The Australian-born activist began campaigning for human rights, democracy and global justice in 1967, aged 15.

Now, at 55, his eyes still have the vividness and energy of a teenager, and he has no intention to retire, because, he says, there is still much work to do.

Speaking in his home in South London, surrounded by hundreds of documents on human rights issues, books and magazines about LGBT rights, and satirical posters of religious leaders, he talks about his long career and his many experiences.

But the list is so long, including campaigns against apartheid, dictators and torturers, and in favour of green issues, gay marriage and revision of the age of consent, that it is hard to believe he can cope with all that.

PinkNews.co.uk: How can you manage to campaign for all these issues?

Peter Tatchell: With great difficulty. I haven’t got much leisure time, not nearly as much as I would like. I desperately need an office, and a couple of paid staff to work.

Most of my campaigns are in response to appeals for help from individuals and organisations in Britain and around the world, but I get many more questions that I can possibly cope with, so I have to choose.

I tend to focus on issues where there is very little knowledge or coverage.

PinkNews.co.uk: For example?

PT: I helped highlight the loss of benefits to many same-sex couples in civil partnerships, that was an issue that no other organisation was covering.

I have taken up the cause of a number of gay Muslim asylum seekers, who couldn’t get help from other organisations. Until recently, very few Western gay organisations were supporting the campaigns of activists in Zimbabwe, Uganda, Nigeria, Iran, Palestine and Iraq.

PinkNews.co.uk: What about the UK? What do you think about gay rights here?

PT: We have got formal legal equality, but we haven’t got liberation. Even the battle for equal rights is incomplete. We still have a ban on same-sex marriage, which is a form of sexual apartheid.

If the government banned Jewish or black people from getting married and offered civil partnerships instead, people would be on the streets.

But the LGBT community has rolled over and accepted this inferior, second-class legal status.

PinkNews.co.uk: What exactly do you think gay people should aim for?

PT: Equality is not enough. There is little point being equal in a fundamentally unjust society. The idea that straight people live in some kind of paradise is absurd.

We need to transform society, not to conform to it. I advocate civil commitment pacts, in which people can choose their own individualised, tailor-made partnership agreements.

In our society there is a great variety of relationships and the law needs to recognise this diversity.

PinkNews.co.uk: What do you think about the Vatican and its attempts to hamper protection and recognition for gay people?

PT: The sooner someone outs Pope Benedict, the better. His homophobic policies remind me of the Inquisition, and the Hitler Youth, of which he was a member.

All the closeted homophobes in the Vatican should be outed, they are destroying the lives of LGBT people worldwide.

PinkNews.co.uk: A few days ago, the pope said that gay people threaten peace, how would you respond to that?

PT: These are the rantings of a semi-deranged Christian fundamentalist and a theocrat, whose ego is so enormous that he believes he has a hot-line to God.

If any ordinary person in the street did it, they’d probably put them in a mental asylum. It is amazing the indulgences that are allowed for the so-called “men of God.”

Pope Benedict he is the ideological inheritor of the Nazi homophobia. He’d like to eradicate homosexuality, but since he can’t put LGBT people in physical concentration camps, is doing his best to put them in psychological concentration camps.

PinkNews.co.uk: An issue that you are fighting for is the change of the age of consent.

PT: I am astonished by the way so many LGBT organisations are reluctant to challenge the often unrealistic age of consent that exists in Britain.

The age of 16 is totally out of step with young people, as the average age they start having sex is 13 or 14 in the UK.

I’m not saying that they should have sex, but if they do, they shouldn’t be criminalised. Under British law, two young people, gay or straight, under the age of 16, who kiss or cuddle can face a prison sentence up to five years.

PinkNews.co.uk: What is your view of the LGBT organisations in the UK, such as Stonewall?

PT: Stonewall has a very conformist, assimilationist agenda. It doesn’t question the legal status quo, it merely conforms with it.

Obviously equality is better than inequality, but it isn’t sufficient and is not liberation.

PinkNews.co.uk: Let’s talk about yourself. What is the thing you are most proud of?

PT: Many. The citizen’s arrest of Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe in 1999 and 2001, for his crimes against humanity. The ambush of Tony Blair in 2003 to protest against the impending war in Iraq.

The interruption of the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1998 during one of his sermons, to condemn his discrimination against gay people.

PinkNews.co.uk: Name a person you admire.

PT: There is more than one. Gandhi, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Sylvia Pankhurst.

