Interview: Pricking the bubble of Hollywood celebrity
"What child would want to be Graham Norton when they are older?" asks Paul Burston.
"No offence to Graham, what he does is great, but he is not the image you aspire to. When you are a young gay kid, you want to be gay but normal."
And he ought to know. Cultural theorist, nightlife journalist and
author, Paul Burston has chronicled gay popular and club culture for
more than 14 years.
Mass gay kiss-in protest in Rome
Over a thousand same-sex couples took park in a mass 'kiss-in' last night, the second such protest after two men were arrested for 'public indecency' in front of the iconic Roman monument last week.
The amorous demonstration was called by Italian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender association Arcigay.
The two men, identified only as Roberto L, 27 and Michele M, 28, were arrested by seven armed Carabinieri and held for 45 minutes last week.
Conference to discuss fire and rescue LGBT issues
Gay rights organisation, trade unions, politicains and fire and rescue professionals from across the country are to meet later this year to discuss LGBT topics.
Avon Fire Service, the Fire Brigades Union, Stonewall and Unison are holding a groundbreaking conference to discuss LGBT equality in the fire and rescue service.
The two-day conference, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality in the Fire Service - an Absolute Taboo? will feature speeches from Ben Summerskill and Brian Paddick.
Brighton prepares for sunny Pride
The UK's biggest Pride parade, complete with musical-theatre themed parade, a festival and promises of sunshine, will grace Brighton this Saturday.
Pride in Brighton Hove, which is free, attracted over 120,000 revellers last year.
Torsten Højer, editor of Brighton's leading gay magazine 3Sixty, told PinkNews.co.uk: "We are so excited about this year's events and tomorrow's parade should be the best ever - plus the sun is going to shine!"
Australian PM moves against gay adoptions
The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, is introducing legislation to ban same-sex couples from adopting children from other countries.
The Family Law (Same Sex Adoption) Bill could be introduced as early as next week.
If it becomes law, children adopted in other countries by same-sex
couples will not be granted visas to enter Australia.
Dutch use aid to push for gay rights
The Netherlands is to step up pressure for gay rights in countries
where it has strong aid ties.
Dutch embassy officials in the 36 countries where the Netherlands
donates much of its aid will draw up an inventory of gay, lesbian and bisexual rights legislation, according to development cooperation minister Bert Koenders.
Time to speak up for gays, Presidential candidates told
An influential US campaigning group has spoken out against the silence Democratic presidential candidates have kept over gay rights issues.
Matt Foreman, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, says that despite their laudable support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, no candidate has vocally completely supported the rights of LGBT Americans.
Exit poll data estimates that the LGBT community in the United States makes up approximately four percent of the voting population.
Liverpool homophobia report suppressed says councillor
PinkNews.co.uk exclusive
A Liverpool city councillor claimed today that council authorities tried to bury a report which found that thousands of gay, lesbian and bisexual people were leaving the city because of the scale of homophobic violence.
Openly gay Liberal councillor Steve Radford said he had to appeal to the data protection information commissioner before he was given a copy of the damning report.
Trans protection in goods and services moves forward
The Northern Ireland government intends to make it illegal to discriminate against transsexual people trying to access goods and services, according to a consultation document.
At present it is not against the law to refuse to serve a transsexual person in a pub or restaurant, or refuse to rent property based on the tenant's gender identity.
While the 2006 Equality Act protects people from discrimination on the grounds of gender, including that of transsexual people, this is limited to jobs and training.
Sir Ian supports Singapore Pride as gay exhibition banned
Singapore's gay community began its Pride festival today with a message from Sir Ian McKellen, while censors have banned an exhibition featuring pictures of same-sex couples kissing.
In a video message, Lord of the Rings star McKellen said:
"It's very important that gay people, wherever they are, should identify themselves, stick up for themselves, represent themselves, modestly and positively, so the rest of the world knows that we're here and we're not going to go away."
Derry icon painted pink for Pride
Free Derry Corner has gone pink to celebrate the first Pride festival in Derry for five years.
The gable wall was painted pink on Friday, and Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will launch at Foyle Pride Week at Free Derry Corner today.
"This is a gift to Pride from the Gasyard Feile and it is brilliant," said David McCartney of the Rainbow Project, speaking to the Belfast Telegraph.
Drag-on's Den for gay entrepreneurs
Bradford's gay and lesbian entrepreneurs will pitch for 300 pink pounds at Pride event, Drag-on's Den.
Hosted by female impersonator, Miss Marigold Adams, Drag-on's Den, based on the BBC TV show, will see budding business people pitching their ideas to a panel of Bradford's business luminaries.
The contestant who gives the best two-minute presentation will walk away with a £300 contribution towards a training course.
Lesbian and bisexual women share their NHS experiences
Stonewall is asking lesbian and bisexual women to answer questions about their health and experiences of using health services in the largest survey of its kind.
The gay equality organisation is concerned that very little is known about the health of lesbians and bisexual women, and that this may be affecting health care provision.
"The health sector doesn't always get it right, we know that," Ruth Hunt, head of Policy and Research at Stonewall, told PinkNews.co.uk
Rise in number of lesbians using artificial insemination
Lesbian families and single women could become the largest group using donor insemination at fertility clinics, according to new figures.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) figures reveal that the proportion of single women and women in same-sex relationships seeking artificial insemination went from 18% of the total in 1999 to 38% last year.
The figure has risen from 28% to 38% in the past three years.
Protest over gay kiss arrest in Rome
Couples held a sit-in with collective kissing in front of the Colosseum yesterday after two men were arrested for 'public indecency' in front of the iconic Roman monument last week.
Politicians and campaigning groups say the arrests were symptomatic of a rising tide of homophobic harassment in Italy, but the police force, the Carabinieri, say they were simply following the law.
An extract from the police report said that the couple "had their trousers and underpants down."
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