Life is full of ironies.

Jamaican religious groups such as the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS) campaigned vociferously against the broadcast of a paid TV ad which did nothing more than exhort Jamaicans to respect the human rights of gays. Last week, the JCHS even admitted to writing letters to the TV stations threatening them with retaliation from Jamaica’s powerful church lobby, if the ads were aired.

Two questions troubled me recently: Why are there no openly gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender executives leading any of the FTSE 100 companies? And secondly, when I attend many of the otherwise excellent existing LGBT business networks do I never see people at senior executive level?

These questions suggested to me something needs to change. That is why I set up OUTstanding In Business, a new network for LGBT executives in the UK.

The House of Lords vote backing same-sex marriage legislation was good news, and brings equality one step closer. One welcome result will be trans people won’t have to dissolve loving marriages in order to gain gender recognition.

However, there are still some issues which remain to be resolved in order for the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill for England and Wales to be great and inclusive legislation.

Amy and Baylen work out how long they want to live and Lucio catches up with Texas front woman Sharleen Spiteri to get the low down on the new album and *that* comment about Liz Hurley.

Plus we talk to performance poet Fergus Evans, a good looking gay couple gets married in France, gay cure apps, and all the GayStarNews.

Britain’s House of Commons has passed the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill for England and Wales with a vote of 366 to 162. Now, as you know, the bill has moved to the House of Lords, whose approval is also needed before enshrining the heavily fought-for legislation into law.

If approved, the law is expected to come into force in 2014, affording same-sex couples the choice of marriage or civil partnership.

It will also allow gay and lesbian couples who have previously entered into a civil partnership, to convert their relationship into a marriage.

When on the afternoon of 30 May 2013 the news broke that Nigeria’s House of Representatives had finally passed the hideous and draconian Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Bill, I was in total shock.

I was at my best friend’s house with other secondary school colleagues of mine. We were there reminiscing on the glorious days we had in school. We remembered 20 years ago when we all left secondary school at the age of 18 years.

As a parent, my job one is the protection and care of my children. It is my job to be vigilant over their self-worth, to keep them physically safe, to show them how to be moral and productive citizens, and to empower their spiritual growth. It is a duty I take very seriously.

I celebrated my birthday this weekend. I have spent half a century on this planet and just now I realized I am no longer young but getting old. These hands are no longer firm but wrinkled, my hair no longer black but peppered with grey, and my eyes need the glasses I refuse to wear out of vanity.

It is a fact – and something I just have to accept.

As Francis Bacon once said: ‘Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.’

I did not get it before, but I do today.

I did a double take when I first saw it. A teen girl was expelled and arrested for having a relationship with another girl. I hunkered down in full fury mode reading the case.

Then, my racing mind came to a screeching halt as it read the magic number… 18. A legal adult had been with a legal minor. Things just got complicated.

Gay Star News yesterday (19 May) reported Muslim leaders representing tens of thousands worshippers in the UK have banded together against gay marriage.

In what British right-wing newspaper The Telegraph calls ‘an unprecedented intervention from the British Muslim community,’ over 500 imams have signed a letter to express ‘serious misgivings’ about Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s gay marriage bill.

Several months ago, I sent the three major Jamaican television stations (TVJ, CVM and the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica – PBCJ) a copy of a tolerance advert in which I appear.

The 30-second video called on Jamaicans to respect my human rights as a gay man and was recorded in light of a series of savage attacks against gay Jamaicans.

There was no expectation of being given free airtime, and neither did I want this. For commercial reasons, free ads are never aired during primetime.

It was the Friday before Mother’s Day. I had published an op-ed on the nature of Mother’s Day and the celebration of all who feel mother love running through their souls.