Following the last Tony Blair Government reshuffle, PinkNews.co.uk in conjunction with Andrew Pierce, then of The Times, investigated why Ruth Kelly, a well known member of the right-wing Catholic group Opus Dei had been appointed Minister for Equality. The end result was the front-page question on The Independent “Ruth Kelly: Minister for Sin?” and a lead story on the ITV News.

Tony Blair thought his cabinet reshuffle would end the media’s obsession with his minister’s private lives and would mean he could get back to politics, but thanks to research by PinkNews.co.uk, the Prime Minister’s judgement has yet again been called into question.
Gay groups, MPs and the media have this week questioned the wisdom of appointing Ruth Kelly as Minister for Women and Equality.

The row was sparked after it was revealed she has never voted for gay rights and is a member of a controversial Christian group, Opus Dei, which views homosexuality as a sin.

A PinkNews.co.uk investigation into the 39-year-old’s voting record discovered that on 22nd June 1998, she was absent from the Crime and Disorder Bill to reduce the age of consent, as she was on the 1st March 1999 and the 10th February when the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill sought to achieve the same goal (the first having been rejected by the Lords).

On the 24th October 2001, she was absent from the voting on the Relationships (Civil Registration) motion that was the catalyst for introducing the Civil Partnerships bill in Parliament.

On the 29th October 2001, she was absent from the third reading of the Adoption and Children Bill (Programme), to allow gay couples to adopt, as she was on further votes on the same subject on 16th May 2002, 20th May 2002 and the 4th November 2002. On the 10th March 2003, she was absent from the vote to repeal section 28 which banned local authorities from promoting homosexuality as a valid lifestyle.

On the 12th October 2004, she was absent from the vote on the Civil Partnerships Bill, as she was on the 9th November 2004.

Speaking on ITV News last night,PinkNews.co.uk editor, Benjamin Cohen asked: “Will she be voting for the legislation that her department is going to be bringing forward?” Adding: “She has to vote for these, she has to turn up which she hasn’t done before

Responding to whether Ms Kelly is entitled to hold her own personal religious views, Mr Cohen added: “I completely believe that Ruth Kelly should be allowed to have her own personal religious beliefs but the question is ‘how will this impact her role as Minister for Women and Equality.’”

The Minister for Women and Equality, who celebrated her birthday in controversial circumstances yesterday, appeared on BBC Radio5 Live yesterday amid a media frenzy which has seen follow ups on the row in the Times, BBC News, Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Telegraph and the front page of the Independent.

The presenter, Nicky Campbell asked her three times if she viewed homosexual acts as sin, Ms Kelly failed to give a clear answer, she said: “I don’t think its right for politicians to start making moral judgments about people, it’s the last thing I want to do.

“The questions is what are my political views and as a politician I think everyone should be free of discrimination.

“Is it possible to be a Catholic and hold a portfolio in government, the answer is emphatically yes. I am responsible for holding to the collective cabinet view on these matters but I firmly believe in equality and that everyone should be free of discrimination and I will fight to the end to make sure that’s the case.”

She added, “Everybody is entitled to express their views in free votes on matters of conscience and I’ve always made clear that as a member of parliament I’ve cast my vote according to conscience but I’m also a member of the government its my duty to see through equality and I’m passionate to see there is no discrimination.”

In a poll of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) readers of the gay news website,PinkNews.co.uk over the last weekend, 93% of the sample of 344 asked, agreed with the statement “Tony Blair should reconsider appointing Ruth Kelly as Minister for Women and Equality.”

Following her first full day as Minister for Women and Equality, Ms Kelly told PinkNews.co.uk: “People should be allowed to decide how they live their lives. I believe in a tolerant, diverse, multicultural society where everyone is protected from discrimination.

“I will fight discrimination, whether it be on the grounds of race, gender, disability or sexual orientation.”

