The first civil partnerships in Ireland have already taken place, more than a month earlier than the planned introduction of the ceremonies. It is understood that at least one member of both couples involved are suffering from serious illnesses with a risk of that one may die before the three month notice period for a civil partnership would elapse.

The first couple’s civil partnership was registered on 7th February 2011 and a second, on the 11th of February. Both couples were male.

The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act, 2010 came into force on January 1st 2011 and requires a minimum of three months notice between the application for a civil partnership and the date of the ceremony. However, a judge can waive the notice perioid on compassionate grounds, primarily the serious illness of one of the partners.

Tiernan Brady of the Gay and Lesbian Network told the Sunday Times that celebration of the first two partnerships were historic milestones. “It’s really fantastic,” he said. “It’s the culmination of a long process. It’s great to have state recognition for these partnerships. It’s a gigantic leap forward for Ireland. Civil partnership addresses real needs for real couples.”

A gay couple who had a civil partnership in Northern Ireland and later became naturalised as Irish citizens, became the first officially recognised civil partners in the state last month.

Civil partnerships offer some of the same rights to property and pensions as marriage but do not have the same tax status. This element was to have been confirmed in a finance bill that has now been curtailed as a result of Ireland’s general election on February 25th. All parties have pledged to introduce the changes to taxation law after the election. However, it is not known if the changes will be retrospective and cover the couples who have already registered their partnership, should one of the pair die.

Like Britain, many campaigners say civil partnerships are not enough and the Labour party has pledged in its manifesto to hold a referendum to decide on the introduction of same-sex marriages. The Labour party has also pledged to allow gay couples to jointly adopt children.

In Britain, the first civil partnership to be registered involved a terminally ill man, who was given special dispensation to ignore the fifteen day notice period of a civil partnership.

Former teenage heart throb Leonardo DiCaprio will play J Edgar Hoover, in a biopic of the FBI’s first director as a cross dressing repressed homosexual.

J Edgar, which is directed by Clint Eastwood will see DiCaprio play Hoover as an “emotionally tortured figure trapped in a highly charged relationship with his mother,” who is played by Dame Judi Dench according to the Sunday Times.

The newspaper says it has seen copies of the script of the film that while containing no over sex, show Hoover struggling with sexual feelings for his protégé, Clyde Tolson. The pair would often dress identically, holiday together and were buried a few yards apart from each other.

The film has been written by Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for Milk, the biopic of America’s first openly gay politician Harvey Milk. Last week Mr Lance Black said he would deal with Hoover’s sexuality in “in a human, realistic way: homosexuality without gay stereotypes”.

Although the script makes reference to Hoover’s alleged cross-dressing, DiCaprio said that he was unlikely to be seen on-screen in a frock. “We have not done the fittings for those,” he said when asked if he would be cross-dressing. “So I don’t think so.”

In 1995, DiCaprio depicted the gay relationship between poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine in the film Total Eclipse.

In 2009, papers revealed the investigations that the FBI under Hoover conducted into the sexuality of well known individuals including presidential aide Jack Valenti.

Less than a week after the government announced the process for implementing religious civil partnerships, BBC Radio 5 Live are to broadcast an investigation into the growing numbers of gay Muslims seeking Islamic marriages.

Last week, the Movement for Reform Judaism joined Liberal Judaism, the Quakers and Unitarians in offering to host civil partnerships and calling for same sex marriages. One religious denomination that made no formal move was Islam. But, according to a BBC investigation to be broadcast tonight, there are Muslim clerics who are willing to officiate at gay weddings.

5 Live Investigates speaks to one couple who have had a ‘nikah’ – an Islamic marriage contract.
Asra, one half of the lesbian couple featured told the BBC how she got together with her partner Sarah: “We met about three years ago, at an iftar – a breaking of fast during Ramadan.

“I think a lot of Muslims find that time of year very spiritual and very enlightening, and so I think that’s why our relationship developed, because we spoke about our faith. Eventually we went on a date.”

