I'd only been to Portugal once before, and that was an Easter weekend in Lisbon a couple of years ago. On that trip I was traveling with my ex-boyfriend, another of his ex-boyfriends, and his new boyfriend at the time – a strange combination but it worked surprisingly well.

This expedition was to Porto in the country’s north and I was on my own.

Popular American talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia are being treated like royalty on their Australia tour - with airline Qantas laying on personalized treatment and Victoria state premier Denis Napthine holding a black tie dinner in their honor tomorrow night.

The couple arrived in Melbourne today and were greeted by dedicated fans wearing Ellen t'shirts and displaying banners outside their hotel.

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

From the Hong Kong tycoon who promised millions to the man who could win the heart of his lesbian daughter, gay rights 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 from September to December.

Air New Zealand's joke about a female Olympic shot putter's testicle has failed to take off, with Twitter followers claiming it is transphobic.

Christmas crackers are known for their bad jokes, but the airline's free gag for travellers entering its daily competition on grabaseat.co.nz was deemed in poor taste.

'What large heavy ball was responsible for Valerie Adams' gold medal?' the joke read. 'The Belarusian's left testicle.'

A gay cabin crew supervisor stole duty free make-up and perfumes from Ryanair flights he worked on, then sold the products on eBay.

Thomas Crayston, 27, flew on the budget European airline from Birmingham Airport for six years.

But this year his bosses started to notice that luxury make-up and perfumes kept going missing from flights when he was on shift.

And Crayston incriminated himself when he posted a picture of his haul on eBay.

An Australian Senator has voiced concern about what a multi-million dollar deal between national airline Qantas and middle eastern airline Emirates will mean for gay passengers traveling through Dubai.

‘I refer to Article 177 of the Penal Code of Dubai that imposes imprisonment of up to 10 years on consensual sodomy, will there be warnings to gay Australians transiting through Dubai?’ said Liberal Senator Helen Kroger said in parliament on Wednesday.

The offices of American Airlines on New York City’s Park Avenue are modern and design-conscious.

I felt a little under-dressed while I was waiting in the stylish reception area on the 11th floor, contemplating the wall that illustrates all of the cities that are serviced by the One World aviation alliance, trying to work out how many of them I’d been to.

Gay activists recreated a Berlin Wall checkpoint in the city today – as CSD gay pride marchers protested the homophobic ‘propaganda’ laws in Russia.

Around 750,000 people danced to the beat of LGBT rights in Germany’s capital this afternoon (23 June).

My parents are in the UK visiting from Australia so I offered to take them to Vienna for the Easter weekend.

They're quite easy travelers, relaxed, mobile, happy to just go with the flow. Me? Not so much. Lord knows how they manage to cope with day-to-day life without me there to bossily organize and supervise them.

It has been a successful week for German airline Lufthansa at the ITB, the world’s biggest travel fair, in Berlin.

First they won an award from international gay magazine Mate, presented at a fun ceremony presided over by the cabaret queen of the air, Pam Ann.

Video of the moment when four activists were arrested during a protest at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport against Aeroflot’s anti-gay practices has now been released.

The Russian LGBT campaigners were angry after the country’s leading airline forced a gay flight attendant, Maxim Kupreev, to enter a sham straight marriage in order to keep his job.

Kupreev had angered Aeroflot’s bosses by trying to start a gay staff network within the company.