In an interview with Parade magazine, Pitt, 45, said having a gay child wouldn’t bother him “one bit”.

“Would it bother me if a child of mine turns out to be gay? No, not one bit. I want my kids to live the lives they want to live. I want them to be fulfilled. I hope I teach my kids to be who they really are,” he said.

Pitt, who has six children with partner Angelina Jolie, including three who were adopted, also defended the couple’s decision not to get married, saying they won’t do it until “it’s legal for everyone else”.

“When someone asked me why Angie and I don’t get married, I replied, ‘Maybe we’ll get married when it’s legal for everyone else.”

He continued: “I stand by that, although I took a lot of flak for saying it – hate mail from religious groups.”

“I believe everyone should have the same rights,” he continued. “They say gay marriage ruins families and hurts kids. Well, I’ve had the privilege of seeing my gay friends being parents and watching their kids grow up in a loving environment”.

The actor said that his views stem from his position that all people should have equality.

In September 2008, the star made a $100,000 (£54,840) donation to the campaign against Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California.

Pratt, an independent in the parliament and MP for the Nanango district of Queensland, said same-sex couples should not be given the right to adopt children, reports the Courier Mail.

“I must say I was very pleased there was no allowance in this bill for homosexual couples to adopt a child,” she said.

Pratt added: “I feel very strongly about that particular thought that . . . I’m not saying they aren’t loving people, I’m not saying they wouldn’t be fabulous parents, but I am saying that in my opinion a child deserves a mother and a father if possible and that whether you regard homosexual activity as a normal part of life or not, I don’t.

“And as far as I’m concerned, nature intended that a male and a female came together to reproduce and bear a child, and influence it in all aspects of the male world and the female world and gives it a balanced view.”

The comments came after the Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd vowed to uphold the country’s anti gay marriage laws at the Labor Party’s conference last week.

Other MPs at the Queensland parliament spoke out against Pratt’s comments. Christine Smith, MP for Burleigh, spoke at the debate, voicing her support for same-sex adoption.

“I acknowledge people have very strong and opposing views on the sensitive issue of same sex adoption,” she said.

She added: “I believe that same sex couples should be assessed by the same standards as any other couple on their suitability to adopt.”

Peta Kaye-Croft, MP for Broadwater, said she found Pratt’s comments “highly offensive”.

The school, based in the US, is the first of its kind and is a part of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning.

David Glick, who founded the school, has worked as educational consultant for online schooling since 2003 and has been a teacher for over 25 years.

The school aims to “provide a safe and welcoming educational community that provides a high quality. . .online high school experience for students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning their sexual orientation or gender”.

“Diversity, multicultural education… has been a big interest of mine, and what the school system does or does not do for disenfranchised students,” Glick said.

According to the 2007 National School Climate Survey, undertaken in the US and released by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, researchers found that nearly nine out of ten LGBT students experienced harassment at school.

More than half of the students questioned said that they felt unsafe in school because of their sexuality and nearly 32 per cent admitted to skipping classes as a result of the harassment.

The students, on average, had a grade point average of almost half a grade lower than their classmates, which the report attributed to their harassment.

The concept for the LGBT online high school was originally launched in November and has since received dozens of applications from across the US.

The school aims to be open and accepting to applicants from different academic backgrounds. Glick said: “We also recognise that some students might have poor academic or behavioural histories. We see that as a natural part that have led to many things.”

He continued: “In one of the applications that we have, a girl said that, ‘I got sick of being teased as being butch, and I punched someone in the nose’.”

Glick hopes that the online school will provide a “safe” forum for “academic discussions about things that most schools would run away from”.

The school’s curriculum will include an LGBT studies class for students to learn about LGBT politics and history as well as containing more mainstream courses.

In 1985, a school for LGBT children was opened in New York.

The Harvey Milk High School, named after the civil rights campaigner, was created to allow students to transfer there if they were facing violence or harassment.

It became a fully-accredited high school in 2002 after the state board of education granted it a large amount of funding following the school’s excellent academic record.

With modern HIV advertising focusing less on condom use, are the younger generation being ill-advised on the dangers of unsafe sex?

The Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), Britain’s largest sexual health charity, has recently launched a campaign called ‘THIVK’ aimed at knowing your HIV status and getting tested. It is the first ‘testing’ campaign in ten years.

Advertising advocating condom use has become harder to find, with many gay magazines containing none at all.