“After the first date, which was about an hour, Sarah casually asked me to marry her.”

Sarah said: “I think it was more like four hours, after dinner, coffee and walking. I didn’t really plan it, but it just really seemed like the way it was between us, I should try and keep it as pure as possible.

“That may sound strange being lesbians, but it felt like we should do it the most honourable way we could.”

The couple decided that they wanted to have a nikah, to cement their relationship, that they were able to enter into without the help of an official Imam, or Islamic cleric. Unlike Jewish rabbis or Christian priests and vicars, Imams are not ordained ministers in a formal sense. “A few friends said you don’t really have to have an official Imam, but you need someone who is knowledgeable enough about the Qur’an to do it,” Sarah said. “Fortunately, one of our friends was, and she offered to do it. She’s a lesbian herself, and she said we could do it in her home.”

Three months after they met, the paid signed their nikah and held a ceremony.

“We got rings from Camden market, and we drew up contracts – we got a blueprint off the internet of a heterosexual contract and we both looked at it separately,” Sarah expained. “To see if there were things we wanted to change. I remember I put about the dog – that if we broke up, Asra wouldn’t steal the dog.” The couple had a dowry of £5.

Asra’s parents are not accepting of her homosexuality. Sarah’s on the other hand are, she says its because she wasn’t born a Muslim: “I converted five years ago – I think my family is quite accepting of my sexuality.

But sometimes it seems like they are waiting for me to grow out of being a Muslim.”

In America, a gay Imam, Daayiee Abdullah has performed a number of more fomal nikah ceremonies. He claims that denying gay Muslims a religious union, is against Islamic law. He told the BBC: “Since Islamic legal precedence does not allow same sexes to wed, Muslim societies make it a legal impossibility within Islam [but] by not allowing same-sex couples to wed, there is a direct attack on the Koran’s message that each person has a mate who is their ‘comfort and their cloak’.”

Sarah and Asra say that as a couple they face two types of discrimination. They face homophobia from the Islamic community, and Islamaphobia from the gay community, something that Sarah says: “really worries me”.

5 Live investigates is broadcast at 9pm this evening on BBC Radio 5 Live. A podcast of the programme will be available here shortly after broadcast.

Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show the extent of Ugandan homophobia.

American embassy cables describe a 2009 UN-sponsored meeting which gay rights campaigner David Kato spoke at, the Guardian reports.

Mr Kato, who was murdered this month, was openly mocked as he nervously read a speech against a bill to strengthen Uganda’s laws against homosexuality.

The US diplomat wrote that the homophobia of bill sponsor David Bahati MP was “is blinding and incurable”.

The cables also refer to anti-gay pastor Martin Ssempa and Ugandan ethics minister James Nsaba Buturo.

One said: “Bahati, Buturo, and particularly Ssempa’s ability to channel popular anger over Uganda’s socio-political failings into violent hatred of a previously unpopular but tolerated minority is chilling.”

The memos also showed diplomatic attempts to combat the controversial bill.

The status of the bill is currently unclear but anti-gay feeling runs high in the country.

Gay rights campaigners in Uganda are calling for a full investigation into Mr Kato’s death.

One man has been arrested and police say Mr Kato’s activist was not relevant.

The activist had received death threats after successfully suing a newspaper for publishing his name, address and photo in an anti-gay campaign.

A survey suggests that one in five people do not know that HIV can be passed on through unprotected gay sex.

The poll of 1,944 people, by the National AIDS Trust, also found that the same number did not realise that unsafe heterosexual sex could lead to transmission of the virus.

African and Caribbean people were least likely to know that unprotected gay sex was a route of transmission – 49 per cent compared with 20 per cent overall.

This is the fourth year that the charity has published the annual survey ’HIV: Public Knowledge and Attitudes’.

Researchers said it was particularly concerning that more people now wrongly believe that HIV can be caught through kissing (nine per cent) and spitting (ten per cent). These figures have doubled from 2007′s survey from four per cent and five per cent respectively.

