Northern Ireland-Today I will be at Brighton Pride with LGBT Labour, marching for rights and recognition, celebrating the great strides forward. Since 2001 the legal situation for LGBT people in the United Kingdom has been transformed. But not for all of our citizens.
Today is also Belfast Pride – a timely reminder of the contrasting rights within our union and the now stark contrast on the island of Ireland too. Just last year the Republic voted to change the Catholic country’s constitution and recognise marriage equally for all.

In Northern Ireland gay marriage is still an aspiration. The LGBT community are second-class citizens before the law. This cannot be right and must be changed.

US-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) - who cited the terror attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando as a reason to run for Senate again - has defended his decision to appear at a conference sponsored by a Christian, anti-LGBTQ organization.
In a statement sent to the Tampa Bay Times, Rubio explained that his appearance at the Liberty Counsel-sponsored event called “Rediscovering God in America Renewal Project” is a “celebration of faith” with local pastors and faith leaders. He also criticized the media and liberal activists for “label[ing] a gathering of faith leaders as an anti-LGBT event.”

Because I believe that a strong America is not possible without strong families and strong values, for years now I have participated in events hosted by faith leaders to speak about the cultural and social issues before America, including the importance of parents and families, religious liberties and combatting poverty.

China-In a smoky, strobe-lit nightclub in south Shanghai, Meng Fanyu strides out on stage wearing a theatrical get-up of top hat, bow tie and black eyeliner. To the delight of a roaring crowd and their waiting smartphones, he strips down to just black underwear and suspenders to the rousing soundtrack of Nina Simone’s Feeling Good.
But this is no underground club. This is the final in the Mr Gay China competition, a franchise from the international pageant Mr Gay World, and Meng has just been voted as China’s first ever Mr Gay.

Tall, tattooed and striking, the 27-year-old won by a landslide. The four-week competition has been a rather raunchy beauty pageant; a continual catwalk of muscly, well-groomed men in tiny underwear concealing “props” such as bananas, condoms and even cartons of milk. As a dance teacher Meng says he isn’t afraid to peel his clothes off on-stage in the name of the gay community.

10. When you’re bored. 
Humans are not meant to stay together forever. It’s not in our genetic makeup. You may retort, “My parents were together for 65 years!” That’s wonderful, and they might have loved each other till the very end, but the stigma attached to divorce has been somewhat heavy until the last couple generations - staying together might have been considered their only option. And if boredom crept in, tough luck. 
You don’t have to stay with anyone forever. That is a wonderful feature of our modern world with its hookup apps and high divorce rate and luxury airplanes. You can always leave. 

And if your partner is simply not giving you the thrill in your life that you’re looking for, or if you are considering spending a year or two single, leave them. You’re doing the kinder thing by letting them go than continuing a relationship when you’re dissatisfied. 

11. When you’re fighting constantly. 

When people talk about breakups, toxic relationships always come up. They’re an uncomfortable topic because many of us have been in one. A toxic relationship causes more stress than pleasure for one or both (or all) people involved. The most common feature of toxic relationships: constant fighting. 

Not to start on a downer, but when you are dying, you will not remember the hours at the office or the many shoes you bought. You will remember the relationships - good, bad, and ugly - that sparked through your life. They are the most frustrating part of living, and they are absolutely what we live for.
I’m going to describe these 16 “time to break up” signs in reference to my own relationships, so in all the following scenarios the person with whom my imaginary relationship is ending will be “him” - that is, a gay men. “Him” represents all the guys, most of them good and loyal, who I hurt and let down, or who simply drifted away from me the way we invariably do from each other. But I want to stress that “him” can and should be interchanged with “her,” “them,” or any nonbinary pronoun you or your partner(s) identify by. 

Gay relationships are a different ballgame than straight ones. We live in an oversexed culture. We play by different rules. You will see that cheating is not on this list - I do not see it as a terminal sign. If my guy gets drunk and bangs someone in the back of a club, I see that not as a lapse in judgment as much as a natural result of his physiology. Cheating can be talked through and forgiven. Romantic infidelity is a different story - more on that later.
Browse these 16 signs that your gay relationship is almost certainly at an end, and if something feels uncomfortably familiar, it’s time to have a talk.

1. When you stop being happy.

This seems basic, because it is.

Do you see any mention of “him” here? No. Some people might disagree with me on this, but when you stop being happy, you are in a completely valid place to end things. Relationships - like life itself - are meant to be enjoyed, not suffered through. Even if he’s the perfect guy, sometimes you’re simply not happy, and you are doing him a disservice by continuing the relationship. No one wants to date someone who isn’t happy dating them.