THT itself has come under scrutiny over its refusal to use hard-hitting campaigns because it does not want to “demonise” HIV sufferers.

The modern promotions are a world apart from the infamous ‘tombstone’ and ‘iceberg’ ads of the 1980s.

But it appears many people still “die of ignorance”. With infection rates among gay men climbing 110 per cent between 1999-2007 (1,450 cases to 3,050), there is an argument for more hard-hitting campaigns.

I spoke to a 20-year-old gay student about his views on safe sex. He said: “Condoms are really important. I always try to use them.” But he added: “Sometimes I forget though, especially when I’m drunk.”

This highlights a growing trend among young gay men who, while knowing the importance of condoms, don’t see it as a priority.

Spike Rhodes, an HIV activist who is HIV-positive, spoke to PinkNews.co.uk about HIV advertising and raising awareness among younger gays.

“Across the scene there is a general relaxing to attitudes towards condom-only sex. Especially with the increase in ‘bareback’ films. . . which are everywhere.”

In regards to more hard-hitting advertising, he said: “I don’t think scaring [people] will help. It will just cause people to turn off and ignore it. The only way forward is . . . to wake up the entire gay community.”

On ‘THIVK’, he said: “It’s great. The ad is very strong but there is fear attached to it [knowing your status].”

Rhodes suggests going further, saying that one shock tactic should be to make HIV tests part of STI screenings, as people have been given the chance to “be adult” about their choices but some are still endangering others.

“When someone comes in with something like gonorrhoea then they’ve been having unprotected sex and chances are they could be infected with HIV.”

“If you know [your status],” he said, then help is available. “If you don’t know and are too scared to take the test. . .then one day you’ll get very ill, and suddenly find yourself in hospital with pneumonia and have no immune system left and then it may be too late for the pills. Then you could die. People do still die from this”.

While Rhodes does make a point for knowing your status, shouldn’t there also be a move to break the blasé attitude that has developed towards condoms?

His arguments suggest mandatory testing would mean people could no longer have “their heads in the sand” and could maybe have a more positive effect on attitudes than shock advertising that people can ignore.

Paul Burston, author of ‘The Gay Divorcee’ also spoke to PinkNews.co.uk about HIV charities.

Burston said: “On the whole I don’t think they are meeting the needs of the people they’re targeting.”

He attacked modern campaigning, aimed more at those who are regularly unsafe, as giving mixed messages that “bare-backing is [apparently] normal”.

“It’s one thing to say ‘don’t demonise them’ [HIV sufferers], which is right, but it’s another thing to not demonise the images that show bare-backing is normal.”

When I suggested that anti-smoking ads do not demonise cancer sufferers, Burston said “That is a really good argument.”

“For those of us who are 40-plus. . .we didn’t need ‘icebergs’, we saw friends die in hospital. The younger generation, thankfully, haven’t witnessed this, and only get these mixed messages from the campaigns.”

He revealed that he had seen a senior HIV policy officer admit gays had been let down.

Burston also noted how, at an event in Liverpool, a 22-year-old told him he was more worried about catching gonorrhoea than HIV.

“What we need is a much more clear campaign aimed at the [gay] general population saying ‘use a condom”,” he said.

Campaigns that “target the majority of men, who use a condom but occasionally slip up” would be more effective, Burston said, as “the message would seep through to” those who are regularly unsafe.

“Bare-backing is just the nice term we use for unsafe sex,” he added.

Burston recalled a campaign in San Francisco a few years ago which coincided with a huge rise in HIV infections. It showed HIV sufferers talking about the realities of combination therapy and how they couldn’t have a normal life.

Subsequently, he said, the infection rates went “right down”.

So while we see some praise for HIV charities moving to get people to know their status, both agree that more needs to be done.

Yusef Azad, the director of policy and campaigns for the National AIDS Trust said: “The sector as a whole needs to constantly look at what we’re doing along the lines of HIV prevention.”

On previous campaigns, such as one which advocating pulling out and ejaculating on a partner’s back, he said there is a need for “targeting particular groups of gay men who engage in a lot of high risk sex” but also a need to “reiterate and reinforce key messages about condom use”.

He added: “There is not much value in beating ourselves up about the past but to look to the future and what we can do.”

Marc Thompson, deputy head of health promotion at THT, said that it was about giving gay men information to make their own choices.

“Condom use is very important,” he said, citing THT’s ‘Get it On’ campaign which focused on condom use, “but knowing your status is equally important”.