Less than half of the public (45 per cent ) believe HIV can be passed from person to person by sharing needles or syringes. Only 30 per cent were able to correctly identify all the ways HIV can and cannot be passed on.

Sixty-seven per cent of people said they had sympathy for those with HIV and 74 per cent believed they should have the same level of support and respect as people with cancer.

Eleven per cent had no sympathy, rising to 30 per cent towards those infected with HIV through unprotected sex.

Almost half of people (47 per cent) thought that there are no effective ways of preventing a pregnant mother with HIV from passing HIV on to her baby.

Evidence shows that the right treatment gives an HIV-positive mother a 99 per cent chance of having a healthy baby.

Deborah Jack, the chief executive of National AIDS Trust, said: “It is certainly positive to see the majority of the public have supportive attitudes towards people with HIV, but there are still huge gaps in awareness of what it means to live with HIV in the UK today.

“It is extremely important that inroads are made in terms of educating the general public so we can eradicate the prejudice which still exists around HIV. In addition to improving knowledge of HIV, intensive work also needs to go into tackling the often deep-seated judgments and beliefs held about HIV and the people affected.

“The government made a concerted and effective effort to tackle this stigma in mental health, and now it is time for HIV to be addressed in the same way.”

A North Carolina teenager accused of murdering a gay man confessed he carried out the attack after overdosing on cough medicine, police say.

Tapes from emergency calls also suggest that 19-year-old Michael Anderson attacked 36-year-old Stephen Starr after the older man made sexual advances to him – known as the ‘gay panic’ defence.

Starr was found dead at his home in Mountain View on Monday.

He had been shot three times and attacked with an axe. Reports say an obscene word was carved into his skin but police have refused to reveal what the word was.

In tapes of 911 calls, Anderson is heard telling a police dispatcher that he had killed his roommate.

After describing how he killed Starr, he said: “I (overdosed) on Mucinex DM. It makes me feel a little weird and I took too many.”

Abusing the drug can cause psychotic episodes, experts say.

Later, he said the pair had met at a gay bar and Starr had offered him a place to stay.

He said: “I met him and went to his house and he took me in. I turned straight again. And he wanted to touch me and stuff and I wouldn’t let him…and he kept trying.

“And I waited until he went to sleep and I shot him three times. And I mutilated him very badly and I’m sorry… I’m sorry.”

Anderson was due to appear in court today.

The Labour Party has welcomed government announcements on gay marriage and civil partnerships.

Party leader Ed Miliband said he hoped progress could made as soon as possible.

He said: “The introduction of civil partnerships was one of the most significant changes introduced by Labour. Those equalities now have overwhelming public support and are being copied by many countries around the world.

“Today’s announcement is an important step towards implementing Labour’s Equality Act and allowing people to choose to a faith based service.

“Five years on from the first civil partnership it is right that we look at extending marriage equality for those people who want it. I welcome the announcement and hope that progress can be made on this important issue as soon as possible.”

In August, Mr Miliband called for gay marriage in an article for PinkNews.co.uk. He wrote: “‘Separate but equal’ is not good enough and PinkNews.co.uk’s own recent poll demonstrated the huge support in the LGBT community for a right to marry. I want to see heterosexual and same-sex partnerships put on an equal basis and a Labour Party that I lead will campaign to make gay marriage happen.”

Today, shadow equality minister Fiona Mactaggart said: “Allowing civil partnership ceremonies to take place in religious buildings was part of Labour’s Equalities Act, so it’s welcome to see the government pressing ahead with this.

“This is a necessary next step towards equality between civil partnerships and marriage and we will make sure that the government doesn’t just consult but delivers too.”

James Asser of LGBT Labour, said: “LGBT Labour fully supports for full marriage equality between heterosexual and same-sex couples and welcomes the government’s announcement today that it will consult on ‘next steps’ towards gay marriage. We also welcome the fact that the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has again confirmed his support for marriage equality.

