United Kingdom, Europe

Contemporary British attitudes towards LGBT rights and homosexuality are regarded as generally liberal. The age of consent stands at 16 - regardless of sexual orientation. In 2004, the Gender Recognition Act created a process for transsexual and transgender people to change their legal sex. The landmark Civil Partnership Act 2004 created a parallel legal structure to marriage, giving gay couples all the rights and responsibilites of marriage, including the eligibility to apply to adopt children. In addition, discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal in many fields, including housing, employment and the provision of goods and services. Likewise, Her Majesty's Armed Forces allows LGBT individuals to serve openly. In December 2008, the United Kingdom - along with 65 other countries - signed a United Nations declaration calling for the global decriminalization of homosexuality.

 

News & Reports:

 

Young, Gay and Homeless

Christmas is almost here, and many of us are looking forward to spending time with our loved ones. But there are some people who don’t have that to look forward to. That is because they are homeless. Being homeless is one of the worst things can happen to someone. I know because I have been… Read more »

British government should take responsibility for colonial sodomy laws, says Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch deputy director, Asia, tells Gay Star News that the UK government should publicly denounce anti-gay laws that were set up by the British empire The British government should do more to persuade ex-colonies to repeal anti-gay laws, Phil Robertson the deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch told Gay… Read more »

UK: Home Office threatens to ban Ugandan politicians from entering Britain over anti-gay law

The Home Office has indicated that if Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill is passed by the country’s parliament, the UK may ban senior Ugandan politicians from entering Britain It comes after Conservative MP Mike Freer tabled a question in parliament calling on Home Office Minister Mark Harper to ban Ugandan parliamentarians who are complicit in passing the… Read more »

Princes William and Harry back gay-run HIV charity

Princes William and Harry follow in mom Diana’s footsteps by backing Terrence Higgins Trust Britain’s pin-up Princes, William and Harry, have been asked to be ambassadors for the country’s leading HIV charity, Terrence Higgins Trust (THT). The organization was started when Terry Higgins became one of the first to die of AIDS in the UK… Read more »

Comment: Coming out as gay at a Catholic high school

PinkNews.co.uk reader Andrew Doughty writes about what it’s like to be a gay teenager in a British Catholic school in 2012. I’m sure we’ve all the heard the words ‘Faggot’, ‘Queer’, ‘Dyke’ and many other, ‘pleasant’ terms thrown around at some point in our lives. In a high school setting this could seriously knock a… Read more »

Obituary: Allan Horsfall – LGBT pioneer 1927-2012

Campaigner for UK gay law reform & equality Peter Tatchell recalls the contribution of LGBT rights pioneer Allan Horsfall, who died from heart failure on 27 August 2012, aged 84. Allan Horsfall was one of the grandfathers of the modern gay rights movement in Britain, with a campaigning record that stretches back more than 50… Read more »

From today, HIV treatment is free for all who need it in England

The removal of charges for undocumented migrants and non-UK citizens accessing HIV treatment and care in England comes into effect today. From now on, HIV treatment will be provided free of charge to all who need it, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. The move was first announced in February and the relevant legislation passed… Read more »

On the trail of Patrick Leigh Fermor in Greece

Ahead of a new Patrick Leigh Fermor biography, our writer visits the Mani peninsula, home of the great man and unsung resting place of another British travel writing giant, Bruce Chatwin Old Mr Fotis turned my question over in his mind while sipping his morning coffee. Below the veranda some youths had been playing noisily… Read more »

Lesbian Poet Laureate’s dark take on fairytale to go on tour

Britain’s lesbian Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has turned the fairytale Rapunzel into a ballet which will tour in the UK from October A ballet written by Britain’s lesbian Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy is to go on tour in the UK from October. Commissioned by London dance house Sadler’s Wells and choreographed by Liv… Read more »

UK’s first Olympic boxing champ celebrates gold at G-A-Y

Olympic champion Nicola Adams toasts her success at 2012 games by visiting one of London’s biggest gay clubs Boxing champion Nicola Adams proved she is a knock-out in the club as well as the ring after being spotted celebrating winning Olympic gold at G-A-Y. The first time games winner was smiling ear to ear when… Read more »

Ten out gay Olympians win gold at the games

Ten openly LGBT Olympians have taken home Gold from the London 2012 summer games. Were they a team, they would have tied with Mexico and Ethiopia in total medals. Over a third of all out LGBT athletes won a medal, beating off the USA team. Cyd Ziegler, founder of outsports.com said: “If ‘Team Gay’ was… Read more »

Gay influence at London Olympics is quietly strong

It’s not easy being gay anywhere. In sports competition it’s harder than most places. At the Olympics, it’s gotta be tougher than nails. That is, to be an “out’’ gay or lesbian. According to various reports, which are necessarily without a certain level of fact-checking, there are 21 openly gay athletes out of more than… Read more »

