The study was produced by LGBT Youth Scotland and commissioned by the Scottish Government Education Directorate Sponsored Research Programme.

It conducted interviews and focus groups with child protection professionals and LGBT young people and explored their needs.

It concluded that LGBT youths find it difficult to come out to professionals and professionalsin turn feel that there is not enough training and information on LGBT issues and experiences.

The report said that LGBT young people are not visible in a range of settings due to issues like homophobia and transphobia, which discourage young people from coming out.

This lack of visibility means that specific issues facing LGBT young people are absent in guidelines, information, support and training for professionals.

Many LBGT young people will therefore not come out to professional and so go without support on their specific needs as LGBT young people.

Service providers also need to understand specific risks and vulnerabilities which LGBT young people can experience but should not automatically assume that they are at risk.

Professionals said that for their part there can be concern, uncertainty and confusion amongst practitioners regarding a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity and the ways in which they support young people and deal with confidentially and information sharing.

“It’s only in the last few years that we have become aware of LGBT young people, but as yet there’s no connection to child protection issues,” one professional said.

“You can’t support a young person if you don’t know the issues they face.”

Currently, there is no focus on LGBT young people in child protection policy and practice, either strategically or at the level of individual practice.

This is a barrier to equality and diversity being mainstreamed in all organisations.

“This research provides a voice for LGBT young people and explores the issues facing professionals who work with young people,” said Sara O’Loan, Research Manager of LGBT Youth Scotland.

“Professionals say that there needs to be a greater focus on LGBT young people’s issues in child protection policy and practice as well as training on LGBT issues to support them in delivering services, and the report therefore recommends that these things are taken forward.

“Young people are saying to us quite clearly that their LGBT identities do matter when they engage with professionals and that it is professionals’ responses to these identities which can determine how successful the experience is.

“Hopefully, this report highlights that we all have a role to play in working together and sharing expertise so that every young person can grow up supported, healthy and happy.”

LGBT Youth Scotland website.

Cumming, who starred in hits such as Spy Kids, GoldenEye and X-Men, will receive The Trevor Hero Award at the organisation’s eighth annual New York gala at the end of the month.

The award honours an individual who, through his or her example, support, volunteerism or occupation, is an inspiration to gay and questioning youth.

Past recipients of The Trevor Hero Award include Tony Award-winning actor Nathan Lane (2007) and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham (2006).

“Alan has been an important and highly visible example to gay and questioning youth,” said Charles Robbins executive director of The Trevor Project.

“Alan Cumming’s unique and successful career makes him a wonderful role model for gay and questioning youth, and we are excited to honour him with The Trevor Hero Award.”

The bisexual actor, who divides his time between New York and London, said that he has always admired the work of Trevor and is delighted to be given the award.

“For a long time, I’ve admired the work of The Trevor Project and the support they give to America’s gay youth, so I’m really delighted and honoured to be given this award by such a great organisation,” said Mr Cumming.

“The Trevor Project really inspired me so this award truly is special, and I will continue to try and further their goals in my life and work.”

Trevor is a non-profit organisation that operates the US only around-the-clock suicide prevention helpline for gay and questioning youth.

In addition to the helpline, the organisation’s website provides information on identifying and assisting potentially suicidal youth.

The May 11th Pride March ended disastrously for its participants.

Lesbian and gay activists in the central European nation had their attempt to hold a Pride event in capital Chisinau banned and then blocked by police inaction and violence.

A bus with 60 Pride marchers was surrounded by hundreds of members of co-ordinated groups, including extremist religious groups and members of the neo-fascist movement.

Pride organisers said that homophobic crowds entered the bus and grabbed flags and banners, while their companions shouted “Beat them to death” and ”Don’t let them escape.”

There were reportedly nine attempts to call the police during this incident, with no response.

“The fact that the police were in place and did not intervene when the participants in the demonstration were attacked results to concerns and questions with regards to the Moldavian authorities’ ability to protect the citizen who want to express their views,” Mr Bidlt said.

“The Swedish government attaches great importance to human rights being respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“I therefore am concerned about the events that took place in connection with the planned Pride event in Chisinau on May 11 and regret that the demonstration could not be implemented.”

The foreign ministry has warned Moldova to uphold and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, made in the context of the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

It also intends to ask the EU to discuss the issue of Moldova.

Although Moladvia is not part of the EU, it is largely influenced its neighbour Romania, which joined the EU in 2007.

It gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Moldova has a poor track record in terms LGBT rights.

Homosexuality was legalised in 1995, but the society is still very much influenced by the anti-gay sentiments from the Soviet era.

Moldovan gay rights group GenderDoc-M claims they are the only group in the country to be banned from holding public meetings. Eight have been banned in the past three years.

In October last year,  Moldova was told to “ensure full respect of the fundamental rights of all minorities, including sexual minorities,” by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The report of the monitoring committee about the honouring of obligations and commitments by Moldova was adopted by PACE last year.

PACE rapporteurs gave over a large part of their report to violations of the right to freedom of assembly for LGBT people in Moldova.

In particular, the report stated: “We deplore the fact that after a final ruling by the Supreme Court of Moldova the Chisinau authorities continue to violate the law and deprive the representatives of the LGBT community of their right to freedom of assembly.

“Such situation cannot be tolerated in a democratic state governed by the rule of law. We expect the Moldovan authorities to take all necessary measures to put an end to this practice.”

The May 11 ban on Pride came despite the ruling of the Moldovan Supreme Court in December 2006 that a previous ban on the LGBT Pride march was illegal.

This is the fourth year in a row that Moldovan authorities banned the gay Pride march in the capital.

In September the country’s Supreme Court reiterated its previous position that the refusal by the Chisinau City Hall to authorise the march violates Moldovan law on the freedom of assembly, the Moldovan Constitution and the European Convention for Human Rights.

In April Attorney General Robert McClelland announced that the Labour government would introduce legislation to remove same-sex discrimination from some 100 laws.

The government had hoped to have parliament pass the legislation by July 1st.

But the opposition-controlled upper house has referred the government bill, which is based on the recommendations of a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report from March last year, to the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee for further scrutiny.