2. When he stops being happy.

My last relationship ended this way. He was unhappy.

He had been happy once. I don’t want to think about the moment when he realized he wasn’t, but I have a pretty good idea when it happened. I know that I was partly, if not entirely, responsible for that moment. I can go back over in my head all the things I should have done differently or all the mean things I shouldn’t have said (I have), but they don’t change anything: He woke up one morning and felt a raw, painful feeling in his gut that told him he needed to end things with the guy he loved.

That was hard for me to accept. I won’t mince words: It’s still hard for me to accept.

I was happy, and I thought everything was fine. When he told me he wasn’t happy, I immediately wanted the chance to make him happy again.

I never got that chance. While the months following that breakup were incredibly hard, I do not fault him for not giving me that chance. He didn’t want to be unhappy anymore, and more importantly, he didn’t think it was fair for me to date someone who was unhappy with me. In many ways, he made the right choice for both of us.

This, friends, is hard. This is painful stuff. It is incredibly painful to let someone go, someone you love and want to stay with. But if you really love him, you want him to be the happiest person he can be - even if that means letting him be single or be with someone else.

You will beat yourself up and have some rough months following the breakup, but as the cliché goes, loving does sometimes means releasing. I think that’s an important truth for everyone to learn. We cannot help who we love, but we do not have to be with them.

Love isn’t about possession or ownership. You cannot ever really belong to someone, just as someone cannot every really belong to you. Love at its simplest and purest is about wanting someone to be their best, and hoping their day is going better than yours. I don’t talk to my ex very much these days, but I hope he’s having the best day ever. 

When Trent Zimmerman won the North Sydney byelection in December, it was the first time an openly gay man or woman had won a House of Representatives seat.
After the July election, there are now three gay Liberal lower-house MPs: the former “freedom commissioner” Tim Wilson, a former head of the National Retail Association, Trevor Evans, and Zimmerman.
After speaking with all three, it is clear they are proud of this achievement. But – perhaps unsurprisingly for a party that claims liberal individualism as one of its bedrocks – they view it as three separate acts by individuals for whom sexuality is only one part of their politics and personal story.

Some of their policy priorities are standard Liberal fare (freedom, small business) but they also have ambitions that extend to issues considered more progressive, including the environment.

The tale of the first democracy in the world is an epic of tyrants, love, lust, bloody vengeance, tragedy and the ascension of two legendary heroes.
In 541 BCE, twice-exiled politician and military leader Pisistratus finally seized control of Athens for good. Being a tyrant didn’t have the same connotations it does today. Pisistratus seized power by force but was still considered to be a relatively beneficent leader; Aristotle describes him in The Athenian Constitution as a fair and forgiving leader, one who supported the poor, a populist who “burdened the people as little as possible with his government, but always cultivated peace and kept them in all quietness.”

When he died in 527 BCE, the two sons of his first wife, Hippias and Hipparchus, assumed control of Athens. For a time a relatively stable rule continued, although the pair had a habit of elevating family members to positions of power.

Gay Tokyo: City of dichotomies
From ganguro girls with painted faces to stern businessmen clad in suits - their days spent behind a desk and nights behind a bar, Sapporo in hand - to young men celebrating with style a new spirit of gay liberation beginning to emerge in this conservative culture, this is a place of vast contradictions. There are mammoth towers that paint the skyline with splashes of neon, and there are quaint, tree-lined streets where passersby glimpse into Tokyo's past and away from the chaos automatically associated with this metropolis. There are temples surrounded by blooming sakura blossoms and secluded udon shops, filled with bowls of brothy noodles served by waitresses in kimonos.
The gay scene is much like these dueling ideas of calm and chaos. Ambiguity and identity haziness are the stereotypical theories of being gay in Tokyo, but behind the blurred lines there is a thriving nightlife and gay community, all housed within the confines of their friendly neighborhood of Ni-Chome.

Though there are a few gay bars or gay nights spread throughout the city, the heart of gay Tokyo lies in Shinjuku and Ni-Chome. Tokyo is separated into different wards, with Shinjuku being the most well known and the most crowded. Ni-Chome is known to have the highest concentration of gay bars of anywhere in the world, likely because of its small, densely packed area - just a few small blocks, intertwined into Shinjuku's busy business, shopping, and nightlife center.