Citing undiagnosed HIV cases, he added: “We identified other issues that need to be dealt with.”

“One third of people with HIV don’t know they have it,” he said. “We also know that some men choose not to use condoms.”

“We know that about 80 per cent of gay men use condoms nearly all the time.”

“What we try to say is ‘it’s your choice’. Here is the information to make it safer for you. It’s about giving out information. . .so that people can make informed, educated decisions for themselves.”

On bareback porn, Thompson added: “I don’t think there is any evidence that the rise in barebacking is a direct result of the rise in bareback porn.”

He went on to say: “With some people its a case of ‘monkey-see-monkey-do’ but most don’t [take away that message]“.

So we see that, while many people defend the modern campaigning used, many are calling for more to be done to bring to light the importance of condom use and it seems this point remains a contentious issue.

The report also advises that parents, young people and their families “avoid sexual orientation treatments that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder”.

Ex-gay therapy is practiced by a number of religious organisations. It has been condemned as ineffective at best and deeply damaging at worst.

The APA declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973.

Judith Glassgold, chair of the task force assigned to the study, said: “There is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation.”

She added: “Contrary to the claims of SOCE [sexual orientation change efforts] practitioners and advocates, recent research studies do not provide evidence of sexual orientation change.”

The 138-report, which analysed 83 studies, also listed prescribed methods in which mental health professionals can deal with those who are struggling with their sexuality.

“Practitioners can assist clients through therapies that do not attempt to change sexual orientation, but rather involve acceptance, support and identity exploration and development without imposing a specific identity outcome,” Glassgold added.

“In other words, we recommend that psychologists be completely honest about the likelihood of sexual orientation change, and that they help clients explore their assumptions and goals with respect to both religion and sexuality,” she continued, citing religious beliefs as a major cause for distress over orientation.

This report comes after ex-gay centres in the US were thrown back into the spotlight with news on gay exorcisms taking place and on the disappearance of medical student Bryce Faulkner, who is thought to have been sent to one of these centres.

In a recent report by PinkNews.co.uk on the ex-gay movement, it was found that even the heads of the ex-gay movement agree with the APA’s assertion that “at most . . . some individuals learned how to ignore or not act on their homosexual attractions” and that sexual orientation cannot be changed.

Exodus International, one of the largest ex-gay ministries in the world, now teaches this very message: “Change in orientation is not possible.”

The APA’s report added that it was unclear how long ‘ignoring’ these attractions lasted or or what the long-term mental health effects are. Also, this result was much less likely to be true for people who started out only attracted to people of the same sex, it found.

The study also found that “attempts to change sexual orientation may cause or exacerbate distress and poor mental health in some individuals, including depression and suicidal thoughts.”

In a statement, Exodus International said: “While Exodus does not fully agree with the APA’s criticisms of clinical techniques such as reparative therapy and its view of sexual orientation change, the report does recognise that some choose to live their lives in congruence with religious values.

“Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, says that not only is faith is an essential part of life for many gay men and women, it is almost always the motivating factor behind their decision to leave it behind.”

Earlier this year, research found that one in six therapists in Britain had tried to turn gay people straight.

The list found America to have the best gay watering-holes, with 31 of the 60 bars being in the United States. New York and Chicago took four spots each.

These ranged from famous club spots such as New York’s Splash and Miami’s Twist, to Bs West in Scottsdale, Arizona, described as a “flip-flop and shorts dive bar”.

London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern was also included. The famed pub, which stands on the grounds of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the notorious Victorian cruising site, is famous for its cabaret and drag acts, which have included such legends as the late Danny LaRue.

Heaven was the other London club to make it onto the shortlist, described as “a pioneer in the formerly underground gay nightlife of London” and noted for its live acts which have included Cher and Grace Jones.

Scotland was also included, with Glasgow’s Polo Lounge making it into the list over the Edinburgh scene.

The major US cities were well represented, with bars in Seattle, Portland, Philadelphia and Austin all being chosen, including two in Los Angeles and even bars from smaller gay communities such as those in Ohio or Kentucky.

The European continent played host to nine of the shortlist, with Paris’s Le Queen being arguably the largest. Paris has the best gay bars in Europe according to the list, taking three spots, with Berlin, Barcelona and Prague among the other places to be.