The committee is to examine the definitions of “couple relationship”, the “child” and “child of the couple relationship” and will report back to the Senate by September.

It will hear evidence from a range of groups including the federal attorney-general’s department, the Law Council of Australia and the relationship registries of Tasmania, Victoria and the ACT.

Democrats Senator Andrew Murray said there had been some advocates of equality and fairness within the coalition, but homophobic tendencies still linger around.

“This is filibuster by committee,” Murray told AAP.

“It is putting off something you do not want to happen, to the never-never, and I think it’s outrageous.”

The new bill will give gay couples in long-term relationship same rights as married couples in areas such as taxation, pensions and welfare payments.

The removal of these laws will cost the government £176 million.

However, there are no plans to allow gay couples to marry.

Attorney General Robert McClelland said in April:

“We made it clear before the election that the government regards marriage as being between a man and a woman and we don’t support any measures that seek to mimic that process.”

The “transvestite toilet”, designated by a human figure split into half man in blue and half female in red, has since been used since class started last month.

“I am so happy about this,” student Vichai Sangsakul told Thailand’s PBS news channel on Tuesday.

“It looks bad going to female restrooms. What would other people think?”

“The Kampang School came up with the idea of the unisex toilet after a survey conducted last term showed that more than 200 of the school’s 2,600 students considered themselves transvestites,” said school director Sitiak Sumontha.

He added that the introduction of the new toilets would help transvestite students to go to the restroom in peace, as going to the female facilities made some other students uncomfortable and using the men’s room often resulted in harassment.

“They don’t have problems with transvestites but going to the same private area, like a toilet, makes them uneasy,” he told Associated Press.

“The transvestite kids may behave even more effeminately than the girls, do but their anatomy is still like that of a boy.”

Kampang is not Thailand’s first educational institution to set up transvestite washrooms. A technical college in the northern province of Chiang Mai set up a “Pink Lotus Bathroom” for its 15 transvestite students in 2003.

It is not known how many transvestite students there are in Thailand, but Deputy Education Minister Boonlue Prasertsopar recently said the ministry plans to count the number of transvestite university students.

He added that if there was a lot of them in universities and going to the bathroom causes problems, then the ministry would consider building toilets and dormitories for them.

Most rural Thais are conservative in many ways, but the toilet initiative at the school reflects the Thai’s amazing ability of tolerant and support the country’s visible transsexual and transvestite community.

The Buddhist country has always been seen as a liberal country when it comes to LGBT issues. Though the country does not support same-sex unions, the LGBT community is still considered one of the world’s most free and open.

Transvestite actors play key roles in Thai movies and soap operas, and can be seen in department cosmetics counters, popular restaurants, cabaret shows and in the famous red-light district. Thailand also has transgender beauty pageants.

A joint statement released by civil society organisations and trade unions working for equality, human rights and social justice warmly welcomed the news and congratulated President Barroso and the EC.

“We greatly appreciate their political leadership in making this important decision to extend the protection against discrimination to all non-discrimination grounds mentioned under the EU Treaty, and to ensure that all people in Europe are equally protected from discrimination and enjoy the same rights.

“We also thank the European Parliament for its strong support and we now hope that this initiative gets the full support of all EU Member States,” they said.

The act was going to only cover discrimination against the disabled at one point.

The commission announced in April that opposition from Germany and other member states meant that European Union citizens would not be protected from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

However earlier this month, the Commission had a change of heart and widened the scope, adding age, religion and sexual orientation to the list.

European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) Gerneal Secretary John Monks said:

“This would give a strong message to the Member States of the EU and their citizens that we cannot build a modern and cohesive society on discrimination.

“With the ageing of our populations, the growing of our societies in terms of ethnic origin and religion, and the increasing intolerance against people because of their different sexual orientations, a strong and coherent body of law – protecting all our citizens from discrimination wherever they are in the EU – should be the priority target.”

This would hopefully send a strong warning to countries who have so far ignored the law.

Lithuania, for example, has recently tried to remove age, disability and sexual orientation protections from the new draft law on equal opportunities.

The legislation was rescheduled when not enough MPs turned up to vote for it.

Prescription for Change was conducted by gay equality organisation Stonewall and De Montfort University.

They interviewed more than 6,000 lesbians and bisexual women for the survey, the biggest of its kind outside the US.

Focusing on women’s health, it asked questions about health checks, drugs, smoking, alcohol and obesity.

It claims that the UK’s healthcare workers lack knowledge of lesbian and bisexual women’s sexual practices.

This alienates lesbian and bisexual women and their conditions are misdiagnosed or are left to suffer in silence.

“Lesbian and gay taxpayers fund 60,000 posts within the NHS”, said Stonewall’s chief executive Ben Summerskill.

“Yet with the marked exception of gay men’s sexual health, their specific health needs are almost invisible.”

49% of the people interviewed have not come out to their GP, for fears that they may be discriminated against.

Since April 2007, it has been unlawful for public services to discriminate against lesbians and bisexual women.

However, half of those questioned reported some negative experience of healthcare in the last year.

One in ten lesbian and bisexual women said that when they came out to a health worker, they were either ignored or faced hostility.

“Healthcare workers continually assume I am heterosexual and ask inappropriate questions about my relationships,” said Maya, from the South West.

“I am often lectured about safe sex and preventing pregnancy without being given a chance to say that I do not sleep with men anymore.”

Morgan, 37, from the North West, said:

“In the course of an interview about my pelvic floor muscles, I mentioned to a physiotherapist that I used a dildo and she refused to talk to me after that!”

Even when accepting, healthcare workers do not seem to know much about the lifestyles of lesbians and bisexual women.

Abigail from London was not amused by the lack of answers from a nurse:

“I asked her whether penetrative sex with toys was risky in respective of cervical cancer or whether the risk factor only related to penetration by a penis. She had no idea.”

Four per cent of lesbian and bisexual women have been told by healthcare workers that they do not need a test for sexually transmitted infections.

However, a quarter of the 6,000 respondents have tested positive for an STI.

One in five lesbian and bisexual women were told that they did not need a smear test.