“Our concern would be that the consultation that has been announced today does not have much detail and the minister, Lynne Featherstone, was unable to confirm that these plans would come in before the next election.

“The last thing the LGBT community want is a consultation to be used to push the issue into the long grass. We are keen to contribute to any consultation and we will be urging government to make tangible progress on marriage equality as soon as possible.”

Ministers announced today that a consultation will be held on the “next steps” for recognition of gay couples.

They also said that religious groups will be given the right to host civil partnerships, if they wish.

PinkNews.co.uk understands that the government’s preferred option is to eventually open civil marriage and civil partnerships to all couples, whether straight or gay.

Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin says that the city does not need gay Pride marches.

When asked by the Ekho Moskvy radio station if a march would be permitted this year, he said: “I doubt it.”

The Moscow News reports that Mr Sobyanin continued: “I have my own opinion on this. Moscow absolutely does not need this and I am not in favour of it.”

The city’s last mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, repeatedly banned the marches on pretexts of health and safety and has called gays and lesbians “satanic”.

In October, the European Court of Human Rights upheld three complaints over Moscow’s Pride ban.

Russian gay rights leader Nikolai Alekseev complained to the court that the parade bans in 2006, 2007 and 2008 breached the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court agreed.

Since 2006, campaigners have attempted to hold the events but these were broken up by police.

In May 2006, more than 120 people were arrested and in 2007, British gay activist Peter Tatchell was severely beaten by neo-Nazis. In 2008, marchers accused police of brutality.

Peaches Geldof has revealed that she once dated a trans man.

The self-described model, journalist and TV presenter said she was “quite into it” and embraces “any kind of multiculturalism”.

She told the Daily Mirror: “I went on a date with a boy and it turned out the boy used to be a girl. And I was quite into it to be honest with you.

“He just told me on the first date and I did see him again.

“I just think it’s cool – I embrace any sort of multiculturalism, any sort of sexuality, it fascinates me.”

She added: “I think it’s beautiful and he was comfortable enough with it. I don’t think anything is wrong.”

Human rights charity Amnesty International has asked Hungary to allow this year’s Budapest Pride.

After asking permission to hold a rally outside parliament, organisers were told that the entire march would be banned.

Police said it would cause traffic disruption but gay campaigners claimed the decision was politically-motivated.

The march was scheduled for June 18th.

Amnesty said that the banning of the march was a “violation of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and non-discrimination as set out in several international human rights conventions to which Hungary is party”.

It added that the ban was “disproportionate and without reasonable justification”.

Police apparently did not object to the march before organisers asked to stop outside parliament.

This week, the Rainbow Mission Foundation, assisted by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, appealed to the Budapest Metropolitan Court over the ban.

TV chef Nigella Lawson says all women have it in them to fall in love with someone of the same sex.

Speaking to DIVA, the curvy beauty said she once had a crush on a girl.

She said: “Oh yes, at school. I was at one school for a while and they were called a crush, a craze, and I remember there was a very beautiful Egyptian girl called Nilgen and I was allowed to go make her bed every day. Nevertheless, it was considered normal in those days.

“I think it was seeking the comfort of a mother or an older sister. Being at boarding school is a strange feeling, and you want somebody to show concern for you. It was certainly a very unphysical sort of crush.

“I was very much an introverted child who lived in my head. I was so shy, I remember hating it if any of my parents’ friends addressed a question to me. Up until I was 19 and went travelling in Italy.”

When asked if she had ever had a same-sex relationship, she said: “No, I haven’t had a love affair with a woman but I have very close woman friends, which is a very different thing but I think we all have it in us — women more than men.”

She added: “I do feel that I find difference very interesting. In a sense, a smooth-skinned man wouldn’t appeal.

“I know a lot of straight men feel threatened. But pleasure is pleasure, and I’m not saying it’s all fluid, but in a sense one’s relationship is with the person.”

Lawson was voted the fifth sexiest woman by DIVA readers in 2009.