There were also some interesting inclusions. The Fusion Bar in Kathmandu, Nepal, is described as”the best spot for evening cocktails and live music”. Although the crowd is apparently “mostly straight” it is “almost exclusively ex-pat” and the place to be in the small Asian country.

Another interesting inclusion was Vietnam, which had two additions to the list (as many as San Francisco) including Hanoi’s GC (Golden Cock) bar, said to be full of “ex-pats, transvestites, and hairless Hanoi hipsters”. Caution is given, however, to those attending the bar, which is “often raided by local police”.

To see the entire list, click here

‘Yeh Chanda Kanoon Hai’, an Indian courtroom television show, is to include a court case on gay rights in its new series.

It is not yet clear what the storyline will involve, but scriptwriters are currently in discussions with the show’s research team.

The show is a darkly comic courtroom drama that is well-known for dealing with current events.

Manoj Santoshi, a writer for the show, told Realbollywood.com: “Both the subjects are sensitive and as we do not want to hurt anyone’s sentiments thus we are discussing it to the length with our research team.”

A battle for gay rights is currently ongoing in the country after the Delhi High Court decriminalised homosexuality last month under the grounds that it violated the constitutional rights.

The move was met with hostility from the country’s conservative and religious groups and was challenged at the country’s Supreme Court by self-styledHindu astrologer Sushil Kumar Kaushal and yoga guru Swami Baba Ramdev.

The Supreme Court refused to give a ruling on the decision and instead left it to the government to decide. No ruling has been given as of yet by the Indian government and the contentious issue has sparked fierce debate within the country.

The Humsafar Trust, an Indian LGBT group estimates that there are approximately 70 million gay, lesbian and trans people in India.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, which is due to come into full effect on October 1st, will remove the “need for a father” in IVF treatment and instead place a requirement on “supportive parenting”. It means that lesbian couples will no longer face discrimination from health services.

It also means that when a lesbian couple have a child, the non-birth mother no longer has to adopt the child in order to be named joint legal guardian on the birth certificate.

The right will be automatic for civil partners or couples who use a licensed fertility clinic.

Ruth Hunt, Stonewall’s head of policy and research, said the guide will help people in “knowing your new rights” and how to “make full use of the services they’re entitled to – and if discrimination occurs, the same knowledge can help them demand fair treatment”.

She added: “Now lesbian couples in Britain who make a considered decision to start a loving family will finally be afforded equal access to services they help fund as taxpayers.”

The guide, entitled ‘Pregnant Pause’, is available to download here.

Director Guy Ritchie’s version will see Holmes and Dr Watson sharing a bed and wrestling. Ritchie has not said the characters will be gay, but there is likely to be plenty of homoerotic tension.

The film, based on the detective stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, features Robert Downey Jr as the famous detective and Jude Law as his sidekick, Dr Watson.

Former New York Post film critic Michael Medved told the newspaper: “There’s not a seething, bubbling hunger to see straight stars impersonating homosexuals. I think they’re just trying to generate controversy.”

Medved, who is a self-proclaimed conservative and famous for adding a family suitability rating to his film reviews, added: “They know that making Holmes and Watson homosexual will take away two-thirds of their box office. Who is going to want to see Downey Jr and Law make out? I don’t think it would be appealing to women. Straight men don’t want to see it.”

However, Jason Starr, a New York-based thriller writer, defended the move. He said: “This sounds like exactly the type of updating the series needs to attract a new generation. Playing up the homoerotic undercurrents in ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’ worked rather well. If Conan Doyle was writing today, he would have been much more provocative with the characters.”

Downey Jr revealed the new twist in an interview with the News of the World in February.

He said the pair will have lots of sweaty grappling scenes.

“We’re two men who happen to be roommates, wrestle a lot and share a bed. It’s bad-ass. Guy [Ritchie] wanted to make this about the relationship between Watson and Holmes. They’re both mean and complicated,” he said.

The film is set to be released on Boxing Day.

Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, two divorced mothers in their 30s who have been together since 2003, challenged the country’s law when they were turned away from a registry office in Lisbon in 2006 after trying to wed.

The registry office rejected their attempt to marry on the grounds that the law states that marriage is between people of different genders.

The couple challenged the ruling on the grounds that the Portuguese constitution also forbids discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

They took their case to a Lisbon court in 2006 but the case failed.

After considering their appeal, the constitutional court said in a statement that the constitution does not state that same-sex marriages must be permitted.

The five judges of the court are reported to have voted 3-2 on the appeal.