37,000 lesbian and bisexual have been refused a smear test, even though they requested one.

This misleading information has led to one in five lesbian and bisexual women thinking that they are not at risk of cervical cancer.

Not only does the healthcare system find it hard to comprehend the physical needs of lesbian and bisexual women, their mental health has been severely neglected as well.

In the last year, five per cent of lesbians and bisexual women said that they have attempted to take their own life: sixteen per cent of women under the age of 20 have attempted suicide.

One in five lesbian and bisexual women who have self-harmed in the last year did so by swallowing pills or objects.

Mind, the mental health charity has said that one in twenty of the general population has an eating disorder.

Stonewall’s survey suggests that one in five lesbian and bisexual women have had, or have been told that they have some form of eating disorder.

Seven per cent of those who said to have such disorders have had anorexia now or in the past. According to Mind, only one per cent of the general population has been diagnosed with anorexia.

The survey suggests that this neglect is due to the lack of education and discriminatory behaviour by healthcare workers.

Orla from London tells of her experience:

“I went to my doctor with a stress-related illness and mentioned that coming out to my family has been a recent source of stress.

“He responded by telling me that his sister had recently come out, and told me we was still revolted by it. He didn’t seem to have any awareness that this might have an impact on my reaction to him.”

However, the survey found that lesbians and bisexual women are in better physical shape than heterosexual women.

26 per cent of lesbian and bisexual women are overweight, compared to 32 per cent of heterosexual women.

Two thirds of lesbian and bisexual women smoke or have smoked, compared to half of women in general.

Nine in ten lesbian and bisexual women drink, and 40 per cent of them drink three times a week, compared to a quarter of women in general.

They are also five times more likely to have taken drugs; one in ten have taken cocaine, compared to 3 per cent on the heterosexual women.

Not only is there a lack of knowledge in the healthcare system about lesbian and bisexual women, there have been complaints that the NHS has failed to provide inclusive services.

One in four lesbians and bisexual women have experienced domestic violence, and one in twenty five said they had experienced death threats.

Thirteen per cent of lesbian and bisexual women also say that they have been frightened that they will be hurt.

Despite these threats, eight in ten of those who have experienced domestic violence never reported the incident to the police.

Out of those who had, only half were satisfied with how the police dealt with their situation.

In order to correct this, Stonewall proposes that the NHS should give compulsory and regular training to its healthcare workers and that institutions should stop making assumptions that all women are straight.

There should be an increased support for lesbians and bisexual women to help them feel as though they are part of society and know where they can get help.

According from Tola from London, simply putting up “gay-friendly posters and leaflets in hospitals and GP surgeries and information on lesbian, gay and bisexual specific services” could make a difference.

Out of the 6,000 people interviewed, 81 per cent said that they were lesbian, and 16 per cent bisexual.

85 percent lived in England, 9 per cent in Scotland and 5 percent in Wales. 82 per cent of the respondents are white British, and the rest are from ethnic minorities.

The survey also covered a wide range of demographics; the youngest respondent being 14 years old and the eldest 84.

For more information, please visit www.stonewall.org.uk/lesbianhealth

While showing support for their current or former spouses, straight wives and husbands have taken the month of June to create awareness of their existence through their own pride named, “Straight spouses, too. Out there, everywhere.”

“Most spouses marry without knowing the sexual orientation or gender identity of their partners, many of whom don’t know or acknowledge it themselves.

“When they come out after a long struggle, the straight husbands and wives face their own coming out issues. Often straight spouses become an invisible minority, coping alone in their own closets—that’s where the Straight Spouse Network can help,” said Amity Buxton, founder of the Straight Spouse Network (SSN)

It is estimated that there are up to two million Americans that are, or were at some point in their lives married to LGBT spouses.

The experiences of straight spouses have been a significant part of the gay movement, but their stories hardly grab the headlines.

Kathy Callori, SSN executive director explains:

“Because of the invisibility factor there is a lack of public understanding and a lack of funding to meet the increasing requests for help.

“At the same time, our commitment to decrease the number of family tragedies caused by anti-gay pressures to form heterosexual marriages compels us to make our voices heard.

“That is why we declared June Pride 2008 the time for straight spouses to stand up and speak out for ourselves and for the well being of future families.”

In conjunction to the Pride month, SSN has launched a June campaign to raise £12,800 to fund their efforts.

SSN is a non profit organisation that provides personal, confidential support and resource information for and about straight spouses and their families.

The programme, which is the only kind in the world, aims to raise the visibility of straight spouses and mixed-orientation couples and accessibility to support.

SSN also offers research-based publications and uses personal stories to educate communities and organisations about the hurtful impact of anti-gay attitudes.

It currently has 74 support groups in the US and 7 other countries and 9 online support groups, mostly with chats and webs attached.

“Supported by SSN, spouses stop feeling like victims of homophobia and become victors in their own lives,” said Sam Cheney, President of the SSN Board of Directors. “Many become vocal advocates for GLBT equality.

For example, the Straight Spouse Network published a position paper in support of same-gender marital unions in 2006, and reaffirmed it this year to endorse the successful push for marriage equality in California.”

From Market Square the Parade will exit Oxford Castle onto New Road at midday, then continue onto Paradise Street, passing Oxford’s three gay pubs before turning into St Thomas Street and Oxpens Road.

The Parade will arrive at Oxpens Field for the Oxford Pride Event where the fun and entertainment continues through to 8pm.”

Two Australian performers will be making their UK Pride debut: Courtney Act (Australian Idol) will be singing her new single and violinist Sophie Serafino will get things heated up.

This year will see a record number of gay pride events; here is a brief summery of some of the marches and parades that will be taking place this year:

Pride London
5th July

This year’s Pride London Parade and Rally will take place in central London and expects to attract more than 500,000 people.

This year’s theme is ‘Fairytales, Myths and Legends.’ It promising to be the most visually spectacular Pride ever, with its stage to be packed with a big lineup of celebrities, entertainment and politics.

