Mark Takano rode in the LA Pride parade for the first time on Sunday (10 June) and admitted to Gay Star News: 'I'm thrilled to be here.'

Takano, a Democrat, is the first openly gay person of color to be elected to the US Congress and the first openly gay person from California in Congress.

'Those are my two monikers,' he said of his historic firsts.

A public school teacher for 23 years, the Japanese-American had twice before run unsuccessfully for congress in 1992 and 1994.

The family of Marco McMillian, a gay mayoral candidate in Mississippi who was murdered, on Friday (10 May) asked the US Justice Department to look into the case.

The family spoke out after an autopsy was released showing that McMillian had died of asphyxiation and had also been burned and beaten.

Lawrence Reed, 22, was charged in the death of McMillian.

Two anti-gay politicians from the United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP) have been defeated in their bid to be elected as councilors in England.

John Sullivan, a UKIP candidate, who stated regular physical exercise in schools can 'avoided homosexuality’ failed to be elected as a Gloucestershire councilor.

Will Windsor-Clive of the Conservative party was elected on 988 votes with Sullivan 391 votes behind.

John Sullivan, a UK Independence Party candidate in the upcoming council elections, has changed his Facebook name after GSN revealed anti-gay comments he made online.

Two days after Gay Star News broke the news he appears to have changed his name to ‘Lyndon Sullivan’ and seems to have deleted the homophobic remarks.

Paraguay’s leading presidential candidate, Horacio Cartes, made strong anti-gay slurs and vehemently rejected marriage equality, ahead of the country’s election this Sunday.

During a Radio interview, Cartes, said that if his 28-year-old son were to seek to marry another man he’d shoot himself ‘in the balls, because I do not agree’.

A former Ecuadorean presidential candidate Nelson Zavala is appealing his charges after he was fined for calling gay people ‘sinners’.

Nelson Zavala, an evangelical preacher who says he can ‘cure’ gay people, has had his political rights suspended for a year and fined for his homophobic fines.

The ruling bars Zavala from standing as a candidate, or being involved with a political party or movement.

He was also fined $3,000 (€2,300).

Openly gay candidate Mike Bonin was elected to the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday (5 March).

He replaces his boss, Bill Rosendahl, who was the first openly gay council member in the city's history. Rosendahl is retiring after two terms and had endorsed his longtime chief of staff Bonin.

On his campaign website today, Bonin described himself as 'grateful, relieved and thrilled.'

A senior Liberal Democrat politician was involved in a secret dirty tricks unit that organized an anonymous, illegal, homophobic smear campaign against the Labour candidate in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election. That candidate was me, Peter Tatchell.

The allegation comes from a former Liberal Party insider, Liverpool city councillor Steve Radford. Appalled by his party’s tactics, he has decided to speak out.

The Church of England has dropped its ban on gay clergy becoming bishops.

This announcement, from the Church’s House of Bishops, would allow clergy in civil partnerships to become bishops if they promised to be celibate, the BBC reports.

In 2003, the issue split the church when gay cleric Jeffrey John, who has always maintained his celibacy, became a Bishop of Reading.

John, now Dean of St Albans, was forced to step down from the role after protests from traditionalists.

Two leading US conservative pundits have suggested that a different Republican stance on LGBT rights could have won them the US presidency.

Fox News contributor Ellen Ratner crunched the numbers and found that if Republican candidate Mitt Romney had managed to garner even 48 percent of the LGBT vote in Ohio he would have carried the key state.

Wisconsin State Assemblyman Mark Pocan has won a seat in the US House of Representatives and made a little bit of history along the way.

Pocan, who is openly gay, succeeds Tammy Baldwin in the US lower house just as he had in the State Assembly. This marks the first time that one gay legislature follows another for the same seat. Baldwin on Tuesday (6 November) became the first openly gay member of the US Senate.

Pocan, 48, defeated Republican challenger Chad Lee in an electoral district that has been reliably Democratic in the past.

Things might be a little awkward at the next family reunion for Republican US Senate candidate Josh Mandel and some of his relatives.

Mandel, running for a seat from Ohio, is slammed in a full-page ad placed in the Cleveland Jewish News by a group of cousins (by marriage) who take issue with his stances against gay marriage and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell which prevented gays and lesbians from serving openly in the US military.