PinkNews.co.uk: OK. To finish, in two words maximum, how would you describe these people or groups?

Pope Benedict XVI: homophobic hypocrite.

Rowan Williams: coward.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad: theocratic fascist.

Russian President Vladimir Putin: Stalin lite.

Stonewall: equality only.

Gordon Brown: new Blair.

Tony Blair: tragedy.

Outrage! (the movement founded by Tatchell in 1990): effective.

Peter Tatchell: crazy!

For more information on Peter Tatchell’s work visit his website.

The African National Congress, which will meet this weekend to decide the next leader of the party and its future political stance, has been asked by the Joint Workers Group to uphold the Constitution’s promise of “freedom, justice and equality for all.”

The ANC has been South Africa’s governing party since 1994. The current party leader Thabo Mbeki is the country’s President.

Vanessa Ludwig, leader of the LGBT organisation Triangle Project, said that the manifesto was meant to clarify LGBT requests and explain that homophobia and discrimination are still wide-spread in the country.

“There’s a lot of gay bashing and murders and nothing has been said about it by the country’s leadership,” she said.

“This gives people licence to be homophobic. The policy documents to be discussed at the conference say nothing about LGBT people.”

The manifesto was issued on December 5th by LGBT activists, human rights activists, trade unions, and other groups from diverse backgrounds.

It calls on the ANC Conference to “fully and publicly affirm the rights of LGBT people as full and equal citizens.”

A series of points are listed in order to reach full gender equality.

They include:

* Publicly affirming that LGBT issues are part of gender issues “instead of the current silence in gender debates on LGBT issues, as well as address the hetero-sexist bias against LGBT issues”

* Committing to defend and protect human rights

* Addressing the needs of LGBT people in the policies on AIDS

* Integrating sexual orientation education in sexuality education in schools

* Taking effective action to end hate crimes against LGBT people

* Taking disciplinary action against ANC members that are homophobes.

In 1996 a new constitution was introduced in post-apartheid South Africa which outlawed discrimination on sexual orientation.

In 2006 it became the first African country to legalise gay marriage.

While the equality is formally guaranteed, LGBT groups have warned that especially in the less urbanised areas homophobia is still rampant.

As the Swedish government prepares a “gender neutral” marriage law, the Church of Sweden agreed that marriage and partnership were equivalent forms of unions.

It recommended however that the term “marriage” be referred only to heterosexual couples.

The Swedish Church, a Lutheran branch of Christianity with more than 7 million members out of a population of 9 million, had been asked to express its opinion on the matter directly by the government, which intends to modify a 1987 law defining marriage as an union between man and woman.

Only one small party, the Christian Democratic Party, opposed the government’s new legislation. The other six political parties have all agreed with the proposed measure.

Once the law is passed, same-sex people will be able to marry in church, adopt children and will have all rights and duties of heterosexual married couples.

The new law would also replace a 1995 legislation, which was defined as “outdated” by the Parliamentary Committee appointed to study the issue.

It allowed civil partnerships, giving many rights and obligations, but had some restrictions.

The Archbishop of Uppsala Anders Wejryd, who is the leader of the Swedish Church, explained that after discussions in October on the matter, different opinions had emerged, but the prevailing one was that the word marriage had to be used only for unions between man and woman.

Some representatives asked that the church should abandon the legal element of the wedding ceremony.

“I am not of the opinion that everybody in the church should agree with each other. We have to be mature enough to live with a variety of opinions,” said Wejryd.

A public opinion poll on the issue showed earlier this year that 46 per cent of Swedish people supported gay marriage, and 31 per cent opposed it.

Sweden is considered one of the most liberal countries in the world for LGBT rights, even though there have recently been some episodes of discrimination and violence.

During the ceremony in Strasbourg protesters shouted as Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, was speaking.

“No matter how loud you heckle and yell, today is a day of fundamental importance for Europe,” he said.

MEPs from Britain, Denmark and Poland shouted “Referendum!” during his speech, indicating their disapproval of the treaty.

Labour MEP Michael Cashman accused Tory politicians of being unable to accept “even the most basic principles of politics,” as they joined the other protesters who shouted during the ceremony.

“I call on Cameron to denounce those senior members of his party who led and were a vocal part of this demonstration today. These examples of bully boy tactics have no place in Britain, in Europe or in politics.

“Their actions have brought shame and ridicule on the United Kingdom,” he said.