Downing Street immediately defended Ms Kelly yesterday. The Prime Minister’s spokesman, said: “She repeatedly said she supported the decisions taken by the Government in this area. She repeatedly said she is totally opposed to discrimination of any kind whatsoever. She pointed out she pushed the equality agenda when she was at the Cabinet Office.”

Speaking to PinkNews.co.uk following the appointment of Ms Kelly, the veteran Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich and chairman of the Transport select committee, Gwyneth Dunwoody said: “I’m glad the Prime Minister has a sense of humour when it comes to appointing a Minister for Women and Equality and I look forward to developments with great interest.” Adding: “I think that the Prime Minister has an interesting approach to the creation of a cabinet.”

Katie Hanson, a Hackney Labour councillor and chairperson of the Labour Campaign for Gay and Lesbian Rights told PinkNews.co.uk: “Obviously Ms Kelly’s voting record is a cause for concern and we will be watching carefully for any tonal change in policy.

“As we near completion of the consultation on goods and services, and put the finishing touches to the LCGLR position, we hope to continue the serious cordial relationship we have enjoyed with the likes of Alan Johnson.”

Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon told PinkNews.co.uk: “It doesn’t help that the cabinet sponsor for gay rights who through her religious views does not support full equality. To have someone who is a keen supporter is important as most of these issues are free votes that need
Parliamentary time to succeed.

“I have no idea if the Prime Minister considered the implications for the gay community of appointing someone like Ms Kelly to this sensitive post. What I do know is that he always considers the DailyMail view of life before making a decision.”
Lorely Burt, the Liberal Democrats spokeswoman on equality, said: “How can the gay community trust legislation to be properly implemented when Ruth Kelly
has such an ambiguous record on gay rights?

“Ruth Kelly urgently needs to come clean about whether she agrees with her own department’s policies on equality issues. Blair’s reshuffle tried to reduce bad headlines but has so far only succeeded in shifting trouble from one department to another.”
Ben Summerskill, the Chief Executive of the gay rights group Stonewall said that Ms Kelly’s religious views were “a private matter” but stated that the group

“require government ministers to deliver policies without fear or favour.”

Glenda Jackson, MP for Hampstead and Highgate defended Ms Kelly’s religious views adding: “Equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is centrally entrenched in government policy.”

Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, told PinkNews.co.uk: “Her appointment suggests the Government does not take lesbian and gay rights seriously. Tony Blair would never appoint someone to a race-equality post who had a lukewarm record of opposing racism.”

Epilogue
Following PinkNews.co.uk/ The Times’s investigation, Ruth Kelly’s birthday was marred by the row and a front-page question by the Independent asked if she believed she was the “Minister for Sin.” After long negotiations with the prime minister over the issue of Catholic adoption agencies being forced to work with gay couples, Ms Kelly voted for the Sexual Orientation regulations, as part of the Equality Act. Despite being the minister responsible for equality, this was the first time that Ms Kelly vote in favour of gay equality.

In 2008, Ms Kelly resigned from front-line politics, having been given the Transport brief by Gordon Brown in 2007.

Her eventual successor as minister for equality, Theresa May actually voted against gay equality on numerous occasions. She has more recently apologised and said she has changed her mind.

Moscow’s mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, and a Russian court, had rejected applications for the event claiming it would cause violent protests, but gay campaigners from all over the world converged in the Russian capital this afternoon.

They were met by religious and nationalist protesters chanting anti gay slogans and 1000 riot police aiming to stop demonstrations in the Red Square.

The arrests were made after a group of activists, including event organiser, Nikolay Alexeyev, attempted to lay flowers at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a war memorial, equating the struggle for gay rights with fighting fascism.

Eyewitnesses said gay activists were beaten by protesters, Sebastien Maria told Reuters, “What happened today unfortunately is representative of the non-respect for human rights in Russia. You can’t express your point of view, and you are not protected from extremists.”

Volker Beck, a Green member of the German parliament was attacked by 20 religious protesters and punched in the face whilst he was giving a television interview.

