A British man who killed a gay teen by setting him on fire during his 18th birthday will be jailed for three and a half years.

Steven Simpson, who had Asperger’s syndrome, a speech impairment and epilepsy, was covered in self-tanning oil and set alight in the early hours of 23 June last year.

Jordan Sheard, 20, was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

A judge heard how as Simpson became more drunk, homophobic insults were scrawled on his arm and stomach, told to strip to his boxers and encouraged to dance around.

Richard Blanco followed on the footsteps of such celebrated American poets as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou on Monday (21 January) when he delivered a poem at the second inauguration of US President Barack Obama.

Blanco is a 44-year-old man from Maine,  is the first gay man and first Latino chosen as inaugural poet.

Below is a full text of the poem and video of Blanco delivering it during the inauguraton:

It’s an obvious statement, but traveling with a hangover is not pleasant.

Through some bad planning I’d had a late night at the Christmas party of my water polo team, so it was a huge struggle to drag myself to London’s St Pancras station for the early train to Belgium.

Thankfully Eurostar journeys are usually fairly painless and in a couple of hours I was waiting impatiently for a taxi outside the train station at Bruges, the icy drizzle blowing the last of the vodka from my system.

How can gay and trans equality boost our economies and help towards everyone’s future and why should companies be advocating for it?

Those are some of the bigger questions delegates discussed at Out & Equal’s Workplace Summit in Baltimore, Maryland which finished yesterday (1 November).

Claudia Brind-Woody is a vice president at IBM and a board member of Out & Equal – the organization which campaigns for workplace equality in the US.

There is, of course, enormous diversity and complexity across the world’s LGBT communities - culture, geography and gender all play a key role in defining who we are and how we live.

There are however a few universal truths that unite us all - how we get ready, prepare ourselves and present ourselves to the world is a cornerstone of everyone’s day regardless of who you are or where you live.

When packing in a rush, it's easy to forget the essentials. But after grabbing your money, tickets and passport, remember to take a supply of decent travel toiletries and grooming products with you.

The Baxter of California Travel Kit has everything you could possibly need to make sure you're still looking your fabulous self no matter where you are.

So whether you're in a wicca hut in the Amazon jungle or a five-star luxury hotel in Bali, you'll always look refreshed and at your best.

The body of a 16-year-old girl described in local media as a 'tomboi' was found in a palm oil field in a town in the state of Kelantan in north-east Malaysia.

Fridae reports that Nor Ain Shafnie Mohd had been missing for three weeks and her body was found badly burned about 500 metres from her house.

Police chief superintendent Saiful told a local newspaper:

A journey of a thousand miles starts with just one step. But no matter how flat the road may be, that first mile is always a bitch.

And so it was with my three-month challenge to look and feel like an Olympian before the London 2012 games kick off in the UK capital in July.