UK Independence Party MEPs were among the protesters. Their leader Nigel Farage said: “This is the new EU in action, showing the world a united face as they steamroll towards their own superstate while totally refusing to allow anyone to see a different point of view.”

Welsh Green MEP Jill Evans complained that the UK is opting out of the charter:

“Nothing highlights our disadvantage in Europe more than watching everyone except Britain and possibly Poland sign up to the charter of fundamental rights… those of us who are denied the protection of the charter could only stand on the sidelines,” she said.

The charter lays out civil, political, economic and social rights of all EU residents and will be appended to the EU new reform treaty once it is ratified by all 27 countries.

The ratification process should be complete by the end of 2008.

So far only Ireland has confirmed it will hold a referendum on the treaty, but the UK government is under pressure to hold a plebiscite.

The charter was first adopted at the Nice summit in 2001, although it was at the time only a political declaration with no legal value.

If the reform treaty comes into force, the charter will apply to the EU’s institutions and member countries every time they are implementing European laws.

However, it will not be binding for the UK and Poland, which opted out fearing interferences from the Court of Justice, even though the document doesn’t empower EU institutions to interfere with national legislation.

Britain decided to opt out fearing that the “right of collective bargaining and action” could protect the right to strike.

Poland was concerned that the Charter’s open position on gay rights would endanger the traditionalist values of its society.

The new Polish Prime Minister indicated during the election campaign earlier this year that he would accept the charter, but the political arithmetic in the country’s Parliament means he must reject it in order to get the treaty ratified.

Article 21 of the charter prohibits “discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation.”

One of the men is HIV positive. A third man is being tried by a juvenile court on the same charges.

Alexander Robert, of French-Swiss nationality, was in the United Arab Emirates last summer when a group of men took him to a desert, threatened him with a knife and repeatedly raped him.

Speaking to the International Herald Tribune, the teenager said in October that after his family denounced the case, Emirati authorities tried to discourage them from pressing charges.

According to Alexander’s mother Veronique Robert, authorities neglected to inform them about the HIV status of one of the rapists in an attempt to hide that AIDS was present in the country.

“Aids is a taboo subject here. The government played with the life of my child,” she said in November.

Although HIV tests didn’t find any trace of HIV in his blood, a confirmation will only come after a test to be taken in January, at the end of the disease’s six-month incubation period.

A police doctor who visited Alexander after the rape also tried to insinuate that the teenager had consented the sexual assault and that he is gay, writing in his legal report that he had found no evidence of forced penetration.

The young man told International Herald Tribune that at those words he burst into tears.

“I’ve just been raped by three men, and he’s saying I’m a homosexual because my anus is distended,” he said to his father.

The victim’s mother said that the court’s decision was too light and a family attorney said they would appeal against it.

Mrs Robert also started a battle against the rich Arabic country and launched a website asking measures to acknowledge crimes of rape, which are not recognised under UAE law.

“The rape of a child cannot and must never remain an unpunished act. A state that lies, however rich, cannot and must never do so without encountering the consequences,” she wrote in her website boycottdubai.com.

In the small Arabic country, despite claims that it is the most modern and “Westernised” state in the region, homosexual relations are still considered a crime and punishments range from jail to deportation and death penalty.

After leaving a nightclub, Centre Party MP Fredrick Federley was approached by a group of about six young men who began insulting him and the two men who were with him.

“Then they screamed that we were disgusting and a threat to Sweden and that they were going to beat us up,” said Federley.

He reported that, while he was trying to reason with them one of the attackers suddenly punched him on the face.

“I calmly told them that I wasn’t going to fight, as that would make me no better than them,” said Federley, according to thelocal.se

But he received three more punches before the group decided to leave.

The Swedish MP was so shaken that he feared to take the bus alone and went to sleep over a friend’s house.

Mr Federley, 29, said he had never been assaulted before because of his sexual orientation, but added that the event would not prevent him from going out in future.

Sweden is considered one of the most liberal countries in the world for its anti-homophobic legislation, although cases of discrimination are still reported.

In 2003 two women were thrown out of a restaurant in Stockholm after they kissed each other, but two years later a Swedish court ordered the restaurant’s owner to pay 50,000 kronor (£ 3,800).

Last year Sweden’s gay community expressed concern after the election of a Green Party member affiliated to the country’s Muslim Council, whose chairman Helena Benaouda had announced a desire to restrict marriage to man and woman.