Fresh from winning a Brit award, teenage pop sensation Justin Bieber has suggested that homosexuality is a choice and that abortion is wrong even when pregnancy is caused by rape.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he appeared to label homosexuality as a choice rather than something that is uncontrollable.

He also spoke out against abortion even when pregnancy is caused by rape, saying “everything happens for a reason.”

The interview for next month’s Rolling Stone magazine has been distributed via blogs.

When asked what his views on homosexuality are, Bieber responded: “It’s everyone’s own decision to do that. It doesn’t affect me and shouldn’t affect anyone else.”

It is not clear whether he intended to label homosexuality as a lifestyle choice.

Bieber’s position stands in contrast with that of Lady Gaga who last year said: “there are some people in this world that believe being gay is a choice. It’s not a choice, we’re born this way.” Her single ‘Born This Way’ has been described as the new gay anthem by Sir Elton John.

In his interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Bieber went on to say “I think you should just wait for the person you’re … in love with,” when asked about abstinence.

Despite his strong Christian background he did not argue against pre-martial sex.

“I really don’t believe in abortion,” he told the magazine “I think [an embryo] is a human. It’s like killing a baby.”

He added that while it is “really sad” for a woman to become pregnant after being raped, he claimed that “everything happens for a reason.”

“I don’t know how that would be a reason,” he added. “I guess I haven’t been in that position, so I wouldn’t be able to judge that.”

Liberal Democrat equality minister Lynne Featherstone has said that church ministers will not be successfully sued for refusing to host gay civil partnerships.

Speaking this morning, she said that new provisions in the Equality Act “explicitly” say that faiths have the right to reject gay couples.

The government announced today that civil partnerships will be permitted in religious buildings and that consultation will begin on marriage equality.

Some faith groups have reacted angrily to the plans and a letter signed by five Christian groups – including the Christian Institute and Christian Concern – reiterated opposition.

It said: “When it comes to equality legislation, permission often turns rapidly into coercion.

“In a country where faith-based adoption agencies have been forced to close or cut their religious ties by equality law, where Christian marriage registrars can be dismissed for their religious views on marriage and where Christian B&B owners are forced to pay compensation to same-sex couples, Christians will need a great deal of reassurance that the government is not about to do something that will make their situation even worse.”

Ms Featherstone said: “Obviously there is a degree of anxiety from some of the religious organisations. In the words of the Act itself, it says explicitly, for the avoidance of doubt, that there is nothing in this Act which placed an obligation on religious organisations to host civil partnerships unless they wish to do so.

“By the same token, it is a step forward for religious freedom in that it gives the Quakers, the Liberal Jews . . . the freedom to do so.”

She added: “We’ve been very clear that we will not force religious organisations to host [civil partnerships] if they do not wish to.

“And nor do we believe that any minister who refused would be successfully sued under discrimination law.”

As well as religious civil partnerships, the government has also announced it will begin consulting on marriage equality.

Marriage equality is the official party policy of the Liberal Democrats and leader Nick Clegg supports a change in the law.

Ms Featherstone said that the plans have the support of the entire government and that there had been no resistance from Tory ministers.

“I am fully supported by all of government over these plans going forward,” she said.

When asked whether full marriage equality could be granted before 2015, she said: “I think that all depends on the consultation and how we work with people.

“Clearly there are some people who absolutely want heterosexual civil partnerships and homosexual civil marriage and that is something we will be examining.”

But she added that plans were still in “very, very early days”.

Ms Featherstone said her own support for marriage equality was “well on the record”.

Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill welcomed the announcement on civil partnerships but questioned the government’s commitment to gay marriage.

He said: “If there’s a genuine commitment to making progress in this area, it is painfully slow. Equalities minister Lynne Featherstone has explicitly said she would consult on proposals the government intends to implement in the lifetime of this parliament.”

Ms Featherstone responded: “I’m very pleased that Stonewall are so enthusiastic about the progress and I’m sure they will be supportive of the government moving forward on it.”

