under 30 to contribute to the show which in the first week will be looking at the issue of over-hyped celebrity sexuality.

The Pride festival will climax with a parade through central London on 30th June 2007, expected to attract over 500,000 visitors.

Shumain Raj, 31, and Shahzina Tariq, 26, married last year, however last week Raj appeared in court to complain about threats from his wife’s relatives, according to a judge Mohammed Sharif.

A warrant was issued on Wednesday by the Lahore High Court after the medics charged with examining Raj submitted their report.

Ejaz Bhatty, a senior doctor who led the medical team told the Khaleej Times that the court medics concluded: “all the evidence supports that the person in question is a woman.”

Raj had told the medics he went to a doctor 16 years ago after noticing his voice had changed and he had started growing facial hair.

Later the same doctor had recommended gender reassignment surgery and had operated on Raj, removing her breasts and uterus.

Judge Sharif said that Raj had appeared in court last week, giving a sworn statement that he was a man and complaining that his wife’s relatives and the police were threatening them with “dire consequences” if they didn’t divorce.

The court had then called the bride’s father, Tariq Hussain, who testified that Raj was a woman.

Hussain urged the court to annul Raj’s September marriage to his 26-year-old daughter, Shahzina Tariq, saying it was against Islam.

The court ordered the pair arrested on suspicion of making a false statement and told police to present them in court on May 16th.

Khaled Mahmood, a police official in Faisalabad, the city about 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Lahore where the couple live, said officers who went to the couple’s home early Thursday found it locked and apparently empty.

Traditionally transsexualism along with homosexuality and cross-dressing are taboo subjects in Pakistan though as PinkNews.co.uk reported earlier this year there have been changes in this deeply conservative country.

Begum Nawazish Ali a drag queen played by Ali Saleem, a 28-year-old actor who is openly bisexual has proved a big hit with millions tuning in to watch his show.

Reverend Wilbur Lowe, pastor of the Mount Zion AME church, felt the controversy over the Rosie O’Donnell gay family cruise was handled poorly by United by Faith, an organisation representing 80 churches in Bermuda.

O’Donnell’s company, R Family Vacations, cancelled the July 12 visit to Bermuda because of concerns about protests from the island’s churches.

It feared a repeat of an incident in Nassau, the Bahamas, in 2004 when children on board were upset at dockside anti-gay chants by religious groups.

United by Faith chairman Andre Curtis, who had offered to bus the cruise goers to church and “have the pastors pray for them” called the cancellation “victory for God”.

Revd Lowe said “I don’t think they (United by Faith) have represented the religious community well.

“I think there is an awful lot of support for the cruise even within the church,” he told the Royal Gazette.

Revd Lowe did not go the whole way in endorsing the cruise.

“I don’t support the homosexual lifestyle, but that does not give anyone cause to hate someone or treat someone differently,” he said.

It is still a big step for an island which according to International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association executive director John Tanzella has: “a reputation for being anti-gay and hence gay travellers avoid spending their vacation money there.”

Mark Anderson, a.k.a. drag queen Sybil Barrington, self-styled Queen of Bermuda said: “I think it’s wonderful.

“It’s a step in the right direction and it should have been this way from the beginning. This is a new millennium and people should be open minded and not so judgmental,” he told the Royal Gazette.

Rev. Lowe is concerned the Bermudian public blames the churches for the cruise not visiting the island and that Rosie O’Donnell’s people see the church as “a bunch of Christians that hate them.”

The responsibility, however, he believes falls on the churches to right the wrongs because “we are the people who claim to be on a higher spiritual vein.”

Gregg Kaminsky, chief executive of O’Donnell’s company, R Family Cruises, welcomed the comments.

Mr. Kaminsk told the Royal Gazette: “I would have loved to do that (meet with Rev. Lowe and the churches). I’m always available to talk to anyone. Especially if it’s a Church group I would like to speak to them.”

There is a feeling that things are changing in Bermuda with people believing United by Faith went too far.

Premier Ewart Brown defended the cruise’s visit to Bermuda (before it was cancelled) saying “If we discriminate against a cruise ship, then we would have to send a homosexual detection unit to the airport.”

Comedian Rosie O’Donnell has been arranging cruises for gay and lesbian families since 2004 and her success was documented in 2006 in the HBO show All Abroad Rosie’s Family Cruise.