Fridae

As the first country in the world to grant same-sex marriages and allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt children, it's now looking at introducing same-sex couples into the nation's schoolbooks.

Germany's highest court last week ruled that gay couples in civil partnerships are entitled to the same inheritance tax rights as married couples.

Passed by the provincial legislature in October 2009, the bylaw – which the Governor has refused to sign and officials in Jakarta have asked to be withdrawn – would punish homosexuals with 100 cane lashes.

Director of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival says he intends to stage a ''public disobedience freedom of speech event'' by screening LA Zombie in defiance of the federal censor.

Costa Rica's top court on Tuesday ruled that a planned public referendum on same-sex civil unions is illegal thus blocking the electoral tribunal from holding a referendum that would have let voters decide if same-sex civil unions should be allowed in the largely Roman Catholic country.

Some 30 participants, both Chinese and expatriates, gathered at the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo at a LGBT meeting organised by the British Embassy in Beijing and the British Consulate-General Shanghai.

Scientists in Korea have discovered that female mice can be turned "lesbian" by deleting a single gene at embryo stage.

In what's believed to be the first case of its kind, a gay man in China has filed a lawsuit against a Beijing Red Cross donor centre after it refused to accept his blood deposit because of his sexual orientation.

LA-based photographer Jeff Sheng discusses his recent project "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", art and activism, and how artists like himself can engage in social documentary to "bring to light a voice that nobody else has ever heard before."

The BBC highlights the challenges faced by gays, bisexuals and transgenders in Indonesia as a growing number of radical Muslim groups are actively campaigning against them.