Lisa Power, the policy director of Terrence Higgins Trust, has collected her MBE from Buckingham Palace.

She joined the charity in 1996 and was honoured for services to sexual health and to the LGBT community.

Ms Power was given her honour by Prince Charles yesterday after being named in the New Year honours list.

She has 25 years of campaigning for sexual health and LGBT rights, having co-founded gay charity Stonewall and the Pink Paper.

She has also worked at the Lesbian & Gay Switchboard and as secretary general of the International Lesbian and Gay Association.

Gay footballer and co-founder of Stonewall FC, Aslie Pitter, also collected his MBE yesterday.

Responding to news that ministers will hold a consultation on giving gay couples the right to civil marriage, chief executive Ben Summerskill it would have to start now for changes to be implemented by in this parliament. Stonewall only added gay marriage to its campaigning objectives last October, eight months after the Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg declared his support for a change in the law.

Liberal Democrat equality minister Lynne Featherstone and other leading Liberal Democrat and liberal Conservative ministers are understood to be keen for gay couples to be able to marry.

In his strongest statement yet on the matter, Mr Summerskill said: “Stonewall fully supports extension of the legal form of marriage to lesbian and gay couples.

“We’re told that this will undermine the nature of marriage. However there’s no evidence that, if marriage is available to gay people, a single heterosexual will end up choosing to marry someone of the same sex, either by design or by accident.

“If there’s a genuine commitment to making progress in this area, it is painfully slow. Equalities minister Lynne Featherstone has explicitly said she would consult on proposals the government intends to implement in the lifetime of this parliament. If that is to happen by 2015, then consultation should begin now.”

Stonewall was instrumental in passing 2005′s civil partnership legislation but was slow to publicly support gay marriage.

The charity was heavily criticised in September, even by some of its own co-founders, Michael Cashman MEP and Sir Ian McKellen, for appearing not to back the campaign while figures such as deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband had declared their support in articles for PinkNews.co.uk months before.

Last October, Mr Summerskill said the charity would not be “jumped into” declaring a position on the issue. In 2009, Mr Summerskill told PinkNews.co.uk that “lots of” gays and lesbians do not want the right to marry.

Gay marriage campaigners planned to protest at Stonewall’s annual awards in November but called off the demonstration after the charity announced that after surveying its supporters, it would add the issue to its campaigning objectives.

Stonewall has said it will not lobby for straight people to have civil partnerships, as campaigning for heterosexual rights is not part of its remit. It claimed that it could cost up to £5 billion in lost tax revenue.

The charity cited the need to ‘consult’ its supporters before officially campaigning for gay marriage. The government says it needs to complete a consultation on proposals to bring in gay marriage equality before tabling any proposed legislation.

US billionaire, star of ‘The Apprentice’ and Miss USA owner Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is not in favour of gay marriage, and is “incredibly tempted” to run for US president in 2012.

In an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News, Mr Trump said: “I live in New York. New York is a place with lots of gays, and I think it’s great but I’m not in favour of gay marriage.”

Mr Trump, a registered Republican, did not give his reasons for opposing same-sex marriage, but said: “I’m a very conservative person. I’m very big into [sic] the military. I’m a great guy for defence. I’m probably as conservative as anybody on your show, and that’s probably going a very big step.” He also said he is “pro-life” and does not support abortion.

In 2009, he dismissed Miss California Carrie Prejean, an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, for “failing to attend engagements”, but Prejean insisted it was because of her stance on same-sex marriage.

Mr Trump also criticised Obama’s economic policy that promotes international trade, and said America is “rebuilding China single-handedly” at the expense of the economy. He said: “Obama is not stupid, but could be a foolish man, and is certainly heavily lobbied.”

Mr Trump said he would make a decision on running for president by June, and added: “I love this country, [but] I hate what’s happening to this country.”

For Rabbi David Mitchell, his true ‘partnership’ ceremony wasn’t in the registry office, it was in his synagogue. He explains why the government’s announcement of civil partnerships in religious buildings could be the first steps towards same-sex marriages in religious institutions, something welcomed by Quakers, Unitarians, Liberal Jews and from today the larger Reform Judaism movement.

