New Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby admits gay relationships have value but won’t shift on same-sex marriage, activist Peter Tatchell has said after meeting with him.

Tatchell urged Welby to reconsider gay marriage equality, apologize for past church persecution of LGBT people and engage with activists in Africa where parts of the Anglican church are leading a wave of homophobic hate.

But Tatchell emerged from meeting Archbishop Welby this afternoon (18 April) with an agreement to further dialogue as the biggest concession he could secure.

Conservative Sydney opinion columnist Piers Akerman has attacked people campaigning to make a gay rainbow pride street crossing installed for the 2013 Sydney Mardi Gras Festival permanent, labeling them the ‘gay mafia’ and ‘rule benders.’

BBC actresses Alison Steadman and Tracey-Ann Oberman will join other celebrities at an auction celebrating 30 years of Terrence Higgins Trust fighting HIV.

‘Money can’t buy’ items going under the hammer tomorrow (21 March) will include a four-night getaway to Bhutan in South Asia, artworks by guest Tracey Emin, an 18 carat white gold charm necklace and the chance to be ‘inked’ by tattooist to the stars Mo Coppoletta.

Senior executives from companies including Google, Deutsche Bank and Microsoft are to attend a networking event about using LGBT diversity to drive their business.

The event is being hosted by law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP in London on 20 March and the guestlist is strictly limited to decision makers from firms who employ over 1,000 people or whose annual turnover exceeds £500m and a handful of other key influencers.

English singer-songwriter Morrissey has said if more men were gay, then there would be no wars.

The 53-year-old former frontman of The Smiths said heterosexual men have a ‘passion’ for killing other males.

London LGBT+ Community Pride is the new Community Interest Company that’s been entrusted with managing Pride in London from this year until 2017. And we have a simple message to start with: if you want pride to continue, you need to get involved. It’s that simple – we need people to commit time, energy and money because we’re trying to organize in five months an event that normally takes a year!

Tom Hoemig had suggested that we meet at Le Falstaff Cafe on Rue Henri Maus, not far from the Grand-Place.

We seemed to be a bit early for this cafe - it was open but we were the only two there and the heating didn’t seem to have kicked in.

‘I’ve been coming here for years’ said Hoemig. ‘We used to sit here outside for hours on a weekend, 10 to 15 people drinking and having fun. So they know me here.’

Hoemig soon tracked down one of the staff and ordered us some coffee.

A leading archbishop has said allowing gays to marry is like legalizing male breastfeeding.

In an interview with the UK Catholic Herald, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said fighting for ‘traditional’ marriage is the Christian way of loving God.

‘This is our particular trial,’ he said. ‘And by overcoming it we may achieve spiritual greatness.

‘It will entail suffering if we are to oppose gay marriage, something which poses such destruction to the understanding of natural marriage, which is a child-oriented institution.

Two men have been arrested after a series of incidents where a so-called ‘Muslim Patrol’ harassed gay men and others in east London.

In one incident, videoed and posted on YouTube, a small group is heard ordering a gay man to leave the ‘Muslim area’ in the borough of Tower Hamlets because he is a ‘fag’.

Continuing our series of getting to know the world’s LGBT sports clubs, in this issue we head to New Zealand to meet Martin Kaulback, Club Captain of Different Strokes - the LGBT aquatics club from Wellington.

How did Different Strokes start?

Different Strokes was established in 2008 by three swimmers - Hamish Allardice, David Huxford and myself.

Is Different Strokes just a swimming club or does it include other activities?

International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics (IGLA) is the organization that brings the world’s LGBT aquatics clubs together, sharing information and knowledge as well as staging an annual championships for LGBT competitors in swimming, diving, open water, synchronized swimming, and water polo.

We caught up with Jason Stone, head of the organizing committee for IGLA2013 to take a look at plans for this year’s event which will be held in the US city of Seattle.

Some New Jersey Democrats are coming around to the idea of putting the issue of same-sex marriage to a popular vote in the state despite opposition from the party leadership.

A bill to legalize same-sex marriage passed the state Legislature in February but was vetoed by New Jersey’s popular Republican Governor Chris Christie, who urged supporters to instead put the issue to the voters.