Japan’s First Lady took part in Tokyo’s Gay Pride Parade

Akie Abe, wife of the country’s conservative Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, appeared atop a float in the ‘Rainbow Pride’ parade, which more than 3000 people marched in.

She went on to post colourful pictures on her Facebook page of her on a pride float next to a drag queen, smiling and waving to the crowds.

Some of the participants at the parade held banners which read: ‘AIDS is not over’ and Abe has been involved with the fight against AIDS since joining a commission set up by UNAIDS and the Lancet medical journal last year. 

The First Lady later wrote on her Facebook page: “I want to help build a society where anyone can conduct happy, enriched lives without facing discrimination.

Japan does not allow same-sex marriage, defining marriage as “based only on the mutual consent of both sexes”, and a recent poll found there is still a majority opposed to the issue.

Spain is the First Country Accepting Homosexuality

Spain is the nation tops a list of 40 countries most accepting of homosexuality, according to a Pew Research Center's Global Views on Morality poll.

Catholic Spain came out on top with only 6% saying they found homosexuality to be morally unacceptable while 55% said it was acceptable and another 38% said it was not an issue of morality.

Germans were the next most approving despite not yet allowing same-sex couples to marry, with only 8% saying homosexuality was morally unacceptable while 51% said it was acceptable and 38% said it was not a moral issue.

French and Czech people tied in disapproving of homosexuality for moral reasons with 14% disapproving in both countries. The numbers for moral disapproval were 15% in Canada, 17% in Britain and 18% in Australia.

Americans were the 12th least nationality to disapprove morally of homosexuality with 37% saying they disapproved, only 25% saying it was acceptable and 35% saying it was not a moral issue.

In the Palestinian territories 94% disapproved but in Israel 43% disapproved compared to 27% who approved and 25% saying it was not a moral issues, showing a stark difference of views among the two neighbors.

The results were less optimistic in nations like Ghana and Russia, where 98 percent and 72 percent of participants deemed homosexuality morally unacceptable, respectively.

Read more about the survey here.

 Madrid's pride parade

 Foam party at Gay Pride Barcelona

LGBT Pride Parade in Sevilla

Gays can marry and adopt in Spain since 2005

#WeAreAllUVa

Students at the University of Virginia have started a photo campaign #WeAreAllUVa hoping to show togetherness and acceptance.

One of the campaign’s creators said: "Diversity includes the differences we can’t see. It’s more than race and ethnicity. Diversity is meant to be an inclusive concept; the point of challenging it is that it can be a very polarizing conversation".

One student who took up the challenge was Parker Camp, a swimmer, who publicly came out as gay last year. He asked four other teammates to join him for the photo which reads: 2 of us are gay, the other 3 don’t care.

Happy Easter!

Picking up People of the Same Sex

In these two videos, a man and a woman individually approach different people of their same sex asking for their numbers and insinuating that they'd like to take them on a date. 

Oftentimes awkward, the differences between the responses of the men and women are perhaps the most interesting part of these videos.

Watch below what happens when someone try to ask out random members of the same sex.

Forcing Equality

When Vice President Joe Biden voiced support for marriage equality back in May 2012, he threw the White House staff into a panic and forced President Obama’s hand on the issue, says a new book, Forcing the Spring, by prize-winning journalist Jo Becker.

Biden's marriage equality endorsement was no trial balloon, but it forced the president to take a pro-equality stand.

Biden has backed equal rights for the LGBT community throughout his career, and he has publicly acknowledged his support of full marriage rights.

He said: "Who do you love? Who do you love and will you be loyal to the person you love? And that’s what people are finding out what all marriages at their root are about. Whether they are marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals.  And he added: "I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that".

Biden's comments on same-sex marriage

Obama's support to gay marriage

Miami Beach Gay Pride 2014

Miami Beach Gay Pride is an extraordinary two-day event that features a Beach Party and a Festival & Parade with more than 125 LGBT-friendly vendors and businesses, exciting celebrities, musical performances, refreshments, food and a family-friendly play area.

