The American Academy of Pediatrics declared its support for same-sex marriage yesterday when it published a report showing that children will benefit if their parents are allowed to marry.

When Japanese gay rights activist Koyuki Higashi contacted Tokyo Disneyland last year to ask if they would host her wedding to her girlfriend it sounded like an awareness-raising stunt, but in fact she did dream of a white wedding at Disneyland and last Friday the dream came true.

'My partner Hiroko and I just held a gay wedding at the Tokyo Disney Resort. Even Mickey and Minnie are here to celebrate with us!' said Higashi in a tweet, accompanied by a photo of the new wives with the Disney characters, that was retweeted 6,000 times.

For the past week Use Your Mandate has been using Twitter, mailings in seven states and TV ads to knock Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Defense. The group insists it's made up of Democratic party LGBT operatives, but its members have chosen to be anonymous.

A photography exhibition celebrating same-sex love has attracted thousands of visitors in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The exhibition entitled Open - Equal - Love features work by Vietnamese photographer Maika Elan (see some of her photographs on a New York Times blog) and was organized by Vietnamese LGBT rights campaigners Institute of Society, Economy and Environment (iSEE).

A video campaign featuring prominent trans Americans has been launched to mark Transgender Awareness Week.

The 'I AM: Trans People Speak' videos feature New York Times bestseller Professor Jennifer Finney Boylan and actress Laverne Cox telling their own personal stories.

Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) attorney Noah Lewis and performance poet Kit Yan also share their experiences to camera in the campaign which aims to put transgender issues in the spotlight to educate the public and speak to trans youth and adults.

Sam Champion, the Good Morning America anchor who came out publicly and announced his engagement last week, says he wants to have a small wedding.

Champion, a guest co-host on ABC's The View Friday (12 October), was asked about his engagement to photographer Rubem Robierb which he said will take place at the end of December.

'Neither one of us is very good at planning right now and this is a lot,' Champion admitted. 'I envision like five people with a bottle of champagne walking to the beach having a wedding. He's from Brazil so everything on the beach.'

Following in the footsteps of Elton John, Neil Patrick Harris and Ricky Martin, fashion designer and movie director Tom Ford is now a gay celebrity dad.

Ford and partner of 25 years, Richard Buckley, now have a son, according to New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn.

Horyn tweeted Friday: 'Congratulations to Tom Ford and Richard Buckley on birth of their son, Alexander John Buckley Ford!'

Sam Champion, the weather anchor on ABC's Good Morning America, is getting married to male partner Rubem Robierb later this year.

The engagement was reported in a New York Times profile on Champion's friend, MSNBC's Thomas Roberts, who married longtime partner Patrick Abner last weekend.

Approximately two years ago, Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi leaped to his death after discovering his roommate used a webcam to spy a sexual encounter the freshman had with another man.

Since then the US northeastern university has worked overtime to make sure its LGBT students find a supportive environment.

National Football League linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo has been under the spotlight because he supports same sex marriage.

An expert witness who testified against the constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage has publicly recanted his opposition to marriage equality.

David Blankenhorn, the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, was a key witness called to testify against same-sex marriage in the case of Perry v. Brown and authored a book ‘The Future of Marriage’ in 2007, making the case against same-sex marriage.

Colombia's highest constitutional court has guaranteed Chandler Burr custody of his two sons.

The gay New York Times journalist sued the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) for barring him from taking his two legally adopted sons outside of the country.

The ICBF called for the US Embassy to revoke the boys' adoption emigration visas in March 2011 after he disclosed he is gay.

Burr had adoption the boys through an international adoption agency and met all legal requirements, including obtaining the adoption decree.