Gay couples across Brazil can begin applying for marriage licenses with or without a marriage equality law passed by the country's congress, according to a ruling Tuesday (14 May) by Brazil's top judicial panel.

The National Council of Justice said government offices in Brazil do not have the legal standing to deny the licenses to same-sex couples.

Brazil has guaranteed that gay couples across the country have access to assisted fertilization.

According to Brazilian news website Globo.com, the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) has adjusted the vague wording in an existing law that some courts used to block same-sex couples from using in-vitro fertilization and other assisted fertilization methods.

A Catholic priest in São Paulo state, Brazil was excommunicated after resigning from his duties to protest against the church's anti-gay stance.

‘Father Roberto Francisco Daniel can no longer celebrate the divine rite because he has been excommunicated,’ read a statement from the Bauru diocese in Sao Paulo state.

In her first move as Israel's new health minister, Yael German instructed the ministry staff today (25 March) to reconsider the ban on accepting blood donations from gay men.

The form filled out by every blood donor in Israel states that men who have had sex with other men are prohibited from donating blood.

People who are HIV positive, used drugs or been exposed to mad-cow disease, among other constraints, are also prohibited from donating blood.

Once again, activists claim Brazil has the world’s highest occurrence of homophobic murders.

Brazilian LGBT rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia has released a breakdown of gay-related murders for 2012, claiming that Brazil accounts for 44% of homophobic executions worldwide.

Grupo Gay da Bahia documented 338 killings of gays, lesbians and transsexuals in Brazil that took place in 2012. Two of these killings include two Brazilian transsexuals in Italy.

Brazil's House of Representatives has elected a renowned racist and homophobic deputy and evangelical pastor, Marco Feliciano, to chair the house Committee on Human Rights and Minorities (CDHM) today.

The election should have taken place yesterday (6 March), but the session was adjourned due to uproar caused by Feliciano's nomination.

Feliciano was nominated and elected by his extreme right-wing Social Christian Party (PSC), with 11 of the 12 votes of the members of the CDHM.

Last year Bobby Seven, 34, left his life in Britain to live on a beach in Thailand permanently, earning a living as a transformational tarot card reader, online and in person. He lives on Had Tien beach on Koh Phangnan island, next to hippy holiday resort The Sanctuary.

As part of a series on alternative gay lifestyles, Gay Star News asks him about his life and what messages he has for the gay community back home.

Did you feel you had a 'sixth sense' from a young age?

Good Morning America's weather anchor Sam Champion married photographer Rubem Robierb in New York City on Friday (21 December).

Two teens have been arrested in connection with the murder of Lawrence Corrêa Biancão, a 20 year-old student, in Campo Grande, in the south west of Brazil.

The two confessed to the crime and stated that their motivation was theft and homophobia.

‘He wanted to kiss me and I wanted to kill him’, declared the boy who killed Biancão to daily Campo Grande News.

Almost 100 gay and lesbian couples took part in a mass 'wedding' in Rio, Brazil, yesterday (9 December).

The 92 same-sex couples joined the ceremony which legalized their unions just short of marriage status, reported AFP.

However, the service at the Rio courthouse was mainly symbolic and participants will have to take their vows again in front of a judge today (10 December).

Overseas gay unions are going to be recognized in UK law as civil partnerships, allowing foreign partnerships to have equal legal footing with British couples.

The UK government laid an order to update schedule 20 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 to extend the list of overseas same-sex relationships from 25 countries to 75.

From 31 January 2013, gay couples from nations such as Ireland, Brazil, Portugal and Sweden will be able to have their legal status protected while residing in the UK.

An estimated one million people hit Rio de Janeiro's iconic Copacabana beach yesterday (18 November) for the Brazilian city's annual gay pride celebrations.

Fifteen floats blaring music lined Avenida Atlantica, while many revellers came dressed in colorful carnival costumes.

As well holding a carnival-like party, organizers Grupo Arco-Iris (Rainbow Group) hoped this year's event would also send a powerful political message.

'The main thing is to fight for the criminalization of homophobia,' pride marcher Ester Silveir told France 24.