Established by former Miami Beach Mayor, Matti Bower, as an initiative of the Miami Beach Gay Business Development Council, Miami Beach Gay Pride is a not-for-profit organization that produces free, safe, quality mass-appeal events that are open to all, and that include the Parade, Festival, Expo, and adjunct, officially sanctioned Miami Beach Gay Pride events.

Coming into its 6th year, Miami Beach Gay Pride has grown into the largest, two-day event of the year in Miami Beach. The hugely successful event in 2011 attracted more than 40,000 people, in 2012 more than 60,000 people and in 2013 more than 80,000 people from all walks of life, all parts of the country, and all age groups.

Judge orders Ohio to Recognize Gay Marriages Performed in other States

A federal judge in Ohio has ordered that the state must recognizing same-sex marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions.

Federal District Magistrate Timothy Black's ruling declares that Ohio's statutory ban on recognizing legal same-sex marriages performed in other states violates the U.S. Constitution. The ruling does not require Ohio to begin performing same-sex marriages.

"The record before the court, which includes the judicially-noticed record in Obergefell, is staggeringly devoid of any legitimate justification for the State’s ongoing arbitrary discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and, therefore, Ohio’s marriage recognition bans are facially unconstitutional and unenforceable under any circumstances”, Judge Black ruled.

Federal Judge Timothy Black

Love is Love Regardless of Gender

Although this is a commercial of Andrew Christian's underwear, it's a lovely brief love story with awesome Colby Melvin and Brandon Brown.

Enjoy it!

The Day of Silence

April 11, 2014 is the National Day of Silence, a student-led action sponsored by Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) in which thousands of students around the country will remain silent for all or part of the school day to call attention to the harassment and discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. 

Founded in 1996, the GLSEN's Day of Silence is designed to draw attention to the chilling effect anti-LGBT bullying has on campuses nationwide. Social media, advocates young and old keeping silent today can find thousands of others doing the same at the click of a mouse.

Proud of My Family

I know this is a commercial, but they are a real family too.

Proud of them!

US University Basketball Player Comes Out

University of Massachusetts basketball player Derrick Gordon has come out to his teammates. According to the young athlete, after he came out to them, one teammate immediately said: "We got you; you’re one of us".

He said: "I want to be myself… I don’t want to hide and be someone I’m not". And he added: "I didn't want to have to lie or sneak. I've been waiting and watching for the last few months, wondering when a Division I player would come out, and finally I just said, Why not me?"

The Church of Norway is Opposed to Performing Gay Weddings

The Church of Norway voted against priests carrying out gay marriage ceremonies.

The vote was split against the proposal to allow same-sex unions in churches, with 51 religious leaders voting in favor and 64 against. 

In 2008, same-sex marriage was officially recognized in Norway and same-sex couples received the same rights as straight couples. 

The legislation granted the church authority to marry same-sex couples, but to date the Norwegian church has refused to perform same-sex ceremonies.

Same-sex couples can marry in Norway since 2009

LGBT-friendly Mayors Elected in Turkey

Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul and its southern port city of Mersin now have four LGBT-friendly mayors between them. Tthe four elected were among 32 candidates who ran during the elections on March 30 and signed the LGBT Friendly Municipality Protocol. 

Signatories of the protocol had undertaken to protect and improve LGBT people’s rights and freedoms; actualize policies that will allow LGBT people equal access to public services, health care, housing, employment; cooperate with LGBT associations and initiatives; promote non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; and provide training to municipality employees on LGBT rights and discrimination.

Same-sex relations are legal in Turkey which is officially a secular state although 99% of the population is Muslim. Several thousand people march in Istanbul’s annual Turkish Gay Pride Parade, the only march of its kind in a majority-Muslim country. 

Gay activists march in Istanbul

Gay Wedding in Days of Our Lives

Days of Our Lives featured the first wedding between two men on a soap opera. 

You can watch Will and Sonny tie the knot in the video below.

Congrats guys!