Rainbowfest (Aberdeen)
5th July

Rainbowfest is a new event for Aberdeen City & Shire that aims to bring together the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender individuals in the area along with their family and friends for an inclusive day with acts, activities and information.

Bourne Free Pride Festival/Jazz Picnic for Bournemouth’s Pride
11th- 13th July

The fifth annual Bourne Free Pride Festival will be taking over the seaside resort of Bournemouth for three days, from Friday 11th until Sunday 13th of July.

The event is a colourful celebration of all diversities that live in the area and the constant strive towards universal equality for all through entertainment and awareness.

Last year the event attracted thousands of people from across the UK so for 2008 it has been extended across an entire weekend with more going on than ever before.

Northern Pride
12th July

An LGBT community event run by and for the LGBT community in the northeast.

2-4.30 pm, Pink Picnic in Leazes Park, with community marketplace, entertainment, kids events, sports, and workshops

Though the main even would last for a day, there are various events that would continue throughout the month of July.

Sunday 13th July – The Last Laugh comedy night, Journal Tyne Theatre, with Scott Capurro, Jonathan Major, Stephen K. Amos and Mandy Muden

7th-20th July – LGBT Art Exhibition @ La Boca Art Café

Oxford Gay Pride
12th July

The first ever Oxford Pride has changed its starting location to Market Square of Oxford Castle.

From Market Square the Parade will exit Oxford Castle onto New Road at midday, then continue onto Paradise Street, passing Oxford’s three gay pubs before turning into St Thomas Street and Oxpens Road.

The Parade will arrive at Oxpens Field for the Oxford Pride Event where the fun and entertainment continues through to 8pm.”

Two Australian performers will be making their UK Pride debut: Courtney Act (Australian Idol) will be singing her new single and violinist Sophie Serafino will get things heated up.

Thanet Pride
26th July

The Thanet Pride will take place along the road from the Clock Tower to the Old Town and a giant stage would be erected for the full entertainment programme that would be offer throughout the day.

The event will start at 11am and end at 7.30pm with a funfair continuing later.

Nottingham Pride
26th July

The line up is still to be confirmed but the event will be held in the city’s Arboretum Park.

Brighton Pride
2nd August

The 2008 Summer festival week runs from Saturday 26th July to Sunday 3th August 2008.

The theme for this year’s Carnival Parade on Saturday 2nd August is ‘Pride Around The World’.

Tory candidate Dr. David Bull has confirmed that he will be participating in this year’s Brighton Pride event after his success last year of the first ever tory gay pride float.

Leeds Pride
3rd August

Leeds Pride will take place on Sunday 3rd August 2008. Opening the event, in Leeds Millennium Square, will be civic leaders welcoming the vast crowds of LGBT people, their families, friends and allies to the city.

Then the fun begins with the opening of the main-stage graced by some of the region’s and country’s top performers. As the crowd are entertained the floats are being marshalled for the centrepiece of Leeds Pride, the massive parade through the City.

Gay Pride in Gloucestershire
9th August

Gloucestershire Gay Pride will take place at Llanthony Priory (Llanthony Road, next to the new Gloucestershire College campus)

The free carnival promises a day of fun and entertainment, including acts from The Bag, a popular ‘local’ band, Bridget & the Big Girls Blues, Stevie Maull- Swindon’s Pride Idol winner and much more.

Hull Pride
9th August

The gay community in Hull will staged their 7th Pride event in West Park on Anlaby Road. The event is the largest of its kind in Yorkshire and is expecting over 10,000 people to attend.

Everyone in the city is welcome to come along and join them from 1pm on Saturday 8th August for a day of fun entertainment through until 6pm.

Wakefield Pride
10th August

The next gay Pride in Wakefield will be on Sunday August 10th 2008

Manchester Pride
15th- 22th August

Manchester Pride is a ten day festival between 15 and 25 August 2008. The Big Weekend 78-hour party begins on 22 August.

Tickets are on sale now at £12.50

Swindon Pride
16th August

Swindon’s first Pride will be held at the Old Town Garden’s. They are also holding a pink ball on 25th July. Tickets are at sale for £28.00 per head.

Dumfries and Galloways first LGBT Pride
16th August

Dumfries and Galloways first LGBT Pride. 16th August 2008 12 noon – 4pm.

Free to the public, nominal cost for parking. Stalls, food and a dry bar, a great pride day out for the whole family, inclusive and informative day.

Dumfries Pride, Scotland
16th August

Dumfries Pride will be the first ever pride event in the region. It will take place at Park Farm in August the 16th, 12pm – 4pm.

There will also be Pride Prom which will be at the Minerva Hall, 8 till late. Events have yet to be confirmed.

Doncaster Pride
17th August

The event will last from at 2pm and 9pm.

There will be a variety of activities to choose from; the walk of unity, rainbow market, a funfair, street entertainment and a 6 hour live stage.

UK Black Pride
16th August

UK Black Pride, (UKBP) is organisation created to promote unity among Black people of African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American descent who identify as Lesbian Gay Bi-Sexual & Transgender.

The event will be held at Regents College, London.

Cornwall Pride
23th August

Cornwall’s first ever Cornwall Pride Festival will be similar to other events throughout the country and should be an opportunity for local business to benefit from a significant group of people from across the country.

The newly-elected Chairman Christian Diamant said:

“At its most basic what Cornwall Pride is celebrating is the fact that Cornwall is a better place because not everyone is white, not everyone is straight and that Cornwall would be a worse place if we were all the same!

“Hopefully, the event will be enjoyable for both locals and holiday makers who are visiting our County.”

Pride Glasgow
30th August

Pride Glasgow will take place on Saturday August 30th 2008, timings to be confirmed.

Keep up to date at their website or from any of our social networking sites a complete list can be found at www.bebo.com/prideglasgow

Reading Pride
30th August

This year’s Reading Pride festival will be taking place on 30th August 2008 in King’s Meadow Park between 12:00 and 20:00.

Derby Pride Festival
26th September

Derby Goes Pink is Derby’s Largest LGBT event.

It will be held on the 26th, 27th and 28th of September 2008 in Derby, with street performances, live music and drag acts on stage, dramatic performances and more.

