Scottish LGBT rights campaigners and leading politicians have called upon Scotland’s government to publish a timetable for the introduction of a marriage equality bill.

The move comes after the UK House of Commons have voted for marriage equality; with a final vote in the House of Lords expected soon, commentators say Edinburgh is falling behind England and Wales.

Speaking with Gay Star News, Colin McFarlane, director of Stonewall Scotland commented: 'The Commons overwhelmingly voted to extend the legal form of marriage to same-sex couples in England and Wales.

It builds on GSN’s partnerships with leading LGBT events around the world.

London is set to become rainbow-clad again as the pride season approaches the UK capital. The Pride Festival will host a series of spectacular events scattered across Central London, Soho, Shoreditch and the Southbank from 23June to 1July.

This year the theme is ‘Love and Marriage’ celebrating gay marriage becoming law in countries and states around the world and an equal marriage bill progressing through the UK parliament for England and Wales.

Italian schools are the the most anti-gay environment for the young LGBT community of the Mediterranean country, a survey has revealed.

The study, commissioned and conducted by LGBT association Gay Center among 3,900 students from 16 schools, showed that, according to the 49% of the interviewees, Italian high schools are the worst context for growing LGBT people.

Gay Center’s president Fabrizio Marrazzo told Gay Star News: ‘When considering different minorities, the LGBT one is the most troubled, because LGBT students don’t get their parents’ support.

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.

Gay digital activists All Out are urging the Eurovison Song Contest bosses not to stop a lesbian kiss at the finals tomorrow (18 May).

If the kiss goes ahead, at the end of Finland’s entry, Marry Me, by Krista Siegfrids, it will be the first of its kind since the pan-European TV extravaganza started in 1956.

It will also be seen by 100 million people around the world.

Police in Kenya have stopped people marching through the capital Nairobi today (17 May) to mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO).

A permit had been issued to allow Kenyan LGBTs and supporters to procession.

But this morning police withdrew the permit just as the event was about to start on Freedom Corner, Uhuru Park.

Julie Jules, Out in Kenya community leader, told Gay Star News: ‘Basically the police stopped the procession because we would be seen to be "promoting homosexuality".

With a single lesbian kiss, Finland has made history by fighting for equal marriage at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden.

Krista Siegfrids, who sang ‘Marry Me’, ended her semi-final performance by kissing one of her female dancers.

It is the first time there has ever been a gay kiss on a Eurovision stage in its 59-year history.

Speaking to Gay Star News in Malmo, she told critics her kiss was about spreading love and not politics. Political gestures or lyrics are strictly forbidden under Eurovision rules.

South Korean film director Gwang-soo Kim Jho yesterday announced his plans to marry his boyfriend in a symbolic ceremony to bring attention to LGBT rights.

'We wanted to convey the message that all sexual minorities should be given rights equally in a beautiful way,' Kim Jho said at a press conference, where he and his boyfriend were dressed in tuxedos and kissed for the cameras, Reuters reports.

A new video from the United Nations – warning countries who fail to protect LGBT people that they are breaking international – law has gone viral on YouTube.

The UN Human Rights office released the video on 14 May, telling LGBT people they are not alone and promising to work for their protection and freedom.

After Gay Star News highlighted the video others started to share it and it went from 368 views on YouTube to 65,000 now.

People think gay actors are less masculine – but they are still just as good at acting, scientists have proved.

The US research asked 'Can a gay man play it straight?' and looked at perceptions of an actor’s masculinity and performance.

College students were given biographical information on a male actor, including sexual orientation, and shown a video of the actor’s performance.

They were then asked to rate the actor’s performance and the likelihood of casting the actor in their own productions.

The documentary Bridegroom tells the story of Shane Bitney Crone and what happened after his partner of six years, Tom Bridegroom, was killed in an accidental fall off of a building in their Los Angeles neighborhood.

Crone shared with Gay Star News in a recent interview how his life has taken unexpected turns since he made a YouTube video about how his grief was compounded by the heartless actions of Tom’s homophobic family.