Controversial former Liberal frontbencher Senator Cory Bernardi said in an interview this morning that he does not regret linking gay marriage to bestiality.

Bernardi said during a debate in the Australian federal parliament last September that legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality. His comments prompted opposition leader Tony Abbott to ask him to resign as shadow parliamentary secretary.

Gay rights activists from Russia are calling for a boycott of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

The RUSA LGBT organization based in New York have said lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are not safe in Russia, and are hoping straight people too will support the ban.

The lower house of Russia's parliament on Tuesday (18 June) gave initial approval to a measure that would ban gay people from foreign countries from adopting Russian orphans.

A newspaper columnist questioned the sexuality of the Australian prime minister's boyfriend again on a TV show yesterday.

On Sunday discussion TV show ABC Insiders right-wing newspaper columnist Piers Akerman said 'a lot of people in the Canberra [press] gallery have been saying the same thing [as radio host Howard Sattler]'.

Guests on ABC Insiders were discussing Sattler's live radio interview with Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week, in which he asked if her parter Tim Mathieson is gay.

An openly gay member of parliament was brutally attacked following the Warsaw Pride parade on Saturday (15 June).

Robert Biedron, the first gay MP in the country, has said he was with friends in a Polish capital café relaxing after the march.

‘An aggressive man insulted us, using homophobic statements,’ the Palikot’s Movement MP told Polsat News.

While there are an increasing number of reports of gay and lesbian elite sportspeople becoming more open about their sexuality, for LGBT equality campaigners the battle is still far from won.

The European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) are targeting young sports fans in the 11 to 16 age range, using game-based education to tackle homophobia and transphobia in sport.

From 26 June 26 to 3 July, US President Barack Obama will be visiting Africa. The visit takes him to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

According a statement released by the White House, Obama will use his visit ‘to reinforce the importance that the United States places on our deep and growing ties with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including through expanding economic growth, investment, and trade; strengthening democratic institutions; and investing in the next generation of African leaders’.

A peaceful gay activist has been pushed to the ground and beaten by Turkish police at an anti-government protest in Istanbul.

And three other LGBT protestors have been reported to have been verbally abused by the riot police who targeted them because of their sexuality.

All four are part of Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park protest that started in Turkey on 28 May.

The protests were sparked by outrage at a brutal eviction of a peaceful sit-in at the park protesting against its demolition.

Pope Francis encouraged French politicians to take matters into their own hands in a speech apprently directed at gay marriage.

Speaking to a delegation of French politicians and representatives at the Vatican yesterday, Pope Francis called France a ‘nation to which the eyes of the world often turn,’ pointing to the controversial Marriage for All Bill that split the country into in an unprecedented show of public discord between gay marriage opponents and supporters.

Jenny Owen Youngs has revealed she is engaged to another woman in an open letter to fans.

In the letter, posted online on the website EveryoneIsGay.com on June 12, Youngs writes about her plans to marry this summer and about her decision to come out.

‘I’m writing to tell you, among other things, that I am super gay,’ Youngs wrote.

‘This may or may not come as a surprise to you. If it does: Surprise! If it does not: You were right all along! Either way: Hooray!’

Gay priests looking to move up in the Anglican Church must now undergo questioning into their sex lives.

In December, the House of Bishops ruled that priests who are in civil partnerships could become bishops, a decision that opened the doors for a number of openly gay priests who were already partnered to rise in the ranks of of the Church.