18-19 March 2015

UK London protest against Dolce & Gabbana
	"It is hypocritical for Stefano Gabbana to oppose gay parents, given that in 2006 he expressed a desire to have a child via artificial insemination and surrogacy," said Peter Tatchell petertatchellfoundation 19 Mar 15
SNP member suspended for homophobic tweet to Tory chief Ruth Davidson
	The abuse, which is littered with expletives attacking Ms Davidson's sexuality, was posted on the Twitter profile Laird O'Callaghan, under the username @SparkyBhoyHH stv.tv  19 Mar 15
GAY BUSINESS Stonewall lists the 20 most inclusive law firms for LGB staff
	Baker & McKenzie top this list, which is populated by law firms that entered Stonewall's latest Workplace Equality Index stonewall.org.uk 19 Mar 15
USA Aaron Schock resigns after new questions about mileage expenses
	Republican Representative Schock billed the federal government and his campaign for logging roughly 170,000 miles on his personal car from January 2010 through July 2014. But when he sold that Chevrolet Tahoe in July 2014, it had roughly 80,000 miles on the odometer politico.com  19 Mar 15 Congressman Aaron Schock under fire for not disclosing companion on official trip to India towleroad.com  19 Mar 15 My son is different but not gay: Aaron Schock's father edgeboston.com  19 Mar 15
SEX - LIFE Here's what never to say when dating a gay black man
	What kind of lines do gay men of color really hear when they're out at a bar? Filmmaker Cameron Johnson set out to discover just that with his new short documentary, You're Cute for a Black Guy mic.com  19 Mar 15
SHOW BIZ Free's Andy Fraser dies aged 62
	The co-writer of classic hit All Right Now, was gay and HIV positive. In 2005, with the release of solo album, Naked... And Finally Free, he both came out and talked about the agonising - "to the point of incapacitation" - he'd gone through mojo4music.com 19 Mar 15
George Clarke's Amazing Spaces
	... are looking for new exciting builds to feature on the upcoming series. If your project is unique, creative and unusual they want to hear from you. Contact Plum Pictures with details of you and your project at: amazingspaces@plumpictures.co.uk or 020 7184 6774 19 Mar 15

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Monday 16 March 2015

STICKS & STONES Facebook clarifies policy on hate speech
	The social network's updated guidelines also cover nudity, self-harm, bullying and harassment, violence and graphic content theguardian.com  16 Mar 15
GAY PARENTS Dolce and Gabbana clarify remarks: 'We do believe in freedom and love'
	Dolce and Gabbana have expanded on their views about gay adoptions following a social media boycott of their fashion line started by Sir Elton John. "We firmly believe in democracy and the fundamental principle of freedom of expression that upholds it," Stefano Gabbana said independent.co.uk  16 Mar 15 Dolce and Gabbana say 'Boycott Elton John' vigorously defending criticism of gay adoptions bbc.co.uk  16 Mar 15
GAY PRIDE Irish Dancing Queens float wins at Sydney's St Patrick's Day parade
	A Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras float had a second outing at Sydney's St Patrick's Day festivities yesterday - and walked away with the award for best in show starobserver.com.au  16 Mar 15