“There was no aggression from our side, we were simply there,” Herr Beck told the DPA press agency. “It is unacceptable that the police offer no protection to gays on the streets.”

Around 100 religious and fascist extremists dressed in black kicked and punched gay activists. “Moscow is not Sodom!” shouted a group of Russian women clutching religious icons.

“We are Russians. We are Orthodox. These soldiers died so we could live like Russians, not so these people could come here and tell us what to do,” one Christian protester told Reuters.

The veteran gay rights campaigner and regular contributor to PinkNews.co.uk, Peter Tatchell was amongst those taking part in the march. “Both the authorities and the fascists had the same objective, to suppress the Moscow gay pride” he said following the confrontations between the gay activists and the religious protesters.

The Mayor of Moscow banned the gay parade and threatened to to also outlaw the parallel gay rights conference and festival.

Mr Luzhkov says he will not allow a gay pride parade “in any form” and that any attempt to march in the streets will be “resolutely quashed.”

He claims the ban will protect gays and lesbians from potential violent protests

A statement from the Mayor’s office said: “This march could provoke a wave of protests which could lead to mass breaches of public order and disturbances, therefore the application for the march has not been successful.”

A separate gay conference is taking place in the city as well, marking the thirteenth anniversary of the 1993 abolition of Soviet-era laws against male homosexuality.

Former Liberal Democrat councillor, Charles Anglin, has blamed Labour lies about “policy, themselves” and his Party, for the loss of his seat, and control in the London Borough of Lambeth.

Mr Anglin received just 676 votes in yesterday’s local elections, losing to Loma Campbell, the Labour candidate receiving 1586 votes from electors in the Princes Ward.

Gay former councillor, Mr Anglin, called the result “bizarre” after the Lib Dems lost control of Lambeth to the Labour Party.

He told PinkNews.co.uk: Labour ran an extraordinarily negative campaign, they told lies about policies, themselves and us.”

The candidate had been the a victim of an alleged homophobic campaign by the Labour party last month in Lambeth, south London after the party posted an article written by the South London Press on their website claiming he was posting naked pictures of himself on the internet.

Lambeth Labour leader Steve Reed told PinkNews.co.uk there is no question of their article being homophobic, he said: “We took out everything relating to sexuality and didn’t mention the website it was on.”

“The article just questioned the wisdom of councillor posting naked pictures of himself on a website.”

Mr Anglin said the allegations “certainly didn’t help.”

“Personal attitudes made an impact,” he added.

However, the tribunal found that Peter Lewis received “less favourable treatment on the grounds of sexual orientation”during the bank’s internal investigation. But the report issued today concluded that the “the decision to dismiss was not in fact influenced by sexual orientation.”

In total the tribunal upheld four out of the 16 complaints lodged by Mr Lewis.

The Dismissal

Global head of equity trading, Mr Lewis was sacked by the banking giant in February 2005 for “gross personal misconduct”. The incident in question relates to an encounter between Mr Lewis and another male employee of the bank, which ultimately resulted in a complaint of “sexual harassment.”

The tribunal heard that HSBC sacked Mr Lewis after he was accused of masturbating in front of a male employee in the work gym shower.

In November, 2004, the former equity head of equity trading, says he was approached and harassed by a man who demanded to know his name at his work’s health club. He said: “As a gay man, I am aware that my sexuality can provoke hostile reactions from people, I just wanted him to go away. I therefore gave him a name which was not mine and which I made up on the spot.”

He chose not to report the confrontation, but five days later was summoned to a meeting where he was told a man had accused him of ogling and masturbating in front of him, “The implication was that I had been ‘coming on’ to someone in the changing rooms,” he said.

Mr Lewis told the tribunal his sexuality had provoked a “considerable amount of interest and comment” in the City, including abusive phone calls to his home and office. He claims some workers felt it was “inappropriate that someone occupying such a senior position should be gay.”

He said: “Others would make homophobic comments either directly to me or, more usually, behind my back to my manager or colleagues. The situation has improved but discrimination and homophobia in the financial services industry has not been eliminated.”