The Swedish Constitution bans discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and a special government agency, the Swedish Ombudsman against Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation (also called HomO) addresses complains from individual citizens.

HomO also takes initiatives of its own and submits parliamentary proposals.

In March 2007 it presented a report concerning the possibility of making marriage available to same-sex couples, by amending the Swedish Marriage Code and making it gender neutral.

Latvia’s Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis resigned last week and the Archbishop of Riga Janis Pujats warned new candidates not to support LGBT related issues.

He asked that all candidates running for the post of Prime Minister state whether they intended to “defend the Latvian nation against the invasion of homosexuality in public life.

“Anyone who is not a stern advocate of the people’s moral values, must neither run nor be nominated for prime minister,” he said, urging candidates to give a public answer on the issue, as he said people were “entitled to it.”

During public debates yesterday, all three Prime Ministerial candidates voiced tolerant views about people with different sexual orientations.

In May the controversial Cardinal defined homosexuality “total corruption in the sexual arena” and “an unnatural form of prostitution.”

He also called on people to take to the streets of Latvia’s capital Riga to oppose the Pride march on June 3rd.

“If there are 1,000 sexually crazy people acting foolishly in the square of Pride, then the people’s march in Riga should have at least 40,000 or 50,000,” he wrote in a letter.

“That proportion would give the government and public thought enough reason to leave sexual perversion outside the law.”

Speaking to the Pope and cardinals in a private meeting three weeks ago Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for promoting Christian unity, said that there were disagreements with the Anglicans that had stalled talks.

“While progress is being made on theological divisions, new divergences are emerging in the ethical field,” he said.

“These concern in particular the questions related to the defence of life, to marriage, to the family, and to human sexuality.

“Because of these new divisions that are being created, common public witness is significantly weakened, if not impossible.”

Cardinal Kasper said that a Vatican document was published earlier this year stating that the Church of England was not a “proper church,” a position still held by the Vatican.

He said that the discontent caused by the Vatican’s position was unjustified, because it had not affirmed anything new, but restated the Catholic view.

“The crisis taking place within the respective Communities is clearly exemplified by the situation that has arisen in the Anglican Communion, which is not an isolated case,” Cardinal Kasper noted.

The issue of homosexuality has sparked controversy in the Anglican Church, with traditionalist positions opposed to attempts of bringing in more liberal views.

In 2003 the Church of England announced that an openly gay priest was going to be appointed Bishop of Reading, although reactions from traditionalists eventually hindered his appointment.

In 2006 the Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries said that “there has to be a conversion to a new way to see that gay partnerships are not contrary to biblical truth.”

The Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, has always compactly criticised any forms of acceptance of homosexual behaviour, which is seen as a sin.

In October in a TV interview a Catholic priest who admitted he was gay was suspended after being recognised by Vatican authorities, even though he was speaking on condition of anonymity.

In a series of statements, the pope has criticised both the possibility for gay people to serve as priests and has opposed any legislation aimed at recognising even basic gay couples’ rights.

Pope Benedict XVI has defined such requests as evidence of what he calls “cultural relativism” towards ethic values, clearly influencing Italy’s parliamentary debate, which is now stalled on whether to approve legal recognition of LGBT rights.

Biologist David Featherstone said that his team had discovered a “gender-blind” gene in fruit flies which could be altered with drugs, turning them bisexual.

“The gender-blind mutant males treated other males exactly the same way normal male flies would treat a female. They even attempted copulation”, Featherstone said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-times newspaper.

The research, published online by the journal Nature Neuroscience, seems to show that in some animals homosexuality is not hard-wired.

In the case of the fruit flies, it would depend on how they interpret the scent of one another.

According to Featherstone, two “sensory circuits” were found in the flies’ brain, one causing heterosexual behaviour and the other causing homosexual behaviour.

“Based on our previous work, we reasoned that gender-blind mutants might show homosexual behaviour because their glutamatergic synapses were altered in some way. Homosexual courtship might be sort of an overreaction to sexual stimuli,” he said.

The Chicago-based scientist said that humans have a similar gene, but he added that it was not known yet if it had any influence in humans’ same-sex behaviour.

A “gay gene” issue has long influenced scientific and academic debate.

Last year British human rights activist Peter Tatchell criticised the “obsession” of the scientific community about finding any supposed gay gene.

“Why are scientists so preoccupied with what causes homosexuality, to the near-total exclusion of the factors that lead to heterosexuality?” he said.

