A number of As One in the Park festival drummers were informed by Dame Helen Mirren, dressed up as Queen Elizabeth II, to take their joyful noise away from her theater.

Sydney city councillor Christine Forster is suggesting a large rainbow flag to replace a rainbow road crossing that was taken away by the state government due to safety concerns.

Forster, who is the lesbian sister of Australia's opposition leader Tony Abbott, said to the Daily Telegraph:

Conservatives in the Church of England have paved the way for the clergy to bless gay and lesbian couples entering civil partnerships.

It comes at a time when Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Church worldwide, is rumored to be considering formally backing civil partnership ceremonies.

The UK's Press Complaints Commission (PCC), the current self-regulatory body for print media, has decided that a column describing transgender people as 'dicks in chicks' among other slurs was not prejudicial or pejorative.

The PCC received 800 complaints after The Observer published the column written by Julie Burchill in January this year.

The new Archbishop of Canterbury is set to use his first official day in office to attack gay marriage.

Right Reverend Justin Welby will be formally confirmed as head of the Church of England at a ceremony in St Paul’s Cathedral today (4 February).

But a source has told the Daily Telegraph he will step in to the battle over marriage equality, ahead of tomorrow’s vote in the UK parliament on extending marriage to same-sex couples in England and Wales.

The head of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) has said new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s plan to attack same-sex marriage as ‘absolutely horrific’.

Reverend Sharon Ferguson of the LGCM told Gay Star News that Welby shouldn’t use his first day in the job to attack gay and lesbian couples but should be trying to welcome them back into the Church of England he now heads.

Welby is being formally confirmed in his new job today (4 February) at a service in St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

The Press Complaints Commission is to launch an inquiry into the publication of Julie Burchill’s anti-trans column in The Observer.

The commission decided to act after receiving 800 complaints about the article, which was removed from the newspaper’s sister website The Guardian.co.uk soon after it was published on 13 January.

Nearly a quarter of all British Catholic priests have co-signed a letter to raise fears gay marriage will lead to ‘centuries of persecution’ of religious people.

The 1,054 religious leaders claim that taken in combination with equalities laws and other legal restraints, the UK government’s plans will prevent Catholics and other Christians who work in schools to speak freely against same-sex couples marrying.

They fear Christians who believe in the ‘traditional’ meaning of marriage would effectively be banned from some jobs.

Australia’s Daily Telegraph newspaper greeted the landslide victory of marriage equality campaigner Alex Greenwich with a story that ‘leaked’ his ‘party past’.

The article attempted to disparage Greenwich, who has worked with utmost professionalism as national convenor of Australian Marriage Equality and during his election campaign for independent MP for Sydney, which he won by a wide margin on Saturday.

Australia’s Daily Telegraph newspaper greeted the landslide victory of marriage equality campaigner Alex Greenwich with a story that ‘leaked’ his ‘party past’.

The article attempted to disparage Greenwich, who has worked with utmost professionalism as national convenor of Australian Marriage Equality and during his election campaign for independent MP for Sydney, which he won by a wide margin on Saturday.

Australian right-wing newspaper The Daily Telegraph has lashed out at a program combating homophobia in schools in articles published today.

In a column, editorial and a front page splash, the newspaper criticizes the Proud Schools program which aims to combat homophobic abuse at school piloted in 12 New South Wales schools this year.