Church of Scotland’s General Assembly is to debate gay ministers in same-sex relationships today (20 May).

The institution’s governing body will consider whether to allow people in same-sex relationships to be ordained as ministers, four years after the first openly gay minister was ordained.

They will be discussing a 94-page report by the Theological Commission, which sets out arguments on both sides.

Religious Italians are celebrating International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) on 17 May by connecting churches of all faith in a prayer vigil.

For the first time since the vigils began, seven years ago, Catholic churches will host events.

Friends of the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien say he’s been ordered by the Vatican into exile and ditch his plans for retirement in Scotland.

The Herald commented that: ‘It is the clearest indication yet of the Vatican's unwillingness to let the matter drift’ of the Cardinal’s sexual assault on male priests when he run seminaries in the 1980s and during a drinks party in Rome.

Three ‘gay and effeminate’ teens have died after being starved, tortured and killed at a camp that promised to turn them into 'men'.

A picture of Raymond Buys, 15, taken in April 2011 showed a skeletal, emaciated figure fighting for his life.

Just 10 weeks before, the teen’s parents signed him up to the Echo Wild Game Rangers training course in South Africa in perfect health.

OutServe-SLDN is asking the US Defense Department to reconsider Pastor Greg Laurie as the headline speaker at next week's National Day of Prayer.

The advocacy organization that works with LGBT military members, veterans and their families insists the minister's anti-gay past makes him an unacceptable speaker for an open military.

Archbishop Piero Marini, the chamberlain to former Pope Benedict, has said the Catholic Church is changing and called for civil unions for gay couples.

Marini, who was a senior official for the conservative Benedict, recognized ‘same-sex couples need civil rights and civil unions. But we can not call them “marriage”’.

Speaking at a bishops’ meeting in Costa Rica, Central America, Marini commented also on the new Pope, Francis: ‘Now we can breathe fresh air, the church is changing.’

Leading liberal Christian evangelical leader Jim Wallis has publicly backed same-sex marriage in an interview with the Huffington Post in a turn around from where he stood on the issue just five years ago.

Wallis, considered a spiritual adviser to US President Barack Obama told the Post that same-sex couples had to be included in marriage to help combat what he saw as the decline of the institution in America.

Hillary Clinton has come out for marriage equality.

On Monday (18 March), the US Democrat made the announcement in an online video released by the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign.

In the five-minute video, she says gays and lesbians are ‘full and equal citizens and deserve the rights of citizenship.’

‘That includes marriage,’ Clinton says, adding she backs same-sex marriage both ‘personally and as a matter of policy and law.’

Cardinal Keith O’Brien is alleged to have attempted to grope a priest in Rome on the night of a drinks party celebrating him becoming a ‘prince of the Church’ in October 2003.

The party where O’Brien allegedly tried to grope a man was attended by a noteable bishops and dignitaries.

This is the first direct allegation against the Cardinal and sexual misconduct at the heart of the Catholic Church.

The election today (13 March) of Pope Francis as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church has led LGBT groups to call for a Pope different from his anti-gay predecessor Benedict XVI.

'For decades the Catholic hierarchy has been in need of desperate reform,' said Herndon Graddick (pictured), president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien has come forward acknowledging sexual misconduct with other priests throughout his tenure.

According to BBC, the cardinal said in a statement issued through the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland:

'In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them.