“I don’t object to research into sexual orientation. It is the one-sided obsession that bugs me.

“The presumption seems to be that straightness is normal and therefore does not need explanation; whereas queerdom is a deviation from the norm and this requires investigation and answers.”

Last month the Dutch Cooperation Development minister, Bert Koenders, said in a letter to the Parliament that in its foreign relations “the Netherlands will promote equal rights for gays as much as possible.”

The minister stressed that in its bilateral relations the country, which last year amounted to 4.2 billion euros in foreign aid, it will ask the countries it deals with to decriminalise homosexuality.

According to AFP, half of the African and Asian countries that the Netherlands currently supports through development aid plans still consider homosexuality as an offence and punish gay people, with penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment.

The centre-left government also announced it would also tackle rising homophobia at home, by investing money in programmes mainly aimed at the resident Muslim community.

The Dutch minister of Education, Ronald Plasterk, presented a 2.5 million euro plan for the period 2008-2011 to promote respect and equal treatment for gay people.

The money would be used in those ethnic minorities who “follow a more orthodox religious lifestyle” where “socially the acceptance is not automatic,” targeting particularly Muslim students in schools, sport clubs and neighbouring associations.

Gay rights activists welcomed the government’s new stance, particularly on its foreign relations policy.

Frank Van Dalen, the leader of gay rights movement COC, told AFP: “never before has a government done so much for the emancipation of gays.”

He added however that more money had to be spent at home.

“According to surveys 48 percent of the population is shocked by two men kissing and 75 percent of people of immigrant origin believe that a teacher should hide his gay orientation,” Van Dalen said.

The Netherlands was the first country in the world to institute same-sex marriage and allow homosexual partners to adopt children, but has recently experienced a series of violent attacks on gay people, including tourists.

In 2006 a “gay kiss test” was introduced by the Dutch government, to test asylum seekers’ liberal attitudes as a basis for entry into the country.

The move, which sparked strong reactions from the Muslim communities, was intended, in the words of a spokesman from the parliament’s immigration committee, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, to “help prepare people for open minded attitudes on issues such as homosexuality.”

In The Naked Man: A Study Of The Male Body, Desmond Morris questioned why “a certain percentage of adult human males, with or without the approval of society at large, find members of their own gender attractive.”

His answer is that it happens for social reasons, therefore discrediting any “gay gene” theory.

But he also changed his previous theory that people would become gay because of the lack of absence of a father or a male role.

Comparing experiences of young heterosexuals and homosexuals, the best-selling author believed that the main change would happen at the pubertal phase.

At about the age of five, sexes would draw apart and a boy would play only with other boys, a phase that: “will last about ten years, during which time he will be going through an intensive educational period, programming the amazing computer inside his skull.”

For many boys, with the flood of sex hormones during puberty the interest in girls would suddenly rise.

But not for others, because according to Morris “they get stuck in the stand-off phase, and stay there for the rest of their lives.”

During the ten-year learning phase, male-to-male attachment would become so powerful for them and “if there are any special social factors adding their weight at this point, the break can be thwarted.”

Morris suggests that some gay men may have had unpleasant experiences with girls during the stand-off.

“Or he may have found the boyish sex games that are so common in the stand-off phase to be particularly exciting and this may have fixated him on other males as sexual companions.

“For him it is impossible to make the switch because he cannot bear to leave behind what he had before.”

He concluded that men are “made gay” because they keep juvenile characteristics when they become adult, what is known as “neoteny.”

The 79-year old zoologist and anthropologist also said that gay men tend to be more creative than heterosexual as “the playfulness of childhood is continued into adulthood,” which he claims explain why so many artists and creative people are gay.

Morris is best known for his series of “popular science” books in the 1960s and 1970s, such as The Naked Ape. 

John Thomas Matthew Lee, a priest since 1993 and a military chaplain since 1996, decided to plead guilty before a military court at Marine Corps base Quantico in Virginia.

The plea agreement, which included informing the authorities about every sex partner he ever had, meant that ten of the initial twelve-year sentence was suspended.

Lee admitted all of the 11 charges, including that he had had sex with a military officer without telling him he had AIDS, forced himself on a midshipman, and coerced a marine he was counselling to take nude pictures.

During the hearing, Lee apologised for his crimes and said he was remorseful both as a Navy officer and as a priest.

“I have brought such dishonour, I would like to apologise for all the harm I have done,” he said, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Victims’ groups criticised the sentence, saying it was too light.

