LGBT groups are livid that gay couples will not be included in a new bill that would offer US citizenship to immigrants living in the country before 31 December 2011.

Senator Patrick Leahy (pictured) had tried to have same-sex couples included in the legislation but could not garner support from even his fellow Democrats who said they did not want the inclusion to jeopardize overall immigration reform.

Albania amended its criminal code and put hate crimes against sexual orientation and gender identity on par with an offense against gender, race, ethnicity, religious belief, disability and so on.

It also passed a new law punishing the dissemination of homophobic information through any means (including the internet) by a fine and up to two years imprisonment.

Indian cult T-shirt brand Bewakoof has apologized for a joke about gay rape on their Facebook page.

After cricketer Chris Gayle set a world record in an Indian Premier League match in Pune earlier this week. Bewakoof posted a joke that said 'If a man rapes another man, he is called GAY. If a man rapes 11 other men he is called GAYLE.'

The joke got more than 15,000 shares and 18,000 likes before it was taken down.

The Attorney General has told the Court of Appeals to review the sentence of a man who was given just 42 months jail for burning a gay teen to death, Gay Star News has learned.

Steven Simpson, who had Asperger’s syndrome, a speech impairment and epilepsy was celebrating his 18th birthday when the incident happened in the early hours of 23 June last year.

As he became more drunk, homophobic insults were scrawled on his arm and stomach and he was encouraged to strip to his underwear and dance.

Lesbian pop star Beth Ditto was arrested for ‘disorderly conduct’ on Friday (15 March).

The Gossip lead singer, whose real name is Mary Beth Patterson, was reportedly detained after she was denied service in a Portland bar because she appeared to be drunk.

According to a source who told Willamette Week, Ditto left the bar and ‘walked out in the middle of the street, threw off her shoes and purse and screamed “Obama! Obama!”’

A British gay man who claims he was being blackmailed by his wife has gone to jail for stealing thousands from his employer.

Christopher Brown, 55, will be jailed for two years, and must pay £4800  ($7300, €5500) in costs.

The theft was discovered after an internal audit at the luxury goods company Dawson's, where Brown is employed.

Brown paid 56 company checks into his bank account, and claims he faced was blackmailed by his wife after she discovered he was using gay chatlines.

Police are looking for help in catching a man they believe to be an anti-gay attacker in Coventry, England.

Two men in their 20s were punched to the ground in the unprovoked assault in the West Midlands city, which occurred on 23 December.

Releasing a CCTV image today (29 January), police detectives are now looking for help from the public following initial enquiries.

The men, a 25-year-old and a 26-year-old, had been standing outside a kebab takeaway at 1am after a night out in the city centre.

A woman who manipulated her two lovers into committing a million dollar fraud pleaded guilty yesterday (19 November).

Brisbane District Court Judge Hugh Botting sentenced Luisa Touli for ‘emotionally blackmailing’ two women into stealing AU$1.4 million (£914k, €1.13m) forcing the closure of six jewelry stores and 60 members of staff to lose their jobs, the Australian reports. 

Activists against gay hate crime will come together at St Paul's Cathedral in London for a remembrance service as part of Britain's new Hate Crime Awareness Week.

The 17-24-30 campaign is launching the first UK week to highlight hate crime but is also planning vigils worldwide.

They want to promote local hate crime services, raise money to support these services and get others to organize small hate crime awareness events.

A man who had surgery to remove his genitals, and then served them at a dinner, is being charged with indecent exposure by Tokyo Metropolitian Police.

Twenty-three-year-old illustrator Mao Sugiyama had surgery to remove his penis and testicles to fulfil his asexual identity.

A member of parliament has blasted the police investigating the rape of a 14-year-old boy in a Manchester department store.

MP Tony Lloyd has questioned why it took 11 weeks for the police to make a public appeal for information about the crime which happened on 2 June, Manchester Evening News reports.

A 60-year-old gay man has been chopped to death in the city of Liège. The murder comes after a series of homophobic attacks across Belgium last week, including in Ghent and Aalst.

On Wednesday morning (25 July) Belgian police arrested Raphaël Wargnies, from Malmedy who confessed to hacking to death a 60-year-old man with an axe.