Cardiff Pride
6th September

Cardiff Pride will replace the ten-year-old Welsh flagship event, yet will have all the important key elements people have come to expect over the years.

If there is a Pride event in your area that we haven’t mentioned let us know at news@pinknews.co.uk

Following a meeting of the bishops held last week, the Irish Bishops’ Conference released a statement yesterday to reinstate the Christian theology of marriage.

“In view of the current debate in our society about the nature of marriage, sometimes promoted by individuals or institutions who claim support from Christian ideals, the bishops reiterated that marriage presupposes the mutuality and complementarily of the sexes”, the statement said.

“Christian tradition holds that sexual differentiation is intrinsic to our understanding of the sacrament of marriage. Marriage has a meaning that is not reducible to individuals’ intentions and society’s laws.

“It is oriented towards the sharing of their lives and the support they will give each other, and also towards the creation of new human beings as the fruit of their love.

It is for the sake of these two objectives that the loving marital relationship between a woman and a man needs to be one that is faithful, exclusive and lasting”, the bishops’ statement added.

The bishop’s statement may echo the sentiments of the majority of the Catholic Church, but not all within the church agrees.

Margaret Farley, professor of moral theology at Yale Divinity School and a member of the Sisters of Mercy order of nuns commented at a conference by the Irish School of Ecumenics last month at Trinity College Dublin that the sacrament of marriage was easily applicable to same-sex marriages.

“We have softened gender stereotypes in recent times and it becomes possible to say that any two people who have the gift of love – which is theologically a call by God to participate in the sacrament of marriage – to marry,” she told The Irish Times.

While she accepted her position was not by the majority of the Catholic Church, Prof Farley said many senior bishops were sympathetic to the needs of same-sex unions.

“In a Christian context, Catholic understanding of marriage as a sacrament can be applicable to same-sex marriages as well as to heterosexual marriages,” she said.

“We have to witness that homosexuality can be a way of embodying responsible human love and sustaining human and Christian fellowship.”

The Bishops’ statement comes in the middle of the 10-day Dublin Pride Festival, which named this year theme Always the Bridesmaid and Never the Bride.

The festival aims to highlight the lack of partnership rights for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community.

A new Bill is being finalised under which same-sex partners will be able to avail of marriage-like benefits in a range of areas such as property, social welfare, succession, maintenance, pensions and tax but does not recognise sex-sex couple to adopt.

However, the Bill unlikely to be published before the Dáil’s summer recess.

Government officials say progress has been delayed due to the Lisbon Treaty campaign and the Cabinet reshuffle following Brian Cowen’s appointment as Taoiseach.

However, some well-placed sources say there has been tension between the Green Party and Fianna Fáil over how far aspects of the legislation will go.

“I call for a change in laws that uphold stigma and discrimination, including restrictions on travel for people living with HIV,” he said last week at the opening of a two-day, high-level meeting in the General Assembly on UN targets, set in 2001 to roll back the disease worldwide.

“Halting and reversing the spread of AIDS is not only a goal in itself, it is a prerequisite for reaching almost all the others (poverty-reduction Millenium Development Goals by 2015),” he added.

He said that 60 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, “it is shocking that there should still be discrimination against those at high risk, such as men who have sex with men, or stigma attached to individuals living with HIV.”

“I am a person living with HIV, and by revealing my HIV status publicly, I am taking a risk of being banned from entering this country and over 70 other countries around the world,” said AIDS activisit Ratri Suryadarma of Indonesia.

A letter signed by 345 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was sent to leaders and ambassadors of concerned countries to urge them to lift the restrictions.

According to UNAIDS, the global standard-bearer in the fight against HIV, 74 countries are subjecting HIV carriers to restrictive measures, including a mention of the disease on their passports.

Twelve among them — Armenia, Colombia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sudan, the United States and Yemen — barred entry to HIV carriers, often citing public health concerns and the high cost of treatment.

Innocent Laison, a member of the Senegalese NGO Africaso, denounced such restrictions, pointing that countries which impose them allow their own HIV-infected nationals to go abroad.

Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca, who lifted such restrictions in his country four years ago, backed the NGOs’ call.

“I appeal to the international community and all governments for the scrapping of walls and barriers which restrict the free movement of people living with HIV,” he said.

Meanwhile AIDS expert Anthony Fauci, the head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stressed the importance of prevention and continuing research.

He recalled that AIDS was discovered 27 years ago and that considerable funding was still needed to combat the disease.

The new application is in connection with the June 27th picketing in front of the representation of the European Commission in Moscow last year.

Organisers had planned to call the authorities of the European Union to ban the entrance of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to the EU states due to the systematic violations of human rights enshrined in Russian legislation and International conventions as well as the unlawful bans of public protests.

On 25th June 2007, Prefecture of the Central Administrative Area of Moscow allowed the event with up to 60 participants, to take place.

However, right before the start of the picket, organisers were given another letter signed by deputy prefect Gelina Boryatinskaya dated 26th June in which the picketing was banned due to rebuilding works next to the office of the European Commission representative.The prefecture said this created a threat to the security of the participants and provided no alternative location for the event.

Some activists, however, decided to go ahead with event. Around 25 activists showed up to take part in the picket with placards carrying the slogans “Luzhkov: Moscow – Strasbourg – The Hague” and “Europe, Ban Luzhkov’s EU entrance.”

Three of the participants, including the chief organiser Kirill Nepomnyaschiy, were arrested by the police and taken to the Yakimanka police station. They were released three hours later.In their complaint to Taganski district court organisers maintained that prefecture breached the time limits set by the law for the consideration of the notifications and did not offer any alternative place or time of the event.

On 14 February, the Moscow City court confirmed the decision of the lower court, dismissing the appeal of the organisers.The representative of the prefecture said in court on Wednesday that prefecture did not ban the event but terminated it due to security reasons.

If this is the case they were not obliged to offer any alternative place.

In their application to the European Court of Human Rights the claimants insist that the ban of the picketing on 27th June 2007 and its further confirmation in Russian courts breached a number of Articles of the European Convention, including Article 11 (right to freedom of assembly), Article 14 (ban on discrimination) in conjunction with Article 11 and Article 13 (right to court protection).