Paixao told Associated Press she regarded the decision as “a victory” because the split decision showed that attitudes were changing in Portugal.

“It shows there’s a change coming. Bit by bit people will come around and accept gay marriage,” she said.

The couple are planning on taking their appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Portugal, which has a large Roman Catholic population, has seen all previous efforts to instigate same-sex marriage hit by heavy resistance from the country’s religious groups and conservative politicians.

The country’s centre-left Socialist Party are, however, including a proposal to permit same-sex marriage in their manifesto for the upcoming general election, due to take place in September.

The student, known only as ‘Jeremy’, was turned away from his senior prom in May when he showed up in a dress at the George Washington high school in Guam where he was studying.

Guam is a US territory situated in the western Pacific ocean, close to Japan.

Jeremy, who reportedly identifies as gay rather than trans, told KUAM News he felt discriminated against by school officials.

“I said, ‘Where does it state in this rule in this paper that there’s no cross-dressing, no individualism and no opposite genders? It doesn’t say anything’. And that’s wrong,” he said.

The student is said to have spent over $400 on clothes, shoes and makeup for the prom, which he says all went to waste because he wasn’t allowed to attend.

Recently, Jeremy met with school officials about the matter to demand a refund on his ticket and on the items he purchased for the event, as well as a public apology. While he was refunded for his ticket, the school refuses to refund the items purchased or to apologise.

Begona Flores, principal of George Washington high school, said: “There’s no need to make a public apology, because we weren’t the ones that put it out in the public. He was the one that did so. There’s no need for a public apology from any of us, according to legal counsel.”

She added: “He knew the attire. This is for male, this is for female. And he made the conscious decision to buy something else. So why should we be responsible? You cannot pick and chose when you want to be. You want to be this, then not this time. When you start picking and choosing, there’s no consistency here. And so we cannot blame other people because when I see Jeremy here, he’s a boy.”

Jeremy has apparently dressed in male clothing and expressed his gender as male while in school, so school personnel say they were not unreasonably surprised when he arrived at the prom in a gown.

Flores insists that it is the decision of the Department of Education and the Guam Education Policy Board to come up with any trans policies to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

But she added: “I am not going to personally put myself in that position [of drafting a policy] because I don’t believe in it. I don’t believe in it because I have my own [personal] beliefs and I am not going to deviate from them.”

Jeremy has said that all he wants is fairness in the system, to ensure all people are treated the same and not differently because of their sexuality.

Homosexuality was decriminalised in Guam in 1979 and the country also has laws in place banning all discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. The island’s legislature is currently embroiled in a debate over whether to allow same-sex civil unions.

He used the gay slur in a press briefing at the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) American football preview in Salt Lake City.

McMackin, who coaches the University of Hawaii team, used the world ‘faggot’ to describe a cheer used by the Notre Dame players before last year’s Hawaii Bowl.

“They get up and do this little cheer,” he said. “Like this little faggot dance”.

After continuing with the conference, McMackin paused and said to reporters: “Don’t write that ‘faggot’ down. I was misquoted.”

With WAC commissioner Karl Benson in attendance at the meeting, McMackin pleaded again with journalists not to report the slur, saying: “Please cover for me on that. . . I’ll deny it.”

He added: “I want to officially, officially apologise. Please don’t write that statement I said as far as Notre Dame. The reason is, I don’t care about Notre Dame. . . I don’t want to come out and have every homosexual ticked off at me.”

Later, when Benson reportedly asked McMackin to re-address the media, the coach said: “I would sincerely like to apologise for the inappropriate verbage and words that I used. . . I don’t have any prejudices, and it really makes me mad that I even said that. I’m disappointed in myself.”

He blamed his own “very competitive” nature and the loss against Notre Dame for his comment, adding: “What I was trying to do was be funny and it wasn’t funny. It’s not funny, and even more, it isn’t funny to me. I was trying to make a joke and it was a bad choice of words.”

Benson followed McMackin’s statements, saying that the incident was “primarily. . . a University of Hawaii issue. At the appropriate time we will be able to address it”.

Hawaii posted an additional statement of apology by McMackin on its website. 

President Obama will bestow the honour to the murdered San Francisco supervisor along with 15 others, including lesbian tennis legend Billie Jean King and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Speaking to the Washington Times, Stuart Milk, Harvey’s nephew, said: “My uncle would be so proud of this high honour.”

