Britain's House of Lords has voted by a majority to defeat a motion that blocks a same-sex marriage bill, moving the initiative a step closer to becoming law.
The upper house of Parliament voted 390 to 148 to back the bill, which will enable gay couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies in England and Wales if approved.
Religious organisations will be able to "opt in" if they consent to offering gay weddings.
Such a law also would allow couples who had previously entered into a civil partnership to convert their relationship to a marriage....
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07:18 PM, Jun 05, 2013
Abuja: Nigeria's parliament has passed a bill criminalising gay marriage, making it punishable with a 14-year prison term with speculation whether President Goodluck Jonathan would sign the bill into law. The country's lower house, House of Representatives, followed the action of the Senate and endorsed the bill. In November 2011, the country's Senate passed the bill with an overwhelming majority with Senate President David Mark saying that homosexuality was foreign...
01:35 AM, Jun 03, 2013
London: Two former students from Pakistan have defied death threats to tie the knot in Britain's first Muslim lesbian civil partnership. Rehana Kausar, 34, and Sobia Kamar, 29, took their vows at a registry office in Leeds and instantly applied for political asylum in the UK, according to local media reports. "This country allows us rights and it's a very personal decision that we have taken. It's no one's business...
04:42 PM, May 27, 2013
As we celebrate 100 years of cinema, we go back in time to see how the pioneers treated homosexuality on celluloid. ...
08:20 AM, Feb 27, 2013
'127 Hours' star James Franco has laughed off ongoing rumours about his sexuality. ...
12:01 PM, Jan 24, 2013
London: George Clooney's sister, Adelia Zeidler, says she ignores rumours which question the Hollywood hunk's sexuality. Zeidler, who lives in Australia, believes it is ridiculous to even speculate that Clooney is gay, reported Sun Online. "That's quite ridiculous, we don't even listen when people say things like that anymore," Zeidler said. Clooney has dated a series of beautiful women since his first marriage to actress Talia Balsam ended in 1993....
06:57 PM, Nov 06, 2012
Tirunelveli: A school teacher was arrested in Tirunelveli on Thursday on charges of having unnatural sex with a male student. Police said that Peter Gnanaselvam (44) was the class teacher of a section of the seventh standard of an aided school in Palayamkottai. He was also running a tuition centre at his house. Many children, including a seventh standard student of the aided school, were attending classes at the tuition...
10:01 AM, Sep 07, 2012
Chennai: It was on June 25, 1978 that the rainbow flag representing gay pride was flown for the first time at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. Thirty-four years have passed and things remain more or less the same for this marginalised section. The visibility of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender) and now the Q (Queer) and I (Intersex) community, has increased in Chennai, with the recently hosted...
11:57 AM, Jun 25, 2012
New Delhi: Alan Turing, the father of computing, whose birth centenary is being celebrated on June 23 was also a victim of homophobia. The World War Two codebreaker committed suicide after being convicted and chemically castrated for being a homosexual. Mathematician Turing led a team at Bletchley Park country House north of London which cracked the Nazis' Enigma code - regarded by the Germans as unbreakable - a move credited...
10:21 AM, Jun 23, 2012
Los Angeles: Jim Parsons has skipped the 'I'M GAY!' magazine cover approach to coming out: Far down in a New York Times profile Wednesday was the subtle mention that the two-time Emmy winner has been in a same-sex relationship for a decade. The blink-and-you'll miss it aside appeared in a story about Parsons' starring stint in the Broadway production of 'Harvey.' Discussing Parsons' small role in the play 'The Normal...
02:44 PM, May 24, 2012
Bangkok: China's government considered homosexuality a mental disorder until 2001. In Egypt's conservative, Muslim-dominated society, laws prohibiting "shameless public acts" have been used to imprison gay men in recent years. Even some gay rights activists in the Philippines are opposed to same-sex marriage. And in Malaysia, the government has twice prosecuted a prominent opposition leader on charges of sodomy, which is punishable by 20 years in prison. While gay-rights activists...
04:37 PM, May 10, 2012
Washington: A woman in the US state of Indiana sent her gay son to school with a stun-gun to counter students bullying him. Chelisa Grimes did it after administrators apparently didn't do enough to stop the bullying against her son. The mother says she will do it again - even though the teen now faces expulsion, CNN reported on Monday. "I do not promote violence - not at all -...
09:24 AM, May 08, 2012
New Delhi: After a marathon hearing spanning over a month, the Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a bunch of petitions challenging the Delhi High Court verdict decriminalising gay sex among consenting adults in private. A bench of justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya reserved its verdict on a bunch of petitions by anti-gay right activists, social and religious organisations against the 2009 verdict of the high court,...
02:23 PM, Mar 27, 2012
New Delhi: The SC will on Monday hear the case on legalising gay sex. The apex court had earlier rapped the Centre for changing its position on the issue. The Attorney General, however, clarified last week that the government was not opposed to gay rights or gay sex. Anti-gay law in the country is an offshoot of British colonialism and the Indian society earlier was more tolerant towards homosexuality, the...
10:34 AM, Mar 26, 2012
New Delhi: Anti-gay law in the country is an offshoot of British colonialism and the Indian society earlier was more tolerant towards homosexuality, the Centre on Thursday submitted before the Supreme Court while pleading for decriminalisation of gay sex. "It would appear that the introduction of Section 377(making gay sex offence) in India was not a reflection of existing Indian values and traditions. Rather, it was imposed upon Indian society...
06:40 PM, Mar 22, 2012
New Delhi: The Centre clarified its stand on homosexuality in the Supreme Court on Wednesday saying it accepts the Delhi High Court verdict that decriminalised consensual gay sex. Attorney General GE Vahanvati clarified the Centre's stand in court. "The Delhi High Court verdict decriminalising homosexuality is acceptable to us," Attorney General GE Vahanvati told the court. In fact the Centre said criminalising consensual gay sex in private was a violation...
12:12 PM, Mar 21, 2012
New Delhi: Pulling up the Centre for its "casual" approach on important issue of decriminalisation of homosexuality, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said it needs to be condemned. After going through various affidavits of the Government, a bench of Justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhyay said the Centre has taken this case very casually. "They have taken this case very casually. This practice needs to be condemned and we are...
01:51 PM, Mar 20, 2012
New Delhi: Expressing displeasure for not furnishing details of homosexuals' population, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked for all relevant records from the Centre about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people, including their number and the number of HIV-infected among them. A bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya said the data which was put before the Delhi High Court has not been placed here and...
01:39 PM, Mar 01, 2012
New Delhi: In an embarrassing goof-up, the government on Thursday tied itself in knots in the Supreme Court by first disapproving decriminalisation of gay sex terming it as "highly immoral" and later taking a different line, drawing sharp criticism from the bench. In 2009, the gay community celebrated a landmark verdict by Delhi High Court for decriminilising gay sex in the country but three years later the government disapproved of...
10:15 PM, Feb 23, 2012
New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry on Thursday seems to have goofed up in the Supreme Court during the hearing on decriminalization of homosexuality. Government sources said that the Additional Attorney General read out an earlier stand by the government instead of the latest in the apex court. The Home Ministry also later clarified and said that they have not taken any position on homosexuality. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) P...
02:24 PM, Feb 23, 2012