“The application which we sent to the European Court on Monday is only the first one which deals with the bans of public events of sexual minorities in Moscow not connected with Gay Pride events. Currently we are finishing our work on several similar cases”, said organizer of Moscow Gay Pride Nikolai Alekseev.

He also suggests that “Moscow authorities actually ban any public events of gays and lesbians in the city which contradicts Russian legislation and European Convention on the protection of Human Rights”.

Organisers of Moscow Pride reminded that “two complaints concerning the ban of Moscow Pride events in May 2006 and May 2007 are already in the European Court awaiting consideration. In the light of the earlier legal positions expressed by Strasbourg court we have no doubts in the positive decision”

Since the 1950s, the island’s autocratic government has managed to transform the fishing village to a global, modern city. Long gone is the idyllic lifestyle associated with a tropical island life. Sky scrapers rule the skies as the little villages (they prefer to call it slums) vanish, Google has become our main source of information and up to 44 per cent of our adults are myopic due to staring too much at textbooks, TV and computer screens.

You would think that such a diverse, modern country, which ranks 25th on the Human Development Index would be open about our sexuality.

Think again.

When the British left Asia, their gift to their former colonies were the democratic parliamentary system, legal system based on English law, a civil service based on British models, educational system, left hand diving and debts. We can go on and on about the flaws of the school system and the unfairness of the debts, but what we shall talk about today is the law section of 337A.

337A basically says that sex , or ‘gross indecent act’ between two men is illegal. Such acts are punishable by imprisonment for up to 2 years. To uphold the law, there are strict censorship laws in place, which prohibits the display or promotion of any same-sex lifestyle.

For example, the 2007 Xbox game “Mass Effect” was ban in Singapore due as it contains a scene of lesbian intimacy.

Douglas Sanders, a professor in law at the Chualalongkorn University in Bangkok was kicked out of Singapore for wanting to give his public talk on the section 377 during at IndigNation in 2007.

It is not only the private sector which is bound to this censorship. According to censorship laws, no gay content, or the promotion of gay lifestyle should be depicted in free-to-air television.

In April this year, state media MediaCorp TV Channel 5 was fined S$15,000 (£5,600) for promoting a gay lifestyle. The home decorating series, ‘Find and Design’ featured a gay couple who renovated their games room into a nursery for their adopted child. It also showed shots of the couple with the child, and at the end was congratulated by the host for their new joy.

Singapore’s Programme Advisory Committee for English Programmes (PACE) said that this was unacceptable as “gay relationship should not be presented as an acceptable family unit.”

Before 2007, the act of gross indecency is punishable to both heterosexuals and homosexuals. The law forbid oral and anal sex, and it seemed like the only acceptable position for sex is good old fashion missionary. A little house keeping in Parliament then permits the these acts for heterosexuals, but not homosexuals.

This double standard enraged many gay activists, who argues that section 377A that forbids homosexuality is as ancient as the laws that forbid oral and anal sex. Keeping such double standards also highlights that the Singapore government is acknowledging that they are a bunch of homophonic who are unable to keep up with modern times (To give them credit, we young heterosexuals also complain that they are a bunch of dinosaurs that have lost touch with modern thinking).

It also go against the ideological image in which the government is trying to create Singapore to be: a vibrate, modern, diverse, global city. No developed country has laws that treat their homosexuals as second class citizens, and it seems like even though Singapore has caught up with the West’s economical ideas by forcing capitalism down our throats, but still chooses to stay behind when it comes to social liberties.

In the defence to keeping the law, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong explained to the State’s newspaper, The Strait Times that the section could not be taken out of the law, as people who oppose it do so with deep religious convictions, especially Christians and Muslims.

Singapore is a conservative country which values the conventional family unit. Therefore it is not ready to legally accept the existence of homosexuals, he added.

He also pointed out that that what homosexuals really want is more space and full acceptance by Singaporeans. By pushing for the law to be appeal, they will not gain what they want, but rather “will divide and polarise our society”

The harder the gay activist push, he cautioned, the harder the conservatives would push back.

It is the government’s job to mediate between children who are fighting and it is often not an easy task.

In a way, I do understand what he means. Singapore is a country that is build from oppression. When the People’s Action Party (PAP) won power amidst racial rioting in the 1960s, the first thing the government did was to cut away freedom of speech, illegalised demonstrations and imposed a curfew on its people.

They ‘promoted’ social harmony through a series of cultural propaganda and laws and gave all religious groups 2 days of public holiday. They imposed social studies in primary schools, encouraging the children to tolerant other races and religions. The island also decorates itself during different festivals, organised religious and ethnic understanding groups actively tells people to accept the differences and anything sort of discrimination against race and religion would not be tolerated.

Unfortunately, homosexuality was still relatively unknown during that time, otherwise PAP could also brainwash the people into accepting that we are all different.

Homosexual is a word that only came to our world around the late1980s, when the AIDS epidemic came about. It does not make things any better when Paddy Chew, the republic’s first person to declare his HIV-positive status, is a queer. (He was bisexual and recently died.)

To ask the older generation to accept homosexuality as normal is, to me, a task that is almost impossible. It goes against everything they were taught at home, school and religious classes. To them, it is as though you are telling them that the place we should be really looking forward to go is hell, and not heaven. And since the conservative, older generation has a majority in age demographics, it is safe to say that only death would bring about any change to the sunny island.

However, not all hope is lost. The country is slowly opening up. In 2004, the government had abolish the need for a permit to hold in-door talks. They have also let a few mainstream movies such as Brokeback Mountain enter. Although openly gay artist Martin Loh’s newest homosexual exhibition is said to be cancel due to logistic problems, he has, in 2003, launch a successful gay content exhibition called Men in the Raw.

In 2005, activists has also declared August a month to celebrate the country’s queer culture by launching the annual IndigNation. Pubs and bars who raised the rainbow flag outside are still in operation, and thankfully there is no recent case of people being prosecuted under the section 377A.