Prosecutors had asked a fifteen-year sentence for the Lee.

The priest, without a plea agreement, had risked a life sentence if found guilty of forcible sodomy under US military law.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national organisation of victims of sexual abuse by clergy, said he believed things were worse in the military than in other dioceses.

“For a sex offender priest, the military is very attractive because of the transience of military families and the even greater authority and trust that comes with having two titles, both a priest and an officer,” he told Army Times.

The archdiocese where Lee was ordained priest was informed last June about his alleged sexual misconduct and prevented him from performing the Mass.

The Army Times reported that at least 25 priests who have served as military chaplains in the last 30 years have faced allegations of sexual misconduct.

Ian Strachan, 30, was arrested along with Sean McGuigan, 40, in October after police mounted a sting operation.

They are alleged to have demanded £50,000 not to release a video showing an aide to a member of the Royal Family discussing engaging in oral sex with his employer.

The aide also allegedly claimed that the Royal supplied him with cocaine.

Mr Strachan, of Chelsea, south west London, was not at today’s bail hearing.

He and Mr McGuigan were arrested after a police officer, posing as another Royal aide, attended a meeting with them at a Hilton hotel in London.

They appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates Court on September 13th charged with one count of blackmail.

The hearing was held in secret, and the judge issued an order banning any report that could identify the victims or witnesses.

Mr Strachan and Mr McGuigan are to appear in the Old Bailey on December 20th charged with blackmail, contrary to the Theft Act 1968, alleging they made demands with menaces.

Since The Sunday Times broke the story in October there has been widespread speculation as to the identity of the Royal Family member who is the victim of the alleged blackmail.

He has been named on TV in the US and Australia and on numerous websites.

The British press are legally restrained from revealing the identity of the person, though it has been reported that he does not carry out any public duties.

Buckingham Palace has refused to comment on the alleged blackmail plot, saying only that it is a matter for the police.

The alleged blackmailers first made contact with the Royal Household on August 2nd, claiming to have videotaped evidence of an aide snorting cocaine and discussing how he has had oral sex with a member of the Royal Family.

A senior legal adviser to the Royal Household contacted the alleged blackmailers and arranged to meet and view the tape.

Scotland Yard was alerted and detectives set up a sting operation at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane.

The September 11th meeting was recorded by officers in an adjacent room as the alleged blackmailers showed a detective posing as a Royal aide the video.

They were then arrested.

At Westminster Magistrates Court on September 13th Mr Strachan and Mr McGuigan were remanded in custody until their trial on December 20th.

On Sunday Nicole and Ruti Berner Kadish’s case will be represented in Jerusalem by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) before a panel of nine High Court judges.

The judiciary will be asked to order the Interior Ministry to continue executing a 2000 ruling, which had endorsed the registration of the couple as dual mothers of their child Matan, Ruti’s biological son, adopted by Nicole under California law.

Following the 2000 ruling, the Interior Ministry submitted a petition claiming that clerks could not be forced to register an adoption in contrast with Israeli values and norms, but the Court dismissed the request, allowing Nicole to adopt Matan.

But since then the Ministry has challenged the order and numerous same-sex couples have been left without any legal relation to their partners’ children.

Nicole and Ruti have had two more children who haven’t been registered as children of both women.

ACRI’s chief legal counsel Dan Yakir, who will represent the case before the Supreme Court on Sunday, stressed that the right to family is a basic right for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation.

“In this case, the Court has rightly decided to order the registration of the adoption and to ensure that Matan has two lawful mothers.

“The Interior Ministry’s petition is an attempt to overthrow a fair and necessary ruling, and we hope the Court will adhere to its original decision” he said.

Last year the Israeli Family Court recognised another lesbian couple as joint mothers.

The ruling, which marked the end of a 17-year legal battle, allowed Tal and Avital Yarous-Hakak to be listed as the mothers of their three children.

The Prime Minister of Israel’s lesbian daughter, Dana Olmert, became mother last September when her partner gave birth to a baby girl.

34-year-old Dana lives with her life partner Dafna Ben Zvi and, according to Ynetnews the Olmert-Ben Zvi couple has an excellent relationship with the Prime Minister.

Moscow City Court confirmed the decision of a local district court, which had upheld the city government’s decision to ban the march.

Moscow Pride 2007, the second proposed LGBT event in two years to be held in the Russian capital, was scheduled for May 27th but never happened because of the city mayor’s decision to ban it.