On December 21st last year, unlike Elton and David, my partner and I forgot to celebrate our 5th anniversary. This wasn’t because we weren’t glad to have made history five years earlier when we were one of the first Jewish couples in the country to sign the Civil Partnership Register. It was because, for us, this amounted to a formal conclusion of a process we’d started five months earlier. I’m not saying that the events in the Barnet Registry Office were devoid of all significance, just that they were akin to the formal opening of a building after the premises have already been up-and-running for some months.

Our real ‘Partnership’ Ceremony took place on July 17th 2005 at a Reform Synagogue in London. We had originally chosen that date because it was never anticipated, by the then Government, that the legislative process for enabling Civil Partnerships would be as long or as arduous. We had hoped that as we could not celebrate our legal Civil Partnership in our Synagogue, we would, at least, be able to pop down to the Registry Office the same weekend as our religious ceremony. We really wanted to ensure that our new status as life-partners was legally recognised and protected.

As members of the Jewish faith, we were determined to formalise and celebrate our relationship within the context of a religious and cultural framework that resonated with our upbringing. Our Jewish Partnership Ceremony was a wonderful moment in our lives; all our relatives and friends attended the packed Synagogue and the three officiating Rabbis ensured that the proceedings were ritually robust and emotionally resonant. It was also an historic day for Reform Judaism in the UK, as it was the first same-sex ceremony to take place on one of their Synagogue’s premises.

Our choices were not for everyone in the Jewish LGBT community. Several of the couples we knew considered going down the same route as us, but then they decided to get married in Canada where they could have both their Jewish and Civil ceremonies on one day, in one location.

With today’s Government announcement, that Civil Partnerships can now take place in religious building and under the auspices of religious institutions, all that is now water under the bridge.

It has been well over five years since our Jewish Partnership Ceremony. In that time I have completed my training and I am now an ordained Rabbi working in a Reform Synagogue. My colleagues in the Assembly of Reform Rabbis UK have just completed a two year process of review which led us to release a timely Statement on Same-Sex Commitment Ceremonies. This Statement includes:

We wish to encourage and enable ceremonies which enjoy the same religious status as the heterosexual ceremony whilst recognising difference… We require, therefore, that Rabbis only conduct Same-Sex Commitment Ceremonies with a prior or concurrent Civil Partnership ceremony.

Today’s significant shift in Government policy will enable all those same-sex couples belonging to progressive faith communities to mark their love and commitment to one another within a religious context and liturgical framework. What is even more important is that these couples can now celebrate their unions in ways that resonate with the core values, traditions and practices of their families and communities. The very same values, traditions and practices that underpin their relationships and the homes they build together.

Yet I suspect that this is not the end of this long and fraught journey towards marriage equality for all. Civil Partnerships are, by the very nature of the word ‘civil’, supposedly devoid of all religion. Accordingly, what the Government may have actually sanctioned is a gently pitched process towards same-sex marriage in religious institutions. This move may not be welcomed by every religious body in this country, but it will certainly be welcomed by the Quakers and both the Liberal and Reform Jewish Movements.

Personally, as a Gay Rabbi, I cannot wait for the first Jewish couple to come knocking on my Office door asking me to officiate at their Jewish ‘Civil’ Partnership.

Mickey Rourke is set to watch gay rugby star Gareth Thomas play in Wales this weekend as preparation for a film about the player’s life.

Rourke said last year he hoped to take Thomas’ story to the big screen, after Thomas came out as gay.

He will watch the opening round of the Engage Super League at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Sunday.

According to ContactMusic.com, Thomas said: “Mickey is going to be there. I speak to him quite a lot and I’ve met him a few times but lately he’s appreciated that I’ve been in pre-season and he’s done his talking through the writer, who has been with me for the last four weeks, understanding a rugby player and what he goes through on and off the field.”