Most government want to place themselves in a favourable position by keeping the majority of the people happy . Section 377 is basically there to keep conservatives happy. Since our Asian values is to respect our elders, the government is trying to ‘respect’ them by not ruining their enclosed ideology of gender identity.

As for products placed on the shelves, the government can argue that heterosexuals have the right to not see any content which violates their narrow minded thinking, and so they have to be ‘protected’. Also take in mind that not only explicit images of homosexuals are ban, heterosexual men will find it impossible to find porn on the selves as well.

The dangers of section 337, I would say white elephant 337A does not lie in the present, but the future. If PAP are to be voted out, section 337 will give the new government rights to prosecute people for being themselves. Laws that can potentially hurt the people should be abolish for political reasons, not religious ones.

If we were to learn from history, we can see that mixing religion and politics usually results to war and death. Religion is a thing that can be interpreted in many ways, and people can choose what to believe and what to discard. But homosexuality is a fact, something that can be seen and touch. Not believing in God would not hurt you in anyway (since you do not believe in divine punishment) but having a law that may potentially decimate a person will definitely hurt.

I would ask, for the homosexual community to have patience in Singapore, just as I would ask the heterosexual majority to reach out and try to be more understanding. Though 337 is still enforced and we have no public education about homosexuality, there is always trusty Google to teach us the way and we are not being completely shut down for being queer.

If we as a nation (with the help of over powering propaganda of course) can overcome religious and ethnic difference, I am sure we can one day overcome the barrier of sexual orientation as well.

The National Lesbian and Gay Federation (NLGF) has today formally handed over the Irish Queer Archive (IQA) to the National Library of Ireland (NLI).

“The NLGF is delighted to donate the archive to the State”, said Ailbhe Smyth, chair of the NLGF.

The massive collection contains 250,000 press cuttings, clippings from gay magazines dating back as far as 1950s, collection of Irish lesbian and gay films, and an extensive photo collection.

But what is more priceless are the letters, dating from 1970s onwards, from individuals all across the country to support organisations. There are also letters from the queer community who wrote about the difficulties and hardship they faced. Writing these letters are the only support they had at that time.

However, the IQA does not only document the bad times, It has also shown that the situation for gay people is improving gradually.

Smyth hopes that the donation will not only educate people about the gay community’s past, but also celebrate the successful acceptance of the gay people by the public.

“Through this donation to the NLI, researchers, historians and the public will have access to material showing the incredible resilience of lesbian and gay people in seeking justice and equality in the face of silence and opposition, and the contribution of Ireland’s lesbian and gay population to the huge transformation of Irish society over the last few decades”, said Smyth.

The Wellcome Trust Centre for neuro-imaging at University College London used magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI to look into the brains of 80 men and women, including 16 gays and 15 lesbians.

They found that lesbians have a “male-like” proportion and distribution of grey matter in their brain when compared with heterosexual women.

“In homosexual women, the perirhinal cortex grey matter displayed a male-like structural pattern,” the researchers said in a paper published in the Public Library of Science. The perirhinal area is associated with social and sexual behaviour.

Another study done in Sweden claims that chemical pheromones, which affect our sense of smell, are different for gay men and straight men.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy for Science, Ivanka Savic of the Karolinska Institutet presented 12 gay men, 12 heterosexual woman and 12 heterosexual men with male sweat.

She found that both heterosexual women and gay men responded strongly when smelling male sweat which contained a chemical found in the male hormone testosterone while heterosexual men have little response.

These work reports similar findings to the widely published work of Simon LeVay in 1991.

LeVay worked on brains of both homosexual and heterosexual people who died of AIDS and found that the anterior hypothalamus, an area linked to sexual behaviour, is twice as big in heterosexual men compared to women and homosexual men.

These studies imply that the brains of the gay men have functional similarities to those of a straight women, and that homosexuality is not of a moral choice, but one of biological substrate.

However, there are some concerns in regards to the accurately of these tests. Firstly, all of the research involved a small sample size of specific place and so does not represent the wider community. Also, other studies have shown a person’s lifestyle can lead to structural brain changes.

“There are many ongoing studies in the field, and I think that we soon will have a better clarification,” Savic said to the National Geographic. “At the moment, there is no definite proofs.”

Babakhan Badalov (Babi) from Azerbaijan arrived in the UK in 2006 after being repressed and persecuted in his home country.

Azerbaijan legalised homosexuality in 2000.

However, the Muslim country is still a very conservative society and homosexuality remains an extremely taboo subject.

The 49 year-old internationally-renowned poet and artist’s work got him into trouble with the law.

He was often critical of the government and members of the regime.

He claims his sexual orientation also caused him both physical and mental grief and he endured years of bullying.

Babi’s family’s denial of his sexual orientation even led to one of his brothers threatening to kill him as he had shamed the family.

After fleeing to the UK, Babi was detained in four different detention centres for thirty-two days before being moved to Cardiff.

As a result of the beatings and bullying, Babi has only eight teeth remaining and faces a number of mental health problems such as anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal tendencies and insomnia. There is a petition and campaign website dedicated to his case.

Babi’s case, like the other high profile LGBT asylum seeker cases, highlights the problems faced by LGBT people in the asylum system.

It has been under increasing pressure and is seen as falling below the standards of a civilised nation.

A recent 12-member Independent Asylum Commission said that it failed to give sanctuary to people who genuinely need it.

Lord Ramsbotham, a former chief inspector of prisons, told the BBC:

“We are concerned at the level of the treatment of children, the treatment of women, the treatment of those with health needs, particularly mental health needs, torture survivors.

“The system is improving all the time, and we commend the strenuous efforts by Border and Immigration Agency to deal with these claims more effectively.”

The volume of people seeking asylum in the UK has fallen sharply and last year there were just over 23,000.

The report has shocked many MPs.

The then-Tory Shadow Home Secretary David Davis called the report a “shocking indictment of the asylum system under Labour.”

Peter Tatchell, a Green party candidate for Parliament and gay rights activist, went as far as saying that the system is filled with “homophobic and transphobic bias.”