Disciplinary Hearing

The banker told the tribunal that he made a DVD recording of his disciplinary appeal hearing because he had lost faith in his employer, he said “I felt I was being stitched up, I lost all trust and confidence in the appeal process.”

The tribunal heard from HSBC’s human resources manager, she insisted that Mr Lewis was not sacked because of his sexuality, HR manager Natalie Hattrell said the bank had followed “entirely correct procedures” when it dismissed Peter Lewis.

Homophobic Accusations

Mr Lewis’s lawyers later claimed an HSBC manager didn’t adequately probe the claims of gross misconduct. Mark Bucknall, HSBC’s co-head of global investment banking, was accused of being biased for not considering Mr Lewis’s side of the story before dismissing him.

Chris Quinn, Mr Lewis’s lawyer, cross examined Mr Bucknall and suggested he didn’t adequately investigate eight discrepancies in the complainant’s story or if he was homophobic, given his use of words such as “effeminate” and “nonce,” a slang term for a paedophile, when referring to homosexuals.

He said: “You don’t appear to have given Mr. Lewis the benefit of the doubt on a single issue.”

Mr Bucknall denied that the former banker’s sexuality came into his decision.

He told the tribunal that he believed the employee who brought the complaint, who can’t be named for legal reasons, gave a more “credible” version of events and that Mr Lewis’s assertion that HSBC discriminated against his sexual orientation from the start were “ridiculous,” given the damage his dismissal has caused to the lender’s bid to rebuild its equities business.

The hearing later heard from Charles Laughton-Scott, a senior HSBC executive, who said the dismissal was handled in a fair but not perfect way,

Mr Laughton-Scott had been in charge of the disciplinary hearing, he said: “We considered it had been a fair process. Was it perfect? No.”

He revealed he was inclined to uphold Mr Lewis’s appeal until he visited the gym where the incident is alleged to have taken place, and concluded that it would have been possible for the reported events to have taken place.

Mr Laughton Scott added that after interviewing the unnamed employee who made the complaint (Mr A), he felt he was straightforward, “I was not impressed that Mr A had called the claimant a ‘nonce’ as this suggested to me that Mr A was not a particularly pleasant person, but I did not think it indicated that he is homophobic.

“I also thought that Mr A did not know what this word meant anyway.”

Mr Lewis’s lawyer, Chris Quinn, asked if Mr Laughton Scott, deputy head of global banking, had favoured Mr A to his client as he was gay.

“Absolutely not,” Mr Laughton-Scott said.

Mr Lewis was believed to have earned around £1m a year. He was seeking £5 million compensation for being sacked because he was gay.

Thompson, who abducted and murdered toddler Jamie Bulger, with his friend Jon Venables when they were ten years old in 1993, is now believed to be living with a gay lover.

The Daily Mail and The Sun reported this week that Thompson, now 23, has been given permission by his probation service minders to live with his homosexual lover, after telling his partner about his criminal, secret past.

Sources told the papers that he has been in a steady homosexual relationship for several months. The Daily Mail appeared to suggest his sexuality may be due to spending most of his teenage years in a male environment.

Gay groups questioned the editorial decision to run the story, a spokesman for Stonewall, the gay rights charity said: “Various reasons people turn out to be gay, living in a male environment is unlikely to be one of them.

“If it were the case then all prisoners would be gay, together members of the armed forces as well as monks and nuns, clearly some are and some aren’t.”

Commenting on whether the story was in the public interest, the spokesman said: “It’s totally irrelevant what his sexuality is, he committed a crime at a young age, now presumably trying live a normal. I question whether such a big splash would have been made if he had moved in with a girlfriend. Is it in the public interest for people to know that he is gay?”

“His sexuality is irrelevant,” said Peter Tatchell of the human rights group OutRage! “There is no legitimate public interest grounds for making an issue of his sexual orientation when, how and why his sexuality became apparent is nobodies business. It clearly plays no part of an ongoing investigation.”

