Popular gay Japanese pornstar Masaki Koh died on Saturday (18 May) aged 29 from complications arising from surgery for peritonitis.

News of Koh's death was announced on his website.

'The tragic news has been announced by his partner, Tien Tien, who revealed that Koh was receiving treatments from a ruptured cecal (which is considered the beginning of the large intestine) due to peritonitis and has had surgery several times since last month,' said the statement.

A new report launched today reveals that in Britain LGBT people have worse health than straights.

British LGBT people have higher rates of physical and emotional bullying; suicide and self-harm; drug use; alcohol use; smoking in adulthood; and social isolation and vulnerability in old age.

The Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) published by the Department of Health does not contain health data relating to LGBT communities because of the lack of monitoring. This means that the specific health needs of LGBT people are often ignored.

Almost one in two (47%) of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the European Union have faced discrimination or harassment in the last year.

That’s the shocking report from the EU Fundamental Rights Agency on the 27 member states of the European Union and Croatia, which is due to join the union on 1 July this year.

It’s the agency’s first comparative study on the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Cyndi Lauper, nominated for a Tony Award for writing the songs for the current Broadway musical Kinky Boots, warns people who weren't around during the AIDS crisis that HIV is still not something you want to have.

On Saturday (18 May) approximately 100 million people around the world will watch the Eurovision Song Contest. First launched in Switzerland in 1956, Eurovision is not just a musical fixture but a continent-wide institution Europeans love and sometimes love to mock. 

For those who have never heard of the competition – think of it as a hybrid of American Idol with original songs and the World Cup or Olympics. 

I’ve been a supporter of NAT (National AIDS Trust), the UK’s leading HIV campaigning charity, for five years now. One of the reasons I support them is I am passionate about increasing the public’s understanding of HIV – not only to reduce the spread of the virus, but to help eradicate the stigma that unfortunately many people with HIV face.

Over the next year NAT will be campaigning for sex education in schools to better tackle the issue of HIV and address same-sex relationships.

This is an issue that is close to my heart.

The Twitter account to the entertainment news site E! Online seems to be shut down due to an erroneous Tweet  calling pop star Justin Bieber gay.

Today (April 4) E!'s social media site has been suspended (this reporter has tried multiple times). According to various Tweets, and a number of news reports, the account was closed due to note saying the teen heart throb is gay.

Researchers are optimistic about a new technique that could lead to a breakthrough in curing HIV.

Danish scientists are readying the human trials for a potentially life-saving new HIV treatment, and if it is deemed a success, it is hopeful 2013 could be the year there is a cure for the virus.

The possibly revolutionary technique involves releasing the HIV virus from ‘reservoirs’ it forms inside DNA, bringing it to the surface of the cells.

The public coming out of NBA player Jason Collins has been such big news Monday (29 April) that it got the attention of President Barack Obama and led the evening newscasts on the US broadcast networks.

Collins is the first male player in one of the four major US sports - basketball, football, baseball and hockey - to come out as gay while still an active player.

The US National Institute of Health has ended a trial of what had been believed to be a potential HIV vaccine after it failed to stop people contracting the virus and failed to reduce the viral load of those already infected with HIV.

The clinical trial of the HVTN 505 vaccine was begun in 2009 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and involved 2,504 participants in 19 cities across the US but was stopped when more of those who were receiving the vaccine contracted HIV than those on placebos.

Since the death of West Hollywood attorney Brett Shaad last weekend from Meningococcal meningitis, it has been revealed that two other men in Southern California had died from the same disease in recent months.

But health officials and community leaders are at odds over whether this can qualify as an outbreak among gay and bisexual men.

A new cheap pill introduced in South Africa could revolutionize treatment for HIV and AIDS patients.

The treatment, a three-in-one anti-retroviral called an ARV, costs only $10 (€7.65) per patient in a single dose.

Speaking to the Agence France-Presse, South African health minister Aaron Motsoaledi said: ‘Before 2010, we were buying the most expensive ARVs in the world.

‘Now we are a country where the ARVs are the cheapest in the world.’