“The government seems more interested in cutting asylum numbers than in ensuring fairness and justice for LGBT refugees who have fled arrest, imprisonment, torture, vigilante attacks and attempts to kill them.” he added.

The head of the Border and Immigration Agency, Lin Homer, told the BBC:

“I totally refute any suggestion that we treat asylum applicants without care and compassion.

“We operate a firm but humane system, supporting those who are vulnerable with accommodation and assistance.

“But we expect those that a court says have no genuine need for asylum to return home voluntarily, saving taxpayers the expense of enforcing their return.”

Recent high profile asylum cases include:

Jojo Yakob. In April, members of the Scottish Parliament called on the government not to deport the gay teenager to Syria.

Also in April, a decision to deport Mehdi Kazemi, a gay teenager from Iran claiming asylum, was resisted by more than 60 peers.

Mr Kazemi, now 20, was studying in England and applied for asylum after his boyfriend was arrested and reportedly executed in Tehran.

The boyfriend named Mehdi as a homosexual, and police turned up at his father’s house with a warrant to arrest him.

His asylum application was unsuccessful in the UK, so Mehdi fled to Holland. The Dutch authorities ruled he should be returned to the UK.

He successfully petitioned the Home Secretary to reconsider his case and has been given leave to remain.

Laura Alabau was ordered by the government to wed the couple after the General Direction of the Registry ruled that there is no legal impediment to stop the British couple’s marriage being carried out.

Famed as the first magistrate in Spain to make an appeal to the Constitutional Court against homosexual marriage, she has repeatedly refused to carry out same-sex marriages.

She first refused to issue a marriage licence to a lesbian couple in July 2005 and again in March last year with the British gay couple.

She said that it was not appropriate for the British to wed in Spain, as the UK does not recognise same-sex marriages.

Her appeal was thrown out on the basis that the judge was not competent to place the claim and was fined 305 euros (£240) for her prejudice.

She has so far been labelled as a homophobic with calls for her to resign.

Alabau claims that she is a victim of persecution and is being used as a ‘vehicle for propaganda’, reports the Euroweekly news.

Spain legalised same-sex marriage in 2005.

However, two non-resident foreigners cannot marry in Spain, unless one or both of them are resident in the country.

He was adopted aged 34 by the Swedish King’s second cousin Jan Bernadotte and is reported to have a frosty relationship with his royal “relatives.”

The 50-year-old, who is being sued for more than £79,000, appeared in Hamburg court on Tuesday and denied charges of fraud.

He claimed that he had sex with his flight crew boyfriend “from behind and the front.”

TheLocal.se reports that Bernadotte claims that there are several witness who can prove that they are a couple and that they even had a “dirty weekend” in Bangkok last Christmas.

Jan Bernadotte, who is only 13 years older than his adopted son, admitted in 2006 to newspaper Aftonbladet that he had agreed to the adoption in exchange for £141,000.

He says that he did it because of financial difficulties at that time.

“I think the Royal Family’s a bit cross with me,” he told Expressen in 2004.

“He certainly shouldn’t go around calling himself a Swedish prince. I’m sorry I ever adopted him.”

This is not the first time Benadotte has been in trouble with the law. In the mid-1990s, he was jailed four and a half years in Germany for bank fraud.

The trial will resume in August. 

Sponsored by Kiehl’s and Ampersand Travel, the event took place in the urban chic of Village Underground in Shoreditch.

More than 400 people were treated to Grey Goose’s unique cocktails such as ‘Summer in the City’, ‘Pomegranate and Blood Orange Martini’ and ‘Queen Bee Martini’.

As well as sipping drinks, guests danced to sets from a top DJ and TV magician Laura London performed.

Others got their future told through tarot card readings and enjoyed a relaxing back massages in the ‘chill out lounge.’

James Jayasundera, founder of Ampersand Travel said:

“We are very proud to have sponsored The Cocktail Club and are delighted that a record amount of money was raised for Terrence Higgins Trust’s vital work supporting people living with, and affected by, HIV.”

THT is the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity, providing a wide range of service across England, Wales and Scotland.

The charity also campaigns and lobbies for greater political and public understanding of the personal, social and medical impact of HIV and sexual ill health.

Gay rights organisation Stonewall is inviting the public to join the Barcelona Equality Walk, which takes place between 11th and 13th July.

Last year’s walk raised more than £50,000 and it is hoped that this year will be equally fruitful.

All funds raised will go to the organisation’s Education for All campaign, which fights homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools.

Stonewall’s School Report released last year found that 65 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils have experienced direct bullying and 97 per cent heard homophobic remarks at school.

One in three gay students reported that it is actually adults who are responsible for homophobic incidents in their school.

To raise more awareness of the issue Stonewall has introduced a new slogan, ‘Some people are gay. Get over it!’.

This new in-your-face campaign is supported by politicians and celebrities alike.

It is was also recently featured on TV show Hollyoaks, when character Kris Fisher wore the slogan on his t-shirt.

The fun-filled Barcelona weekend kicks off with a pool party on the Friday evening at Axel hotel’s rooftop.

The 10km walk starts on Saturday morning.

Participants walk in teams while taking part in a treasure hunt around the fabulous sights of Barcelona. The day then ends with a prize-giving ceremony for the winners.

Sunday is left free for personal shopping or extra sightseeing, but participants can join in an optional social brunch arranged by Stonewall, before flying home.

The non-returnable participation fee of £300 includes return flights and two nights accommodation at Axel hotel.

Stonewall recommends participants raise an additional £400 in sponsorship.

The top fundraiser will win a trip for two to New York, which includes return business class flights and accommodation, kindly sponsored by British Airways and the Royalton Hotel.

If you have problems thinking of ideas to raise the sponsorship money, Michaela Greene, deputy fundraising director for Stonewall, says it is not as hard as it seems.

“If the sponsorship seems a lot to raise, fear not – we’ve got loads of ideas to help you out.

“This has worked really well for participants from previous years who initially thought they’d have problems reaching their fundraising targets – but exceeded them after taking on ideas from our weekly fundraising bulletins.”

For fundraising ideas call 020 7593 1874.

Click here for more information and an application form for the Barcelona walk.