Human Rights Watch today called for Singapore to withdraw new media regulations that will censor news websites and further restrict coverage of LGBT issues.

'Singapore’s new licensing requirement casts a chill over the city-state’s robust and free-wheeling online communities, and will clearly limit Singaporeans’ access to independent media,' said Cynthia Wong senior internet researcher at Human Rights Watch. 'Websites will be forced into the role of private censors on behalf of the government.'

A new map reveals how transgender Europeans are denied the right to have their gender legally recognized or forced to be sterilized before they can.

The Transgender Europe (TGEU) map reflects European countries’ laws and administrative practices which protect or violate the human rights of trans people.

And its new index provides detailed country information saying 24 countries in Europe require sterilization before trans people can legally change their gender.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said ending homophobia is ‘critical’ to the UN’s work and called for an end to anti-gay laws and better education.

His comments were delivered today (17 May) at an event in The Hague, The Netherlands, to mark International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO).

The speech was delivered on his behalf by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in the presence of the new Queen of the Netherlands, Máxima.

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.

The UN Human Rights office has released a new video telling LGBT people they are not alone and promising to work for their protection and freedom.

It reminds viewers that 76 countries still criminalize consensual same-sex relationships and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people everywhere continue to suffer violent attacks and discriminatory treatment.

A local court in Milan has recognized a British civil partnership – the first time Italy has legally recognized a gay union from abroad.

Now the civil union between Cristian, a biologist, and Federico, an IT specialist, will be added to the Milan’s Registro delle Unioni Civili, a list of same-sex couples put in place by left-wing mayor Giuliano Pisapia.

The decision of the tribunal does not mean that Cristian and Federico’s civil partnership is now recognized by Italy.

Zambia police have arrested a gay couple forcing them to undergo anal probe test, denying them legal representation on the charges of having sex ‘against the order of nature’.

Phil Mubiyana and James Mwape have been detained in an overcrowded cell in rural Zambia for several days and were denied access to food and water for about 12 hours.

While pleading not guilty the authorities denied them legal representation and may have forced them to ‘confess to their crimes’ to speed up the trial.

Human Rights Watch has vigorously condemned last month's decision by Justice Quentin Loh in Singapore's High Court to uphold a law criminalizing consensual gay sex.

'I was stunned because I thought that this was a very clear breach of equality before the law,' said deputy director Asia of Human Rights Watch, Phil Robertson, speaking exclusively to Gay Star News.

A day of commemoration will be held in South Africa in honor of all LGBT individuals murdered due to their sexual orientation today (24 April).

The day is being organized by Amnesty International and the local LGBT rights organisation Ekurhuleni Pride Organizing Committee (EPOC).

It will involve a short memorial service, after which participants will be given the opportunity to write messages of hope and condolence that will remain at the site as a memorial.

Fifty three students have been expelled from two of the leading high schools in Ghana for being gay.

The events have erupted into an anti-gay media frenzy in Ghana.

Ninteen pupils at Opoku Ware Secondary High School in Ashanti Ghana were dismissed for ‘practicing homosexuality’ in the school.

Ghanaian human rights activists are condemning the school’s action as ‘evil’ and ‘bad’ and are calling for the government to intervene.

Delaware’s House Administration Committee approved the gay marriage bill with a 4-1 vote sending it to a House floor vote.

The bill - HB75 – was debated today (17 April) for 90 minutes in which speakers were given two minutes to testify, reported On Top Magazine.

Richard Smith, president of the Delaware chapter of the NAACP, was among those testifying saying: ‘We believe marriage equality is a civil right’.