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Friday 20 February 2015

UK LGBT Narrative for London
	A survey is to examine the common and specific ongoing needs and challenges faced by LGBT communities, charities and organisations across the 32 London boroughs Take survey  20 Feb 15
HIV prevention spending falls from £55 million to £15 million
	NAT estimates in 2014/15 that £15 million was spent nationally on HIV prevention compared with £55 million allocated in 2001/02. In this time the number of people living with HIV has trebled whilst the amount spent on prevention has decreased to less than a third of the original budget. The lifetime costs of HIV treatment and care for someone with HIV is £361,000 nat.org.uk  20 Feb 15
Suicide in men 'highest since 2001'
	Overall there were 6,233 suicides in men and women over the age of 15 in 2013 - 4% higher than the previous year bbc.co.uk  20 Feb 15
Keeping a gay identity is not transphobic
	There are reasons that a number of lesbians and gay men find the embracing of transsexuals within gay charities troubling, but these are rarely mentioned for the fear of being accused of transphobia theguardian.com  20 Feb 15
GAY BASHING Killers of gay men to marry in first gay prison wedding
	Psychopath Mikhail Ivan Gallatinov, 40, will next month tie the knot with gay-bashing killer Marc Goodwin, 31. The pair, who met inside, have been given permission to wed at Full Sutton Prison, East Yorks mirror.co.uk  20 Feb 15
Man 'dragged, beaten and filmed in forced sex act'
	Two men - described by police as Mediterranean in appearance and aged between 20 and 22 with dark hair - took the man to a park near East Ham tube where they beat him with a metal pole before making him perform sex acts on them while they filmed standard.co.uk  20 Feb 15 Glasgow thugs admit vile attack on two men which left one with a fractured skull just because they were gay dailyrecord.co.uk  20 Feb 15
Gay man grieving over lost husband amid hate attacks
	Paul Finlay-Dickson, who has been subjected to a sustained campaign - with 21 incidents recorded over the past 18 months - lost his beloved husband to cancer just four weeks ago belfasttelegraph.co.uk  20 Feb 15
GAY BLOOD DONORS Screen all prospective blood donors based on risk, not sexuality
	GLAAD and GMHC are launching a US tv and social media campaign to tell the FDA to screen all prospective blood donors based on risk, not sexual orientation or gender identity celibacychallenge.com  20 Feb 15
GAY BUSINESS Obama's trade deal rewards a brutally anti-gay dictator  Prominent LGBT members of Congress assailed the Obama administration on Wednesday for including Brunei and Malaysia - two nations deeply hostile to gay communities - in major trade talks huffingtonpost.com  20 Feb 15 WORLD Cape Town Pride march 'racist'
	"The events currently tabled for the upcoming Cape Town Pride are exclusionary and do not represent the black LGBTI community," says the Free Gender campaign group iol.co.za  20 Feb 15 capetownpride.org Pride Calendar 2015
Celebrities defend gay rights in Ghana
	Ghanaian celebrities have taken to social media to condemn the beating of a suspected gay man, opening a rare window for debate on homosexuality in a country where gay sex is illegal bbc.co.uk  20 Feb 15
SHOW BIZ Secret Diaries
	Art With Heart are touring our new play Secret Diaries, an award-winning coming of age tale (inspired by a true story) about Hayley, a young lesbian growing up in the 80s and 90s - around the UK, Feb-Apr artwithheart.org.uk  20 Feb 15

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16-17 February 2015

UK New National LGBT Hate Crime Partnership
	The LGBT Consortium, in partnership with 31 LGBT organisations from across England and Wales, and funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, aims to increase the reporting of LGBT hate crimes and incidents and improve the support available to those targeted lgbtconsortium.org.uk  17 Feb 15
Sex education should be mandatory in all schools, MPs demand
	Ministers scolded for not addressing inadequate teaching of the subject despite huge demand from teachers, parents and students. In a hard-hitting report published on Tuesday, the Commons education select committee comes down firmly on the side of campaigners who have long fought for sex and relationships education (SRE) to be made mandatory theguardian.com  17 Feb 15
Sexual identity issues in claiming UK asylum
	Latest Home Office instructions explains how UK Visas and Immigration conducts asylum interviews in claims made on the basis of sexual identity gov.uk  17 Feb 15
'Uber drivers give me a low passenger rating because I'm gay'
	Svend Littauer, chief operating officer for a services company, said he believed he was the victim of homophobia after getting inexplicably low passenger ratings from drivers standard.co.uk  17 Feb 15
Ireland's Workplace Equality Index launched
	"The Workplace Equality Index will push top-performing employers in Ireland to new heights," said Davin Roche, director of workplace diversity at Ireland's GLEN Gay and Lesbian Equality Network glen.ie  17 Feb 15
WORLD New Zealand education and gay rights activist Robin Duff dies
	Mr Duff was the first openly gay man in New Zealand to stand for Parliament. He was also involved in the beginnings of the National Gay Rights Coalition nzherald.co.nz  17 Feb 15
GAY PRIDE Pride Scotia rebranded Pride Edinburgh
	Following its 10 years of existence, the festival of events, which includes the Pride Scotia parade, will now be known as Pride Edinburgh, and has a new visual identity - Sat 20 Jun kaleidoscot.com 17 Feb 15 prideedinburgh.org.uk Pride Calendar 2015

Monday
TRANS Stonewall to campaign for trans equality
	Historic move follows extensive consultation with over 700 trans people. Stonewall will make current campaigns trans-inclusive and develop new work on trans-specific issues stonewall.org.uk/trans  16 Feb 15

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