Rourke hopes to star as Thomas and direct the film. Recent reports said he would even have his front false teeth removed to look more like the sportsman.

Thomas, who is now with the Crusaders, added: “Mickey is probably the best actor in the world I’ve seen. He’s passionate about rugby and he’s passionate about the story. For him to show the commitment shows he’s the right person for it.”

A bill to ban discrimination against gay people in state employment has been killed by a Virgina House panel.

Currently, Virgina gives no legal protection lesbians and gays employed by the state, although it does offer employees protection from discrimination on the basis of race, gender and a number of other characteristics.

Sexual orientation was removed from the law last year and a bill tabled by Senator Donald McEachin sought to have it reinstated.

Yesterday, the Republican-controlled House General Laws subcommittee voted to kill it, plus another which sought to give health benefits to same-sex partners.

Delegate Todd Gilbert, the chair of the panel, had earlier said that if the issue was really a problem, people would be queuing out of the door to complain about it.

People did indeed queue out of the door yesterday to testify in support of the bill, Associated Press reports.

Some described how they had been pushed out of jobs after coming out, or were too fearful to reveal their sexual orientation.

Gay group Equality Virginia argues that private employers have long since recognised that anti-discrimination policies allow them to keep the best staff.

All of the states top ten private employers protect gay workers, it says.

The group adds that polls of the public have found that 85 per cent think gays and lesbians should be protected from discrimination in all workplaces.

The situation for gay people in Uganda was far worse than he expected, Scott Mills says.

Speaking to PinkNews.co.uk about an upcoming documentary, the gay Radio 1 presenter told how he feared for his own safety in the country.

Mills met anti-gay MP David Bahati as part of filming for ‘The World’s Worst Place to be Gay?’.

When the presenter said he was gay, Bahati became enraged and the film crew fled.

Later, they heard that Bahati had sent armed police to a hotel he thought they were staying at.

“I was really frightened,” Mills said. “It’s just something that you wouldn’t think would happen. It was a real shock to the system and we were told to lie low.”

He said: “I wasn’t aware before I went about what was going on in Uganda.

“I met gay people in safe houses because they had to flee their homes. The newspapers print their names, their photos, even what car they drive. These people are just hounded.

“It’s so bizarre that somewhere just seven hours away by plane can be so different.”

During filming, Mills met victims of homophobia and the pastors preaching against homosexuality.

“All the gay people we met had a story about how they had been tormented or attacked,” he said.

“There was a guy we saw in hospital, he had AIDS and was very ill. But because they knew he was gay, he wasn’t getting the right treatment. He’s dead now.

“Then there was a girl called Stosh, who had to go into hiding after her face was plastered across the newspapers.

“It’s all very well reading about these things but when you actually go to Uganda, you realise how bad things are. It was a lot worse than I expected.”

Gay people in Uganda have “an air of optimism”, he said. “But they’re faced with every pastor, every teacher in every school, saying the same thing.

“They think things will change but it’s going to take a long time.”

When asked how attitudes could change, Mills said: “I don’t really know. The West has been quite vocal and President Obama publicly denounced Uganda but [the preachers] still say homosexuality is un-African, that it is against the family.

“They think it was brought in by the West.”

Many of those he met had been accused of “promoting” homosexuality and “recruiting” children.

He said: “The pastors claim that gay people go into schools and offer children money but when you talk to the schools, they say it hasn’t happened. There’s no evidence for it.”

The film crew also saw first-hand the influence Western preachers have on anti-gay sentiment in Uganda.

“It’s all wrapped up in Christianity and evangelicalism,” Mills said. “And Americans come over to preach. We went to a sermon and saw a guy from Atlanta preaching gay hate.”

He added: “I went to Uganda with the aim of making a fair and balanced film but in two weeks, we couldn’t find any [non-gay] person saying that homosexuality was okay.”

‘The World’s Worst Place to be Gay?’ will be shown on BBC Three at 9pm on Monday February 14th.