The culture of the Police Service in Britain is developing into one where you can be as comfortable at work as you are at home – that is the strategic aim. It is worth noting that there are eight local police forces listed in the Stonewall Top 100 Index of gay-friendly employers and LGBT officers are included in the majority of UK police forces. It hasn’t always been this way.

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.

An anti-gay Twitter account is calling for a ‘Straight Pride’ on the social networking site.

For the past four days, ‘Straight Pride UK’ has tweeted messages about the need for a heterosexual march on 20 May to protest the upcoming debate on same-sex marriage in the House of Commons.

‘Being straight is not easy under the circumstances of our society. Straight people are being persecuted every day by political correctness,’ they write.

Assaults on the LGBT community and incidents of homophobic hate speech have both risen sharply in France over the last year.

The number of calls to SOS Homophobie’s helpline were up by 27% on the previous year.

Homophobic hate crime spiked last year in the run-up to the French parliament's approval of a Bill allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children.

Incidents doubled in October and November when compared with the previous year, and tripled in December.

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.

Stonewall has denied advising a Catholic school on student's 'gay' shoes.

St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Wimbledon, south-west London, called on Stonewall to help students and teachers about dealing with homophobia.

Singapore often makes Gay Star News headlines - about a judge ruling against repealing a colonial-era law that criminalizes gay sex or a pastor preaching against homosexuality at an evangelical 'mega church' conference - but how does that feel for the LGBT people who live there?

Today (12 May) the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation honors the mothers whose love and support has been essential for the gay and lesbian community.

'On Mother's Day this year, GLAAD would like to lift up some of the exceptional mothers that we have been working with for the past year,' the organization writes on its site. 'They are women who have been dedicated to their family through many obstacles.'

The news that NBA star Jason Collins has come out as gay generated a frenzy of headlines, reports and comments that is still continuing.

I want to understand the excitement. But there are still questions I have as an openly black gay man living in Europe. These questions were put into perspective when I had a conversation with a white gay friend of mine.

One Million Moms (OMM) is campaigning to stop Gay Day, 1 June at Disney Orlando USA.

OMM believe the long running ‘event is planned with the intent to expose and desensitize children to this [gay] lifestyle by same-sex couples holding hands, hugging and kissing.’

One Million Moms urges their users to email Disney World with their formatted complaint.

He has never had sex with a woman but Markus K from Munich, Germany may be the gay dad with the most kids in the world – 22 so far.

Slim, dark-haired and 1.94 meters (6’3”) tall he has 12 children living in Munich, one in Tuscany, one in Vienna, six in other German towns and two still in the womb – they are due to be born this summer.

If both those pregnancies go as planned he will end up with 12 girls and 12 boys. He thinks that’s a good number and may consider stopping.

Veteran gay activist Peter Tatchell has criticized a British lawyer who called for the age of consent for all sex – gay and straight – in the UK to be lowered to 13.

Barbara Hewson was commenting on a child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the UK with some of the country’s ageing TV stars being arrested or questioned on suspicion of abuse of young boys and girls or women.

Now barrister – or senior lawyer – Hewson has said those rounding up suspected abusers are ‘zealots’ who are ‘manipulating’ the law.