Both killers had their identities changed when they were freed from a detention centre in 2001 after an eight year sentence and are not allowed to contact each other. Their identities are protected by a High Court injunction.

Spokesmen from the Daily Mail and The Sun were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

Answers to the questions will be used as evidence in a civil court case against the papers involved, and some of the respondents may be called as witnesses.

Although the footballer, who is engaged to Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy, was not directly named in any of the stories, the 25 year old’s lawyers complained that the photograph and accompanying text in the articles suggested he was one of the players involved. They said their client denied involvement in a sexual relationship with another Premiership footballer or with any other man.

Following the publication of obscured photographs in the News of the World, PinkNews.co.uk published the original showing the footballer and the radio DJ Masterstepz. Legal experts believe that the publication of the photographs on PinkNews.co.uk and subsequently other internet sites allowed Mr Cole to proceed with his case.

Mr Cole’s solicitor, Graham Shear, said in a statement: “These proceedings were commenced because these newspapers published false and offensive articles designed to tell readers that Ashley had behaved in what the News of the World described as a ‘perverted’ way with other professional footballers.”

“The newspapers knew there was no basis to name Ashley but arranged the articles and pictures in such a way that readers would identify him. There is no truth whatever in these allegations. Ashley Cole will not tolerate this kind of cowardly journalism or let it go unchallenged.”

The “Ashley Cole Libel Survey” advertisements will feature prominently on the PinkNews.co.uk website for a week, enabling the law firm Teacher Stern Selby to analyse the likely impact of the “gay” rumours had on their client.

PinkNews.co.uk estimate that at least 900 blogs have linked to or posted the photograph showing Mr Cole and the DJ Masterstepz together at a party.

You can contribute to the research by clicking here

Peter Lewis, claims he was sacked by the bank because he is gay. He was dismissed by the banking giant for “gross personal misconduct”. The incident in question relates to an encounter between Mr Lewis and another male employee of the bank, which ultimately resulted in a complaint of “sexual harassment”.

Mr Lewis told the tribunal that he made a DVD recording of his disciplinary appeal hearing because he had lost faith in his employer.

“I felt I was being stitched up,” Mr Lewis told the hearing. “I lost all trust and confidence in the appeal process.”

In November, 2004, the former equity head of equity trading, says he was approached and harassed by a man who demanded to know his name at his work’s health club. He said: “As a gay man, I am aware that my sexuality can provoke hostile reactions from people, I just wanted him to go away. I therefore gave him a name which was not mine and which I made up on the spot.”

He chose not to report the confrontation, but five days later was summoned to a meeting where he was told a man had accused him of ogling and masturbating in front of him, “The implication was that I had been ‘coming on’ to someone in the changing rooms.

“However, I was, and still am, in a very happy, stable, long-term relationship which has lasted ten years. I had no need or desire to behave in such a way.”

Mr Lewis told the tribunal his sexuality had provoked a “considerable amount of interest and comment” in the City, including abusive phone calls to his home and office. He claims some workers felt it was “inappropriate that someone occupying such a senior position should be gay”.

He said: “Others would make homophobic comments either directly to me or, more usually, behind my back to my manager or colleagues. The situation has improved but discrimination and homophobia in the financial services industry has not been eliminated.”

The former senior banker may have to accompany the employment tribunal to the bank’s offices. The Stratford tribunal will visit the Canary Wharf offices where the claim of sexual harassment is alleged to have taken place. The trip may involve a re-enactment of the encounters between the former senior banker and a male colleague.

It is believed to be the biggest case of its kind to have reached an industrial tribunal since December 2004 when sex discrimination rules applied to gays and lesbians.

Mr Lewis was believed to have earned around £1m a year. His lawyer Alison Downie, of solicitors Bindman and Partners, said her client was dismissed “because HSBC discriminated against him because of his sexual orientation as a gay man.”