Yuri Luzhkov’s prohibitive order was explained by the head of his security department, Nikolai Kulikov.

“In the light of the letters being received by Moscow government containing requests not to allow the conduct of this public event, the march can provoke negative reaction against its participants, lead to the group violations of public order which happened in May 2006,” he said.

Moscow authorities also said that their decision was in line with Article 11 of the European Convention on human rights, since it states that the right to freedom of assembly can be limited in the interests of public order, to avoid disturbances, for the protection of health and morality.

Earlier this year Mr Luzhkov said that in his view a gay parade could only be seen as a “Satanic gathering.”

In October, the same court that in ruled today’s case had rejected an appeal from Pride organisers about the mayor’s statement, saying that the term “Satanic gathering” was referred only to the event and not to its organisers or other LGBT people.

Pride activist Nicolas Alexeyev expressed distrust of the three judge panel appointed for the appeal, two of whom had earlier already dismissed similar appeals.

After court hearing, he said that his LGBT rights organisation, Project GayRussia, was going to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

“We are planning to combine the case of two banned pickets on 27th May, the banned march on 27th May, my own detention during the Pride and fine, as well as the statements of Moscow Mayor that gay parades are Satanic gatherings, in one application to the European Court of Human Rights” he said.

Labour Minister Brian Lenihan said civil partnership was easier to achieve, because gay marriage would require a constitutional change that would split the country.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, an LGBT organisation that is campaigning for gay marriage, he said he was keen to guarantee equality to gay people.

“This government, as our agreed programme reflects, is committed to full equality of opportunity for all in our society.

“In particular, we are committed to providing a more supportive and secure legal environment for same-sex couples” he said.

He ruled out, however, the possibility of gay marriage, saying it would need a change in the constitution and become a divisive issue, because every change to the Irish constitution requires a referendum.

“I believe equality for same-sex couples can be achieved through a diversity of legal arrangements and I am very keen that in the interests to your community we should proceed now to bring in a law that will give recognition and protection to same sex couples who are involved in loving stable relationships.”

The Minister said that the expected law should allow couples to formalise their relationships, undertake mutual rights and obligations, obtain legal protection and legal benefits for their relationships.

“Earlier this year Prime Minister of Ireland Bertie Ahern said that legislation would be approved during the lifetime of his government.

According to Leninan, it is now expected to be introduced by March 2008.

GLEN welcomed the Minister’s words, but added that only through marriage it was possible to achieve real equality and that they would continue to ask for it.

GLEN’s Chair Kieran Rose said that his organisation expected “principled, equality-based and comprehensive” legislation.

Homosexuality was decriminalised in the Republic of Ireland in 1993.

Both discrimination and incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation are illegal.

Article 41 of the Irish constitution says that:

“The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of marriage, on which the family is founded, and to protect it against attack.”

It does not give any definition of marriage itself, and thus does not outlaw gay marriage.

The publication, at its sixth edition, updates the information about all the requirements and regulations in every country for travellers living with AIDS.

It is designed to help people working in AIDS organisations and contains some of the most recent requirements adopted in several countries.

The report says that “being able to stay in foreign countries without restriction is something more or less taken for granted by many people living in Europe today.

“Yet in the majority of the world’s countries, people with HIV/AIDS are refused that right.”

193 countries were included in the survey.

In 106 countries there are special regulations, and 90 countries with restricted residence regulations implemented mandatory HIV screening.

There are currently 13 countries that bar people living with AIDS: Armenia, Brunei, China, Iraq, Qatar, South Korea, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and the USA.

Some European countries, including the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Italy, have no restrictions at all.

Other countries such as Austria, Greece, Belgium, Spain and Germany have no controls of restrictions for EU nationals, but require a health certificate for non-EU citizens who are staying for a longer period.

For some countries, such as Afghanistan, Bahamas, Grenada, Liberia, Mali, Mauritius, and Somalia, no information was available.

Some Asian and Middle East countries have had very bad performances.

According to the report there were cases where migrants died in jail without treatment waiting to return home.

There were visa problems.

“Some countries prefer not to have their citizens back if they can avoid it.”

The publication is available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian and can be can be found online here.

Michael E Guest retired from the State Department after more than 26 years as a form of protest against regulations that he considered as unfair to same-sex partners of foreign service officers.

The 50-year-old, who is openly gay, served as a US ambassador to Romania when Bush took office.