Poll: Gay men take twice as many holidays

A new poll suggested gay men take double the national average number of holidays each year. Ipsos Mori polled 2,174 gay men for Gaydar and has released both the pattern for gay holidays and the most popular destinations. San Francisco was the most popular city, followed by Amsterdam. The resort of Gran Canaria came third… Read more »

Stonewall launches advice leaflets for gay tourists in Britain

Gay rights charity Stonewall has launched a series of multilingual leaflets designed to promote gay freedoms in Britain to foreign visitors. The polyglot range will advise gay visitors of the legal protections available to them and what to do if they run into difficulties in the UK. ‘You’re Welcome!’ will be available in English, French,… Read more »

London: First national conference on LGBT end of life care tomorrow

The first ever national conference on end of life care for LGBT people will take place this Thursday in London. Policymakers, service providers, academics and people who are themselves dying will come together on Thursday to discuss how to improve end of life care for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The conference is organised… Read more »

Hillary Clinton accepts World Pride Award

The US Secretary of State sends ‘powerful’ message to world on gay rights as four men are due to be hanged for sodomy in Iran World Pride organizers say Hillary Clinton’s formal acceptance of a gay rights award sends a ‘powerful’ and ‘poignant’ message to the world as four men in Iran await execution for… Read more »

Hillary Clinton wins World Pride Award

London honors US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with LGBT award as it hosts World Pride 2012 Pride London and global LGBT organization Kaleidoscope Trust will be honoring US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with the World LGBT Award this July at a gala dinner to celebrate World Pride 2012. The British capital is hosting… Read more »

Britain pledges to keep fighting for LGBT rights abroad

Annual report on human rights and democracy outlines steps UK took to promote LGBT rights abroad Britain will continue fighting for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights around the globe despite a backlash for some countries. That’s the pledge the Foreign and Commonwealth Office gave Gay Star News as it released an annual report on… Read more »

Protesters call for release of gay Ugandan refugee

Campaigners picketed Dutch embassy in London and handed over petition demanding asylum for gay man fleeing persecution in Uganda Campaigners demonstrated outside the Dutch embassy in London yesterday (2 April) demanding freedom and asylum for a gay Ugandan. Members of the Movement for Justice group called for the Netherlands to release Kalanzi Marvin Richard, who… Read more »

London buses carry pro-gay marriage posters

You wait ages for a pro-gay marriage poster, then 1,000 come along at once, courtesy of Stonewall Some buses have gay adverts on them, get over it – that’s the message from gay group Stonewall. Leading British gay campaign organization Stonewall have put posters on the side of 1,000 London buses to campaign for same-sex… Read more »

India’s attorney-general blames Victorian Britain for anti-gay laws

In an apparent change of heart from the position it adopted three years ago, the Indian government has said that homosexuality was tolerated in pre-colonial India, and it was only the British who imposed their Victorian values of morality on what was a largely liberal land. India’s chielf law officer GE Vahanvati told the Supreme… Read more »

First UK conference on gay China begins this week

A dozen leading figures from the Chinese gay and lesbian community will speak at The University of Manchester this week in the first event of its kind in the UK. From 22 to 24 March, activists, academics, and filmmakers will share their experience with European counterparts to correct misconceptions about being gay in China. Europe-China… Read more »

Gay Prisoners to Marry Inside Some of Britain’s Toughest Jails

London – Gay prisoners will be allowed to tie the knot inside some of the country’s toughest jails, as long as they pay for the ceremonies themselves Top security lock-ups like will have to host civil partnership ceremonies, provided the inmates fund the nuptials themselves. The green light for killers, rapists, drug dealers and terrorists… Read more »

Poll: 65 percent of British agree gays should have equal right to marry

The latest in a line of polls gauging public opinion on the proposed right of gay couples to marry in Britain has found two thirds of the public support it. Over the weekend, the Populus poll asked a thousand voters in Scotland, England and Wales what they thought of such a move, proposals for which… Read more »

Gay couples make wedding plans amid angry Catholic sermons

‘It’s not like we are all going to be marching into Catholic churches in bridal dresses,’ says one gay man at Designer Civil Partnership show “Let me not to the marriage of true minds/ Admit impediments,” declared the bard of Stratford in his 116th sonnet. And at the Globe theatre in central London on Sunday… Read more »

Pope Benedict warns against gay marriage

Pope Benedict XVI has denounced gay marriage in a speech to US bishops visiting Vatican City. The Pope warned of “powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage”. He also urged the bishops to emphasise to their Church that premarital sex and cohabitation was “gravely sinful” and “damaging to the… Read more »

Gay online encyclopaedia debuts

WikiQueer, a gay, bi and trans online encyclopaedia has launched publicly this week. The wiki site began collating content after its soft-launch last year and has now gone live. Unlike Wikipedia, WikiQueer says it will allow dynamic content from existing online LGBT and wiki projects, content geared towards activism around issues, and in-depth information on… Read more »

