A Michigan superintendent has invited renowned anti-gay US politician Rick Santorum back to speak at a high school.

Dr Thomas Harwood, the superintendent, says parents will now be able to sign a permission slip to decide if students can attend the event to hear Santorum speak, Click on Detroit reports.

Rick Santorum lashed out today at officials at Grosse Pointe High School in Michigan for initially canceling a scheduled speech of his because he did not provide them with an advance copy.

Santorum, a former US senator from Pennsylvania, seemed certain it is due to his well-known opposition to gay marriage.

Although public opinion is shifting on the issue, former US Senator Rick Santorum insists it would be 'suicidal' for the Republican party to embrace gay marriage.

Santorum, who finished second to Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination last year, remains steadfastly against marriage equality and thinks others in his party should remain so too.

Will & Grace ended its run in 2006, but the sitcom about a gay man and his straight female best friend is still be very much in the current conversation about gay marriage.

Gay marriage foe Rick Santorum, the former US senator who ran for the Republican presidential nomination last year, discussed the show's impact on gay marriage during the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this month.

In the days since Senator Rob Portman came out in support of gay marriage, other prominent Republicans have been asked if their position might also change on the issue.

Rick Santorum, one of the most outspoken opponents of gay marriage and LGBT equality in mainstream politics, said over the weekend that he is 'not changing my opinion on that issue.'

Some of President Barack Obama's historically LGBT inclusive inaugural address was an obvious choice when the The Respect for Marriage Coalition was looking for footage of political figures to feature in its $1 million marriage equality ad campaign that made it debut today (20 February).

But featuring a bunch of well-known Republicans too?

Rick Santorum, the former US senator who challenged Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, has stepped into the debate over whether gays should be allowed in the Boys Scouts of America.

'When I saw that the Boy Scouts of America executive board is convening on Wednesday to discuss abandoning the organization’s founding moral principles that nurture boys into men, I was saddened, but not surprised,' Santorum writes in a column for WND.com.

A pair of comedians calling themselves the Chick-fil-A Foundation have been exploiting the American fast-food chain's intolerance for gay rights for humor.

The latest YouTube clip shows John, Robert and Harvey the Cow renounce their homosexuality in exchange for a free chicken sandwich.

'Last night Robert and I kind of let our feelings get the best of us,' John says. 'And that's wrong. So we're going to cash in this coupon that says trade your homosexuality for a free chicken sandwich!'

In 2012, gay people and their rights have made international headlines like never before.

From Obama becoming the first US president to back marriage equality to Pope Benedict XVI saying gays are not fully developed humans, gay rights issues have come to the forefront.

We have had a look at the year and found the most important, shocking, hilarious and weird stories, and this is the best of the best from the first third of the year.

Where best to begin? Let’s start with…

One year after the US military lifted it’s ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ ban on openly gay service people, the change has had no negative consequences.

That’s according to the first academic study on the results of the lifting of the ban, published this week by the Palm Center a research branch of the Williams Institute at University of California Los Angeles Law School.

A lesbian activist dressed as a cow in Texas to protest homophobic fast food chain Chick-Fil-A.

Just Kusko stood outside a branch of the restaurant in Austin holding a sign which read: 'Don't Hate The Homooo!'

The chain is openly against gay marriage and its charitable arm has donated millions to anti-gay organizations in recent years.

'These pictures have really taken off,' Kusko told The Advocate.

The Chick-fil-A chain has been at the center of a heated debate ever since its top executive went on the record to say he was against gay marriage.

Gay marriage opponents like Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin have rallied to the Atlanta-based chain's defense who marriage equality advocates have spoken out, tweeted and protested.

Some politicians have even gone so far as saying the chain's restaurants are no longer welcome in their state.

But one thing that hasn't surface until today (1 August) is humor.