I write this article today, because i know am going closer to this age, with every passing day, and i realize that there are actually, several things people needs to do, before they reach the age of fifty!
It’s no secret that this life we live in, is short and we have never too much time for delighting the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, please ensure that you make haste to be kind. Henri Frederic Amiel
Truly, this life we’re living in, is like a puzzle and until the whole puzzle is fixed together, you cannot get the true picture. Everyone lives once only.

Although it can’t be denied that we all have plenty of dreams and goals, it usually ends up with nothing done. And a number of us end up just fulfilling what others really want from life, but truly, we don’t fulfill what we actually want.

Ireland-St Patrick’s College Maynooth “has no concrete or credible evidence of the existence of any alleged ‘active gay subculture’,” it has told The Irish Times.
“As outlined clearly in the Seminary Rule, any student involved or promoting such behaviour would be asked to leave the seminary formation programme,” it said.
The statement follows anonymous allegations being circulated about seminarian activities in Maynooth, including that some had been using a gay dating app.

Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin is to cease sending trainee priests from the diocese to the college because of a worrying “atmosphere” at the national seminary.

Indonesia’s top court has heard a case from activists who want to criminalise gay sex and make it punishable with prison sentences of up to 15 years.
A group calling itself the Family Love Alliance calls for sex between adults of the same gender to be treated the same as if an “adult” engages in sex with a “minor”, as currently defined in law.

The Islamic group based in Jakarta submitted a review petition to the nine-judge Constitutional Court which has accepted the case.

Being a nice guy is hard, especially in a world where superiority complexes are aspired to. As a guy born with a naturally nice disposition, being anything but nice feels selfish. It feels likes I’m going against everything I know is true. But every once in a while, you need to step it up. It’s become expected.
It’s hard for anyone to date in this digital hookup culture, but for gay guys it’s especially hard because it’s sunk into our mindset. How in the world can Mr. Nice Guy thrive in an environment full of Mr. Right Nows? The struggles are real. Here are just a few:

1. No good deed ever goes unpunished.

When you try to do something nice, there always seems to be a “hidden agenda” behind it.
Sometimes they’ll get annoyed by how easy going you are that they try and pick a fight for no particular reason, just to see if you have the balls to argue back. It’s like being chill and down for anything has become a sign that you’re weak minded, inferior, or naive.

2. You’re searching for something most men aren’t willing to offer.

Most of the world tries to keep an emotional distance with new love. We’ve been hurt in the past so we need to keep our hearts in a cage. We’ve been lied to, disappointed, led on, taken advantage of or are too afraid to commit long term that we’ve built a pattern of disconnection. Nice guys always see the best in people, and often live in the present rather than dwelling on the past. We see a guy that has everything we want, but usually discover he’s unwilling to open up. The sad truth is you can’t change someone’s mind or heart if they have no desire for it.

3. Guys tell you you’re what they want, but you still get pressure to change yourself.

It’s interesting because you hear from everyone that all a man wants is someone to cuddle, tell secrets, snuggle, have amazing sex, go on romantic dates, and play with your puppies with zero drama and no jealously. Yet when they get what they wished for, they’re never content. Nothing is ever good enough – they either want Mr. Nice Guy or Mr. Asshole. Meeting in the middle is hard because we’re so used to labeling. The pressure to change ourselves is huge, but it never feels right.

Anything you can do, allies, Joe Biden has already done.
The vice president once again showed LGBT allies how to model support. This time, he tweeted a photo on Tuesday taken when he officiated the wedding of two men who were White House staffers. The internet went wild for the image, taken when Brian Mosteller, director of Oval Office operations, and Joe Mashie, a trip coordinator for the first lady, got hitched at a ceremony held at Biden’s own home. They reportedly asked the vice president for the honor.
President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have yet to officiate a same-sex wedding. But given Biden’s track record on these things, he’s probably ahead of a trend. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s already done it, and so has New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, but Biden is still ahead of the curve.

Biden famously beat Obama to the microphone on announcing his support for marriage equality, answering during an interview on Meet the Press in 2012 that, “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.”

