Former High Court judge and vocal gay rights advocate Michael Kirby spoke about discrimination against minority groups in Australia at a gathering for gay and lesbian business people in Brisbane last night.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien had a long-standing sexual relationship with a man while he was the leader of Scotland’s Catholic Church.

The man, who left the priesthood in the middle of the last decade, confessed to the relationship after complaints of sexual misconduct from other priests had been revealed.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien is alleged to have attempted to grope a priest in Rome on the night of a drinks party celebrating him becoming a ‘prince of the Church’ in October 2003.

The party where O’Brien allegedly tried to grope a man was attended by a noteable bishops and dignitaries.

This is the first direct allegation against the Cardinal and sexual misconduct at the heart of the Catholic Church.

In a ceremony at Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza hotel today (2 October) the Equality Network won Scotland’s Herald Society Campaigner of the Year award for their equal marriage campaign.

The Equality Network, a Scottish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality charity, competed alongside fellow nominees Shelter Scotland and Oxfam Scotland, to win the honour of recognition of their efforts to secure equal marriage rights for same-sex couples in Scotland.

The Herald reported that Zimbabwe police in the city of Kadoma have arrested a ‘gay couple’ for homosexuality.

LGBT activists, however, say that the government owned daily paper made the report up in order to create media sensationalism designed to bolster proposed constitutional changes and further legitmise persecution of LGBT people in Zimbabwe.  

Gay Ugandan Steven Kasiko sought refuge in New Zealand after the country’s newspaper Rolling Stone outed him and 100 other ‘homos’, accompanied by the tagline ‘hang them’.

Kasiko explained to the New Zealand Herald how difficult it was to grow up in Uganda aware that his sexual orientation was a criminal offence.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott of Australia is unhappy about posters that depict him as homophobic, racist and sexist.

Abbott told the Nine Network this morning (1 June): ‘It's tacky, it's not funny and Tanya Pibersek should be better than that and the Labour Party should lift its game.'

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek displayed in her Sydney electorate office posters that carry the slogans: 'I'm threatened by boats and gays. Gays on boats are my worst nightmare' and also 'Note to Ladies: Make me a sandwich.'

The Australian Open may be in its final weekend but the furor over former champion Margaret Court's statements against gay marriage continues to rage on.