Stuart will accept the award on behalf of his uncle at the White House ceremony on August 12th.

State senator Tom Ammiano, a former San Francisco supervisor, who is openly gay, said that he was thrilled with the announcement, saying it was “excellent” and “a good gesture for him [Obama] politically,” but added: “If Harvey was alive today, he would say, ‘Thanks for the honour – now repeal those bills’.”

The news has come after months of frustration from gay rights groups over Obama’s lack of action with ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and the federal marriage law, and many, while applauding the decision, have said that the president can do more.

Gloria Nieto, a lesbian activist and former chair of the Democratic National Committee’s gay and lesbian caucus, said that while the LGBT community applauds the decision to honour Milk, the movement often goes “two steps forward, one step back”.

Nieto added that it sent the message: “That our leaders are equal to Desmond Tutu and others who have made huge contributions to the world, as Harvey and Billie Jean did.”

Milk became the first openly gay politician elected to public office in a major US city in 1977, when he was elected to the Board of Supervisors in the city of San Francisco.

A year later, after a struggle with Christian activist Anita Bryant over a national anti-gay ‘save the children’ crusade, Milk and San Francisco mayor George Moscone were assassinated by former city supervisor Dan White.

Milk’s life and political struggles were recently portrayed in an eponymous film, which took home two Oscars, for the script and for Sean Penn’s portrayal of the icon.

Other recipients of the award, which was established by President Truman in 1945 to recognise civilian efforts in world war II, are actor Sidney Poitier, physicist Stephen Hawking and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to sit on the high court.

The law, which came into effect in April, has reportedly led to greater discrimination against gays and lesbians, with many being fired from their jobs, facing violence from family and neighbours and being evicted from their homes.

The HRC made these comments in the publication of its multimedia project, “Forbidden: Institutionalising Discrimination against Gays and Lesbians in Burundi”.

The project contains narratives, photographs and voice-recorded testimonials of Burundian gays and lesbians, which highlights the community’s daily struggles.

Georgette Gagnon, director of the HRC in Africa, said: “The government needs to listen to these voices to understand the harm it is doing to Burundians with its state-sanctioned discrimination

“The government should rescind this law and instead work to promote equality and understanding.”

The project highlights the entrenched homophobia within the country, with participants saying how, even before the adoption of the new law, they couldn’t go to the police or courts for protection from homophobic abuse.

Mike, 17, one of the LGBT Burundians in the project, said: “Many youths are closed-minded about homosexuality, because they don’t understand exactly what it is.”

Cynthia, a 25-year-old waitress and another participant, told the HRC: “I was shocked when I heard about the new law against homosexuality. I want them to give us liberty. We are people like everyone else. It’s God who created us. The law won’t change us.”

In April, President Pierre Nkurunziza brought into effect a bill that made homosexuality an offence punishable by up to two years in prison, sparking worldwide condemnation.

The HRC is urging the Burundian government, through this project, to repeal the law and to put an end to the suffering of its LGBT citizens.

Rock, 38, who is famous for his foul-mouthed and aggressive tendencies, said in an interview with Rolling Stone: “It’s gay. If one more person asks me if I have a Twitter, I’m going to tell them, ‘Twitter this ****, mother****er’.”

He continued: “I don’t have anything to say, and what I have to say is not that relevant. Anything that is relevant, I’m going to bottle it up and then squeeze it onto a record somewhere.”

GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, commented on the slur. Senior director of media programmes, Rashad Robinson, said in a statement: “Such a misuse of the word ‘gay’ sends a message that these kinds of words can be used to insult our community.

“It reinforces what so many young people experience in their schools everyday, where a word that describes who they are is used to denigrate. We see today that media recognize the disrespectful nature of using this word as a pejorative and we hope Kid Rock will take this opportunity to clarify his word choice and educate his fans on the harms of such uses.”

Rock, who was briefly married to actress Pamela Anderson in 2006, has gotten into trouble for gay slurs before.

When the couple were speaking to GQ in 2006, Rock was chastised by his then wife for saying that singing U2′s “With or Without You” at their wedding would “take the gay metre right to the end”.

She replied: “That’s enough of the ‘gay’ word. That’s not nice.” When Rock joked that “all the kids are using it” the former ‘Baywatch’ star snapped: “No, they’re not. As long as it’s used in a positive context”.

Kid Rock is thought to be releasing a new album soon, as a follow up to 2007′s ‘Rock n Roll Jesus’.