Graduate hands back Oxford degree over Christian Concern conference

An Oxford graduate has handed back his degree over a college’s arrangement to host conferences in association with a religious group which has regularly opposed advances in gay rights and backed ‘gay cure’. Michael Amherst returned his Exeter College English degree yesterday, saying he no longer wished “to be associated” with the institution. Exeter’s administrators… Read more »

Elton John & David Furnish interview Peter Tatchell

Attitude magazine – March 2012 Celebration of 60th birthday & 45 years of human rights campaigning London, UK – Elton John & David Furnish interview Peter Tatchell in celebration of his 60th birthday, 45 years of human rights campaigning and 10 years of his Peter Tatchell Foundation. The interview is published in the March 2012… Read more »

Free HIV treatment for asylum seekers and non-UK citizens

Experts believe cost will be far less than possible costs of treating someone in hospital for Aids Asylum seekers and other non-British citizens are set to be given free HIV treatment after the government indicated it was willing to accept an amendment from Lord Fowler to the health bill. Doctors working with people who have… Read more »

‘Real Men Get Raped’ Campaign Comes To London Tube Stations

A new rape awareness campaign aimed at men in London is hoping to challenge the way that people think about the crime and its victims. Posters for the campaign, launched by Survivors UK, an organization that deals with sexual violence against men, read “Real men get raped and talking about it takes real strength” and… Read more »

No posthumous pardon for Alan Turing; gay computing pioneer still a criminal

An online petition signed by over 23,000 people which called on the UK government to grant a posthumous pardon to Alan Turing has been rejected. “A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence,” the BBC reported Justice Minister Lord McNally as… Read more »

Muslims posted ‘nasty and frightening’ anti-gay leaflets demanding homosexuals ‘turn or burn’

Five Muslim men distributed “threatening, frightening and nasty” leaflets depicting gay men being executed in an attempt to encourage hatred against homosexuals, a court has heard. The men posted leaflets, with titles including “Turn or Burn”, “God abhors you” and “The Death Penalty?”, through doors and handed them out at a mosque, calling for the… Read more »

PinkNews to celebrate 25 January as Peter Tatchell Day – legendary campaigner turns 60

To mark the 60th birthday of our most iconic human rights campaigner, PinkNews.co.uk will be naming Wednesday 25 January Peter Tatchell Day. To celebrate the day, we will look back at the enormous contribution Peter Tatchell has made to the fight for equal gay rights and human rights in general across the UK and abroad… Read more »

‘Visionary’ Jamaican rights activist announced as recipient of inaugural David Kato Award

Global award honouring murdered human rights activist to be presented to Jamaican lawyer, Maurice Tomlinson in London David Kato, the human rights activist murdered in his home in Kampala, Uganda on 26 January 2011, is representative of the millions of individuals worldwide who daily struggle against hostility and persecution simply because of their sexuality. Inspired… Read more »

The Future of HIV Prevention Among MSM in Europe

Towards better sex with less harm for gay and bisexual men in Europe Good Morning The title of our conference asks us to consider the future, and I hope over the next two days we will all be looking forward. The future is inevitable. But what it looks like is not. The evidence base for… Read more »

Gay UK News & Reports 2011

1 Men charged with anti-gay hatred over execution leaflets 1/11 2 Bishop Derek Rawcliffe, 1921-2011 2/11 3 Gay church ‘marriages’ set to get the go-ahead 2/11 4 1-in-5 unaware that HIV can be passed though unprotected gay sex 2/11 5 British gay Muslims seek Islamic weddings 2/11 6 UK Appoints Openly Gay Ambassador 3/11 6a… Read more »

Gay UK News & Reports 2010 Aug-Dec

1 Attitude magazine tackles mental health issues in gay men 8/10 2 20,000 protest over Pope’s views on homosexuality 9/10 3 Sir Ian McKellen: Gay marriage has to be on Stonewall’s agenda 9/10 3a British army claims having openly gay soldiers has ‘increased productivity’ 9/10 4 Sir Ian McKellen unveils Tatchell blue plaque Award 10/10… Read more »

Gay UK News & Reports 2010 Jan-Jul

1 Homeless gay Muslims flee marriages 1/10 2 Isle of Man to consider civil partnerships for gay couples 2/10 3 Gordon Brown promises gay people they ‘will not have to walk alone’ 2/10 4 Liverpool policeman James Parkes ties the knot 2/10 4a Gay Asians reveal racism problems 3/10 5 iPhone app created for gay… Read more »

Gay UK News & Reports 2009

1 Victorian Moral Still Criminalizing Gay People 1/09 2 Britons ‘More Homophobic than Racist’ 1/09 3 Four banned from football grounds for homophobic chants 1/09 4 Elton John raises millions for AIDS foundation at Oscars party 2/09 5 Director receives death threats over documentary – gay Muslims 3/09 6 British Prime Minister declares Prop 8… Read more »