A leading Estonian intellectual has called for the legal recognition of same-sex relationship and says it could even be useful to recognize non-sexual dependent relationships between heterosexual friends.

Chairman of the Estonian Writers’ Union and poet Karl Martin Sinijärv made the call in response to comments from IRL party MP Erki Nool that homosexuals should be avoided and given medical treatment.

Lesbian broadcaster Clare Balding has been lited among the most powerful women in the UK for 2013.

Also nominated is Britain's poet laureate and lesbian Carol Ann Duffy.

The Women's Hour Power list, compiled by a judging panel from BBC Radio 4, was topped by Queen Elizabeth II.

It was only ranked from one to 20, with Balding and Duffy among the 100-strong list.

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?"

Gay activists were beaten up by an angry crowd during an authorized protest on Sunday (20 January).

In the city of Voronezh in southwest Russia, gay rights activists held a protest against a nationwide homophobia bill that will be discussed in parliament soon.

Several hundred people opposing gay rights gathered near a monument to poet Ivan Nikitin to seal off all approaches to it to prevent the picket from taking place.

When about ten gay activists appeared, the crowd pelted them with snowballs and then beat them up.

Daniel Radcliffe distances himself further from his Harry Potter image by taking on a role that involves drugs, death and gay sex.

Premiering today at the Sundance Film Festival, Kill Your Darlings casts Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg, American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat generation in the 1950s.

Director John Krokidas explained that Radcliffe's character starts as a dutiful son who spends his time taking care of others but eventually spills over with repressed passion.

Robert Blanco has been chosen to do what such celebrated American poets as Robert Frost and Maya Angelo have in the past: write an original poem and recite it at the inauguration of a US president.

But Blanco has made history by being the first openly gay man chosen, the first Latino, and at 44, he is the youngest inaugural poet ever.

Blanco, a resident of Maine, will recite his poem at the swearing in of President Barack Obama on 21 January in Washington DC.

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.

Using only the written word, a poet can make you laugh, cry, think, or wonder with just a turn of phrase.

There are many gay, lesbian and bisexual poets who have this ability, and rank as some of the best literary voices in history.

So to celebrate National Poetry Day, Gay Star News decided to take a look at some of the most inspiring gay poets from history and today.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde, otherwise known as the most quotable man of his generation, is one of the wittiest men in history.

A video campaign hopes to raise awareness of how strict new voter ID laws in the US discriminates against transgender citizens during the upcoming presidential election.

The Williams Institute at UCLA estimates that more than 25,000 transgender people could lose their right to vote as a result of revised photo ID laws, which mean some people's identification does not match their registration information.

Britain’s lesbian poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has won the 2012 Pen Pinter prize. The annual prize is awarded to any British writer or writer living in Britain of ‘outstanding literary merit’.

Awarded since 2009, the prize was set up in memory of playwright Harold Pinter who said in his Nobel prize speech that good writing should cast an ‘unflinching, unswerving’ gaze on the world and show ‘fierce intellectual determination… to define the real truth of our lives and our societies’.

Oscar winner Colin Firth will play gay playwright, actor and composer Noël Coward and the best friend and confidant of Oscar Wilde in forthcoming biopics.

In details announced at the Cannes Film Festival, the King's Speech actor is due to star as Oscar Wilde's gay friend Reginald 'Reggie' Turner in the upcoming Oscar Wilde biopic, This Happy Prince.