Hammarberg, who yesterday published an issue paper titled ‘Human rights and gender identity’, said: “The situation of transgender persons has long been ignored and neglected, although the problems they face are very real and often specific to this group alone.”

In his paper, Hammarberg included a call for better access to work and healthcare for trans people, as well as better provisions being made for married trans people.

“In some countries there is a legal obligation that a transgender person who is legally married to his or her different-sex partner has to divorce before his or her new gender can be recognised,” he said, citing the problems this causes when the couple can not remarry if their country does not allow same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage is only legal in five European states.

Hammarberg attacked the “forced divorce” that takes place in order for a married trans person to have “their new gender being officially recognised”.

He also commented on the “impact on the children in the marriage” such divorces have, adding: “In several countries the parent who has undergone the gender change will lose custody rights of the children.”

Hammarberg’s call for greater and all-encompassing rights for trans people was announced from this week’s World Outgames 2009, which is being held in Copenhagen.

The men were robbed after being lured to a private place by someone they met on a gay chat line.

The two incidents, which police believe are linked, are being investigated and the police are working with Haringey LGBT network to publish advice on safely using these services.

Detective constable Michael Shipley of Haringey’s robbery squad said: “If you are arranging to meet with someone via a chat line or chat room, please exercise caution.

“You may have established an online phone friendship, but to all intents and purposes they are a stranger and should be treated as such.”

Shipley added: “Don’t rush into arranging to meet someone and don’t be pressurised into it. Most importantly, if you do decide to meet with someone, do so in a public place where there are CCTV cameras and other people.”

Haringey police are currently examining phone records and CCTV footage to help identify a suspect and have stated that they are treating the incidents very seriously, urging any other victims to come forward.

Anyone with information can telephone DC Shipley on 020 8345 0870, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or contact the Haringey LGBT network on 020 8889 9555 or via their website www.haringeyLGBTnetwork.org.uk
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He was speaking ahead of the Australian Labor Party’s national conference, which begins in Sydney on Thursday. The gay marriage issue will be discussed at the conference.

Rallies in support of gay marriage are set to be held around the country on Friday.

His comments come despite moves within his centre-left party to have the ban overturned.

Rudd told ABC News: “We are consistent with the policy that we took to the last election.”

He added that his party “fully respects the integrity of same-sex relationships”.

Rudd said Labor will not change its opposition to same-sex marriage, commenting that marriage should be a union between a man and a woman.

This was amidst growing media speculation that he will face a groundswell of support for same-sex marriage at the conference.

The issue was thrown into the spotlight this week when the Labor Party in Tasmania state voted for the Marriage Act to be amended to allow for same-sex unions.

A recent poll suggested that up to 60 per cent of Australians support gay marriage and the Bureau of Statistics announced in May that it would count same-sex couples who declared themselves married in the national census.

The “interactive” Bible had been placed on a stand with pens and the message: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.”

However, the messages did not turn out as expected, with many people writing messages such as “f*** the bible” and “This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all”.

One message said: “I am bi, female & proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this.”

As a result of the protests this received, the Bible has been placed behind a glass case, with paper and pens placed beside it for comments. These will then be inserted into the Bible later.

Yesterday more than 100 people turned up outside Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art to protest the work.

The Vatican has also described it as “disgusting”.

The Pope’s adviser said it was “disgusting and offensive”.

“They would not think of doing it to the Koran,” he added.

The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), an LGBT ministry which organised the event had said that it wanted to “reclaim the Bible as a sacred text”.

Jane Clarke, one of the artists and a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church, said she had not intended any offence.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, she said: “I am saddened that some people have chosen to write offensive messages.

“Writing our names in the margins of a Bible was to show how we have been marginalised by many Christian churches, and also our desire to be included in God’s love.

“As a young Christian I was encouraged by my church to write my own insights in the margins of the Bible I used for my devotions – this was an extension of that idea.”

The exhibition also included a woman ripping pages out of a Bible and stuffing them into her bra, knickers and mouth.

The MCC was founded in southern California in 1968, as a “positive ministry to gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender persons”.

Tennant, who plays the title character in Doctor Who, introduced Barrowman at the comic and sci-fi convention before going in for the kiss.

Barrowman, who is openly gay, reacted by laughing and pretending to faint. He was at the convention to promote the start of the new Torchwood mini-series, Children of Earth, in the US.

To see the video, scroll down.