When Luke Carine treated Zak Tomlinson to a KFC in Douglas for their first date in 2010, he had no idea that six years later, they would be making history. Yesterday, wearing matching grey suits and blue cravats, trailed by four men-maids, the opthalmic scientists became the first same-sex couple to get married on the Isle of Man. Pronounced husband and husband, they began married life by walking down the aisle to Etta James’s At Last and on to a reception that included a bucking bronco.
With equal marriage now on the statute books in many western countries, two loved-up young men getting hitched on a little windswept island in the Irish Sea might not raise many eyebrows. But when 26-year-old Carine was born on the Isle of Man, gay sex was punishable by life imprisonment. It wasn’t until 1992 that homosexuality was decriminalised, after a campaign by a few tenacious local politicians and the queer pressure group Outrage!

Local activist Alan Shea bore the brunt of the hatred and bigotry that reigned on the island in those days. In 1991, backed by Outrage!, he dressed up as a concentration camp inmate to attend Tynwald Day, a Manx national holiday when ordinary citizens are allowed to present a “petition for redress” to Tynwald, the island’s parliament.

An openly gay Dallas police officer wounded in the July 7 shootingthat left five of his colleagues dead faces a lengthy recovery and a 30 percent pay cut while he’s unable to work.
Jesus “Jesse” Retana (above left), a 10-year veteran of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (Dart) police, was shot in the right tricep during the ambush that followed a peaceful Black Lives Matter rally. In addition to the five who were killed, Retana was among nine officers wounded in the attack orchestrated by gunman Micah Xavier Johnson, who later died at the hands of police.

According to Retana’s husband, Andrew Moss (above right), he faces “a long road to recovery,” including surgery and physical therapy. Unlike the Dallas Police Department, Dart doesn’t offset the pay reduction officers receive when they apply for workers’ compensation. To make matters worse, Retana is unsure whether all of his medical expenses will be covered.

Five years ago, Paul Hard paced the halls of an emergency room in Prattville, Alabama. His husband, David Fancher, had been grievously injured in a car crash.
The receptionist refused to tell him where his husband was-if his husband was even still alive. Alabama didn’t recognize his three-month marriage performed in the spring in Massachusetts. No one would help him.
A half-hour of searching later, a passing orderly told him what happened to David.
“Well, he’s dead,” the orderly said.
Despite the years, Aug. 1 is still a hard day for Hard. “Today is always rough,” he tells Out, “but I like to think that folks remember him.”

Paul Hard has fought appeal after appeal from powerful Alabama conservatives--before and after the Obergefell ruling-to be recognized as the surviving spouse of his husband, David Fancher, who died in 2011. 

As cases of meningitis, a rare and potentially fatal disease, popped up in cities nationwide over the past several years, public health officials noticed a trend: many of those infected were gay men.
There’s no known medical reason why meningitis, which is transmitted through saliva, would spread more among gay and bisexual men. Yet New York, Chicago and now Southern California have experienced outbreaks disproportionately affecting that population.
“It is perplexing,” said Dr. Rachel Civen, a medical epidemiologist at L.A. County’s Department of Public Health. 

Of the 13 cases of meningitis this year in L.A. County - excluding Long Beach, which has its own health department - seven were gay men. There were only 12 meningitis cases in the county in all of 2015, one of which was a gay or bisexual man.

Russia-Jim Mulcahy was sitting with some Russian friends, munching cookies and talking about Roman mosaics, when the Russian police came and took him away, claiming he was planning to perform a same-sex marriage. Hours later, the American pastor was ordered to leave Russia.
Mulcahy’s arrest this month in the city of Samara braids together several of Russia’s most acrimonious issues: gay rights, alleged Western meddling in Russian affairs, and missionary work by religions that don’t have state approval. It attracted particular attention because the arrest was filmed by state-controlled channel NTV, whose reports often take an especially truculent, pro-Kremlin stance.

The 72-year-old Mulcahy, originally from Boston, looks back on the nervous hours in the Samara police station with stoic bemusement.

Malaysia will no doubt surprise you. This multi-cultural nation, largely populated by moderate Muslims and fiercely intolerant of being bullied by western powers, is filled with charm, nature, culture, and warm hospitality. Remarkably, it also has a thriving gay scene (perhaps Southeast Asia’s most exciting) which, while still mostly underground, is basically tolerated by the live-and-let-live attitude of its people.Yes, the country was once lead by a cranky homophobe, Mahathir Mohamad, who infamously ousted his one-time protégé, Anwar Ibrahim, on trumped-up sodomy charges, despicably wielding antique colonial buggery laws to do so.
Times change. Homohaters and dictators are relegated to the dust bin these days. Anwar’s groundless conviction was overturned by Malaysia’s high court in 2004. Mahatir’s daughter, Marina, works tirelessly behind the scenes to support AIDS/HIV education, including championing efforts by Malaysian GLBT health worker heroes.

