On 1 May Jason Collins, the 7’0” center for the Washington Wizards, and a former Boston Celtics, came out. His statement ‘I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay’ made the cover story for Sports Illustrated.

On 2 May, three Morehouse College basketball athletes were accused of raping an 18-year-old Spelman College student. The story didn’t hit the airwaves in the same way as the Collins story.

Many in the African American community were silent on both incidents because they view both as poxes on the community.

Imagine: you want to set up a new company but the law requires you to have the written consent of your wife; or you’ve just got pregnant, but you haven’t got a piece of paper with your husband’s signature on it stating he’s OK with that; or you’ve just been involved in a major car accident, sadly without your spouse’s written approval.

The culture of the Police Service in Britain is developing into one where you can be as comfortable at work as you are at home – that is the strategic aim. It is worth noting that there are eight local police forces listed in the Stonewall Top 100 Index of gay-friendly employers and LGBT officers are included in the majority of UK police forces. It hasn’t always been this way.

The UN Human Rights office has released a new video telling LGBT people they are not alone and promising to work for their protection and freedom.

It reminds viewers that 76 countries still criminalize consensual same-sex relationships and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people everywhere continue to suffer violent attacks and discriminatory treatment.

The news that NBA star Jason Collins has come out as gay generated a frenzy of headlines, reports and comments that is still continuing.

I want to understand the excitement. But there are still questions I have as an openly black gay man living in Europe. These questions were put into perspective when I had a conversation with a white gay friend of mine.

Recently, author Jennifer Finney Boylan commented about her transgender experience: ‘After all these years, my own identity has wound up less altered than I had expected. It should not have been a surprise, perhaps, but the most shocking revelation after 10 years in the female sex is that mostly I am the same person I always was, gender notwithstanding.’

I have a confession to make. As much as I loathe clichés and generalizations, there is one that I live up to with incredible gusto. I typify the gay guy who doesn’t do sports. Not even a little bit.

From the pains of never getting picked for teams in PE to the days of racking up huge Trivial Pursuit momentum only to be demolished by the final Orange pie question (for those too young for the original Trivial Pursuit, that was the ‘sports’ category), I am the ultimate sports loser.

It has been over six months since I contributed an article for Gay Star News.

So much has happened but often we can only wait by the sideline and do little or nothing. Often when we intervene we make it worse. That’s the case in global LGBT rights, where we can do harm by saying the wrong thing or even playing the politics of power and money.

I have a lovely friend. She is a transgender woman who lives in Nigeria. Her dream, at present denied her, is to be a professional dancer and actress. In her heart and in her spirit, she is both. As I think about her, I imagine the words and music from the song ‘Mirror and the Music’ from the show A Chorus Line encompassing her as she goes to sleep each night:

Parliaments in France, Uruguay and New Zealand have passed legislation to permit equal marriage in the past few weeks. In New Zealand collective singing in parliament greeted the news – the joy of song permeates so much of the ways in which people connect with each other there and the celebrations of equality were in no small part about connection and community.

As a supporter of LGBT rights and a member of the heavy metal subculture, I think it is time both movements started working together around the world to end violence against us.

UK’s Greater Manchester Police (GMP) recently branded attacks on members of alternative subcultures as ‘hate crimes’. I am pleased with this classification – but it is only a small step on the road to equality.

Attacks on such people are not reported often. So every society has much work to do. This includes attacks carried out in and by anti-gay nations like Indonesia and Uzbekistan.