The bank denies his claims, a spokesman for the bank told the Evening Standard in October that Mr Lewis was dismissed “after a lengthy disciplinary proceeding”.

The hearing continues.

PinkNews.co.uk has no evidence to suggest the identity of the footballers described in the News of the World’s expose. This article explores the media hysteria relating to these allegations and the impact that the internet has had in rumour spreading.

The internet has today been rife with rumours surrounding the identity of two leading Premiership footballers, filmed in a gay orgy and viewed by a reporter at the News of the World.

The tabloid newspaper said that the footballers, who can not be named for legal reasons, were caught on camera in an orgy with well a known music industry figure. The newspaper claimed that one player engaged in sexual acts using a mobile phone as a sex toy.

Today, hundreds of internet bloggers have made allegations surrounding the identity of the footballers. PinkNews.co.uk has been unable to verify if the allegations listed are true but can re-produce the following photographs being posted across the web in internet based gossip groups.

“Music Figure A” and “Player A” (Source: News of the World)

MasterStepz and Ashley Cole (Source: Choice FM)

PinkNews.co.uk points out that the watch clearly visible on Ashley Cole on the official Choice FM photograph is missing on the photograph of “player A” published in the News of the World, and his fingers are in a different position.

However, an expert in computer based photo editing (who did not want to be named), told PinkNews.co.uk: “the News of the World’s photograph appears to have been crudely edited in Photoshop. There is a lighter area of skin on Player A’s arm, where the watch may have been edited out.

“In addition, there is a noticeable mark on Player A’s chin, in the same position as the index finger on the chin of Ashley Cole in the photograph posted on the Choice FM website.

“A closer examination of the shadows and creases on the shirts also indicates that the News of the World photograph is an edited version of the Choice FM photograph.”

Both photographs superimposed on each other

Regardless of the true identity of the footballers, the gay activist Peter Tatchell, of human rights group Outrage! said today: “As there is no evidence that they are being hypocritical or homophobic there is no public interest in outing them.

“My advice to the player’s agents is that it is probable they will be exposed and it would be better for it to come out in a sympathetic newspaper. That would allow the players to dictate the terms.

“Considering the recent MORI poll that 15 per cent of the population have had same sex experiences, it seems likely that 50 or more premiership players are gay or bisexual.

The best strategy would be a joint declaration in a friendly or gay publication that would take the heat off any individual and gibe them strength in numbers.”

PinkNews.co.uk Comment

PinkNews.co.uk welcomes any statements that the individuals concerned wish to make.

We also wish to remind our readers, that the intention of this article is to expose the rumours spreading across the internet and provide a discussion of the photograph that appeared in yesterday’s News of the World.

We continue to maintain that an individual’s sexuality is a strictly private matter. Indeed this article is more critical of the attempts by the News of the World to edit the photographs so as not to convey the identity of the individuals concerned.

Since this article was written England and Arsenal star Ashley Cole has started legal action against the News of the World and the Sun for harassment, libel and breach of privacy, although he was not directly named in any of the stories.

The 25 year old’s lawyers complained that the photograph and accompanying text in the articles suggested he was one of the players involved in the News of the World story. They said their client denied involvement in a sexual relationship with another Premiership footballer or with any other man.

“It is good that Simon is finally being frank and honest about his sexuality.” Mr Tatchell said in reaction to Mr Hughes’s admission that he is bisexual. “It is a shame he felt he needed to deny it but now he has made the decision to be truthful we should leave it at that and move on.”

During the by-election, won by Mr Hughes with one of the biggest recorded swings against Labour, the then Liberal party presented him as political rivals smeared “the straight choice” while Mr Tatchell.

Mr Hughes told the BBC’s Newsnight programme: “I hope that there will never be that sort of campaign again. I have never been comfortable about the whole of that campaign, as Peter knows, and I said that to him in the past . . . Where there were things that were inappropriate or wrong, I apologise for that.”

