A transgender woman in Chennai, south eastern India, has opened up a dance school for children who live in a slum on the edge of the city.

'I've wanted to set up a dance school for slum children since my childhood,' said Ponni to Times of India.

'When I was rejected by a dance class... I used to secretly stand by the window and watch them dance... Dance helped me come to terms with my sexuality.'

Two gay men from Prato, near Florence, Italy, have launched a website with suggestions and tips for gay Italians wanting to marry abroad.

Following their marriage in New York two days ago, Stefano and Stefano posted online the video of their wedding and asked friends and relatives to share their ‘wonderful day’.

Most of the website is a list of tips on how to get married in New York. ‘You need a valid passport and that’s it’, they write, ‘and New York City does not ask you to be a permanent resident.’

DC Comics has revealed what they claim to be the first transgender character in mainstream comic books.

In Batgirl #19, on sale from now in both print and digital formats, Alysia Yoeh came out to her roommate main character Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as a bisexual trans woman.

Speaking to Wired, Batgirl writer Gail Simone, said comic books fans inspired her to create the civilian character.

Budding writers in London are to get a chance to exercise their skills by creating gay-orientated plays.

The new program looks to develop playwrights' skills and celebrate modern theater.

It will culminate with a festival called 'The Band Plays On', taking inspiration from Mart Crowley's 1968 iconic play 'The Boys In The Band' which explores gay lifestyles.

The festival will be made up of submissions chosen by an industry panel.

A gay writer has petitioned to author the new Adventures of Superman.

David Gerrold, a self-confessed Superman aficianado, has volunteered on Facebook to write the Superman comic after an online petition to remove a current anti-gay writer has gone viral.

Gerrold wrote: 'I see that you have hired a writer for Superman who has written strongly of his opposition to equal rights for LGBT people. And I see that there is an online petition protesting that move.

Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has joked about Englishmen being seen as gay while filming for his new role as American beat poet Allen Gisberg in Kill Your Darlings.

On acting and living in America, Radcliffe told Out Magazine: 'I was talking to someone about this and I said, "Why is it that when people meet English men in America they automatically think they're gay?"

Fantasia Barrino, winner of the third season of American Idol, is claiming her comments about gay marriage in an Instagram rant have been taken out of context.

The Grammy winner had posted a rant which read in part: 'Its a lot going on that the Bible speaks about we should Not be doing: Weed legal in some places, Gay Marriage Legal BUT YET IM JUDGED!!!'

Hobbit star Sir Ian McKellen says coming out is the 'best thing I ever did'.

The veteran gay actor is currently reprising his role as wizard Gandalf for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings prequel.

‘When I came out, I told my stepmother Gladys, and she just said she had known for years and was glad I wasn’t lying any more,’ he told The Daily Mail.

‘Before that, I presumed it would be bad for my career.

Somewhere in J.K. Rowling's files there is a fan letter from a 12 year old child named Chris Colfer.

The star of Glee talked to The New York Times about books and his reading past. He confessed that in his note to the author of the Harry Potter series he suggested her powers were more than just words.

'I may have also accused her of being a real witch and insisted she take me with her the next time she traveled into the wizarding world.'

Great things come in small packages but no-one could have anticipated that JRR Tolkien's pithy children's novel The Hobbit could be stretched into three bum-numbingly long instalments.

But that's exactly what director Peter Jackson has done, milking the Lord of the Rings prequel for every full stop, comma and semi-colon.

A more cynical observer might say it’s purely motivated by box office returns.

While British gay acting legend Ian McKellen may be well known for playing Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, he said he hopes the next sequel will be more gay-themed.

Speaking to satirical American comic Stephen Colbert, he joked the next set of films should be called ‘Gandalf The Gay’.

‘You know we're making a sequel, well maybe I shouldn't say this, called Gandalf the Gay. And you get the find out who is his favorite dwarf,’ the 73-year-old actor joked.