Malaysia is thriving under the fresh air of tolerance and democracy. Straight-owned venues openly cultivate custom from the gay community, while homosexual entrepreneurs launch trendy businesses and mini-utopias of their own.
Conversations with locals are delightfully candid.

The board of directors for Cleveland Pride recently announced that the 28th annual Pride parade, rally, and festival have been canceled. It’s the first year the celebration will not take place since it started in 1989.
President and CEO of Cleveland Pride, Todd J Saporito released the following statement:

“We have been entrusted by our community to create a secure parade and festival environment for our LGBTQ brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, friends and allies.

Many gay guys like to chase the fantasy of love. For most of us, we jump the gun and exaggerate our feelings in an effort to match our imagination. People who’ve experience it know there’s no faking when it comes to genuine Love.
Love crosses all orientations, races, and genders, but for gay guys in particular it’s a matter of separating our hearts from our crotches. You know when it’s in the air and 99.9% of the time it’s told through your intuition – not your intellect. There are so many flags that point towards love, but I’ve managed to find thirteen of the Best. So let’s look at the signs:

1. Your Ex Is Old News

Your ex-boyfriend, no matter how hung up on him you might have been, is completely out of the picture. Though it’s normal to come across a picture of him on Facebook and feel a little sad, it’s always going to be overshadowed by the total devotion you have for your current boyfriend/partner. Old feelings have been buried so deep that they’ve virtually disappeared.

2. You Don’t Need To Do Go To The “Gay”borhoods To Have Fun

Going to the gay neighborhoods might be fun and all, but sometimes a quite night at home will bring much more laughs and funny-face competitions at a cheaper price. Watching TV, drinking wine, going to get ice cream, or playing board games are just as fun as going on a trip around the world or to a rock concert.

3. You Literally Can’t Imagine A Future Without Him

One of the biggest differences between like and love is doubt. Doubting your future together is a sure fire way of knowing that you may not be in love with him. When you’re starting a new chapter, you won’t be able to picture without him. Suddenly, a new job, a new place, growing old has a collaborative affair, not so much a question mark.

4. Bye-Bye Grindr!

All the years of anonymous sex or hookup apps (if you’ve succumbed to them) could never compare to true love sex. You’ll have an epiphany one day and see that this is what you’ve been missing. You whip out the smart phone and say bye-bye to Grindr, your naked pics, and all the other “F” buddies in your contacts. Sex has taken on a whole new meaning, and it only gets better every time.

Australia-Divisions have emerged between marriage equality advocates over tactics on whether to throw weight behind a plebiscite campaign or consider delaying calls for same-sex marriage to avoid a popular vote at all costs.
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays have launched a survey to gauge whether the LGBTI community would prefer to delay marriage equality, in what would amount to a major rethink of tactics.
On Friday, PFLAG national spokeswoman, Shelley Argent, told ABC’s Lateline that some LGBTI people were so fearful of a plebiscite campaign they may prefer to wait for same-sex marriage.

“Somebody said to me, it’s better to wait than to be walking over bodies as you walk down the aisle, and I think that’s very true,” she said.

Australia-Supporters of marriage equality – that is, most of Australia – would have had cause to despair when the Turnbull government was re-elected by the barest of margins on 2 July.
Under a Labor government, marriage equality would have been a reality in Australia by the end of this year. Imagine the jubilation that Australia had finally caught up with the USA, UK, New Zealand and Ireland and the joy for same-sex couples who had waited so long to seal their union.

For those with an optimistic streak, there may still have been a thread of hope left that Turnbull, the former champion of progressive policies and ideas within the Liberal Party and a passionate supporter of marriage equality, would at least force the issue with the conservative wing of his party by putting forward a plebiscite before the end of the year as he promised. Even if it would be a nasty and destructive battle for victory.

Italy - So you're finally moving to Italy and are ready to throw yourself headlong into la dolce vita?
Congratulations. However, moving to Italy (or any other country for that matter) is often fraught with difficulty. Here are a few common mistakes foreigners make when living in Italy. 

1. Kissing or not kissing

Kissing rules are a nightmare for foreigners in Italy, as there is no blanket rule that tells you how to behave: what is culturally normal in one part of the country is less normal in another area.

Generally, men and women can (but don't always) give each other a kiss on each cheek for hello and goodbye in most areas of the country. Women and Women can also do this....but in the centre-north men don't kiss men.