Mr Tatchell claimed that he had known about Mr Hughes’s sexuality for 23 years, “Based on information (my campaign) received we had a very strong suspicion that Simon was gay despite the homophobic campaign against me.

“The Labour campaign team took a decision not to retaliate. We decided it was important to pursue a clean, principled campaign based on policies not people’s private lives.”

But Mr Tatchell, now a Green Party member, revealed to PinkNews.co.uk earlier this month, that it’s time to “forgive and forget,” he said: “Simon Hughes is the best of the Lib Dem leadership candidates. If I was a party member, he’d get my vote.” He was also pointed out that Mr Hughes had never behaved or voted hypocritically in parliament over gay issues and as such, Mr Tatchell’s group Outrage! would not have considered outing him.

Mr Hughes who is the Lib Dems’ president had previously denied that he was gay but revealed today in the Sun that he has had, “both homosexual and heterosexual relationships in the past.” This morning, Mr Hughes confirmed to PinkNews.co.uk that he is “bisexual.”

“I hope that does not disqualify me from doing a good job in public life and I propose to carry on doing that with the usual enthusiasm and determination,” he added, hoping that the revelation does not bar him from continuing to stand as leader.

In an interview broadcast today on BBC Radio 5 Live, he was asked if he considered quitting the race, he replied: “Of course. I considered also whether I should stand in the first place. It is a balance I have always had to take.

“I took a decision that I would seek to keep private my private life. I have held to that decision through all the elections I have fought and it has sort of been sustainable.

“But there comes a time when it isn’t sustainable. I hope that for those listening and for other people in the year 2006, they won’t have to make the choice I did and I hope these issues won’t be as difficult in years to come.

“There must be many people out there who have wrestled with the question of can they stand for public office or are there things they fear people might bring out that would embarrass them.

“Many of those things are not illegal or inappropriate. I hope people will feel in the future less inhibited.”

He also claimed today that he is not alone in hiding his sexuality: “There are lots of people who have tried to keep their private lives private. I wasn’t just doing it for me but for many others who are in the same boat.”

He told the BBC that the decision to come out as bisexual was prompted after he was confronted with a number of untrue stories about his private life.

The group avoided entering the square, which is Vatican territory, but demonstrated just outside of it with banners criticising the Church’s stance on homosexuality.

Reuters report that one protestor’s banner says “2000 years of discrimination” whilst others urged the Pope to stay out of Italian affairs.

The demonstration also commemorated the suicide of Alfredo Ormando, a 39-year-old gay Italian who set himself ablaze there eight years ago tonight.

The Pope, Benedict XVI, said yesterday that doctors should not give women the abortion pill because it hides the “gravity” of taking a human life, he also said it was wrong to give legal recognition to gay marriages.

The pontiff once again reaffirmed the Roman Catholic teaching on both abortion and the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman during an audience with officials from Rome and its surrounding Lazio region.

He said that pregnant women, particularly those in difficult situations, needed concrete help, and that officials should: “avoid introducing drugs that hide in some way the gravity of abortion, as a choice against life.”

Abortions held up to and during the third month of a pregnancy was made legal in predominantly Catholic Italy in 1978, after a long battle with the Vatican. Recently, the abortion pill RU-486 became available in parts of Italy on an experimental basis.

The Italian Bishops’ Conference has mounted a renewed fight against abortion and the RU-486 pill, turning abortion into a campaign issue for the first time since Italians upheld the law in a 1981 referendum the Vatican sponsored in a bid to overturn it.

The Pope also stressed that marriage between man and woman was the cornerstone of society and not some “casual sociological construction” that could be replaced.

“It’s a serious error to obscure the value and function of the legitimate family founded on matrimony, attributing to other forms of unions improper legal recognition, for which there really is no social need,” he said.

Gay and lesbian associations in Italy have been pushing for common law couples to have legal recognition in hopes the move might pave the way for granting legal status to gay couples.

Civil partnerships for gay and lesbian couples were introduced in Britain at the end of last year.

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