He was the first out gay person to be confirmed by the Senate to an ambassadorial post.

Since his return home in 2004, he has appealed directly to the US Secretary of State Rice to end gay discrimination.

“For the past three years, I’ve urged the Secretary and her senior management team to redress policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian employees,” he said yesterday, during his farewell speech in Washington.

He complained that nothing had ever resulted from his requests, and he had felt compelled to choose between his obligations to his partner and the service to his country.

“That anyone should have to make that choice is a stain on the Secretary’s leadership, and a shame for this institution and our country” he said.

During his speech, he also explained why he thought he was not only raising “a gay rights issue.”

“It’s about the safety and effectiveness of our communities abroad, of the people who represent America.

“It’s about equal treatment of all employees, all of whom have the same service requirements, the same contractual requirements,” he said.

According to Guest, under the current regulations only a US State Department’s spouse can claim several rights which are denied to unmarried partners and same-sex partners.

These include issues such as the lack of training for same-sex partners to recognise terrorist threats, the lack of medical care and the need to pay for one’s own transportation when one’s partner is on duty.

Guest said that these issue could have been solved simply with Ms Rice’s signature, but his pleas had never received any attention.

Yesterday PinkNews.co.uk reported yesterdy the blogosphere in America has been discussing a tabloid’s attempts to “out” the US Secretary of State.

The tabloid National Enquirer newspaper has chosen to speculate on her sexuality.

In an article entitled “Who’s Gay and Who’s Not” the paper reports that it is “an open secret” that Ms Rice is a lesbian.

ILGA Europe and its African equivalent Pan Africa ILGA have denounced “state-sponsored” homophobia on the African continent and asked that all African countries adopt the Yogyakarta Principles.

Launched in March 2007, the Yogyakarta Principles are a set of principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity.

In their joint appeal the LGBT organisations stressed that homophobic laws, which violate fundamental rights of GLBT people, are still in place in many African states.

ILGA and its partner organisations have called on those states that consider same-sexual relationships a crime to abolish those laws.

At least 38 countries in Africa still criminalise consensual same-sex acts among adults.

According to ILGA, although many of these countries do not systematically implement discriminating laws, “their mere existence reinforces a culture where a significant portion of the citizens need to hide from the rest of the population out of fear.”

The Yogyakarta Principles address a broad range of LGBT issues and have been adopted by judges, academics, a former UN high commissioner for Human Rights, members of treaty bodies, NGOs and others.

They include many issues, such as colonial criminal laws in India, proposed discriminatory legislation in Nigeria, police abuses in the US, banning of a gay prides in Eastern Europe and Russia, exclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity issues from European school curricula.

ILGA says it would be a major step forward for human rights protection if, on the occasion of their summit, European and African states adopted these principles “as their new guidelines to challenge homophobia and to assure the protection of fundamental rights to all their citizens.”

Mike McHaney had previously been employed for the US largest LGBT rights group, Human Rights Campaign, based in Washington DC.

The scheduler for Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state was arrested on charges that he had arranged to have sex with what he thought was a 13-year-old boy.

He had agreed to arrange a three-way sexual encounter with the teenager and a cooperating witness, who was secretly working with FBI investigators.

According to a federal court document obtained by the SmokingGun.com, the undercover informant, who knew Mr McHaney, told federal authorities that the Senate aide “had a sexual interest in male children” and that they had they “exchanged images of child pornography with each other on previous occasions.”

The two were chatting on line on Friday afternoon, when the undercover informant asked McHaney whether he was interested in engaging in anal sex with a 13 year-old boy.

McHaney allegedly replied he was. He then asked for a photo of the boy and arranged a location where he later showed up, and where he was arrested.

Human Rights Campaign confirmed that McHaney’s had worked as an executive scheduler for them from September 2005 to May 2006, but added that his leaving the group had had nothing to do with the reason why he had been arrested.

HRC spokesperson Brad Luna declined to answer questions about the nature of McHaney’s departure, citing confidentiality of personnel records.

Before working in for the gay rights group, Mr McHaney had also worked on the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry in 2004.

McHaney was fired from Senator Cantwell’s office after the arrest.

Her chief of staff, Michael Meehan, said that they were informed about the arrest by the FBI.

“Our office has and will continue to fully co-operate with the ongoing federal criminal investigation. Senator Cantwell has zero tolerance for crimes against children” he said.