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By  EDWARD WONG  and  VANESSA PIAO APRIL 13, 2016 Continue reading the main story Share This Page Share Tweet Email M Save Sun Wenlin, left, and his partner, Hu Mingliang, in Changsha, China, in January. The case has galvanized some gay rights advocates in China.   Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times BEIJING — A judge ruled on Wednesday against a gay couple who had sought the right to marry, in  China ’s first court case addressing the issue of same-sex unions. The couple, Sun Wenlin and Hu Mingliang,  filed a lawsuit  against a civil affairs bureau in Changsha, Hunan Province, in southern China, after the office refused to grant them the right to marry when they tried to register in June 2015. In a surprising move, a district court accepted the case early this year, the first time a Chinese court had agreed to hear such a lawsuit. An initial hearing scheduled for January was postponed. The court held a hearing on Wedn...

11 April 2016 Chaya, not her real name, is an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who is gay. Here she describes her struggle to accept her sexuality, and why she has to keep it a secret from those who would make her choose between her identity and her family. I would lose everything if I came out. We are a tightly knit community and I think few people realise just how isolated we are. In the world I live in, being gay is the equivalent of being a bad person. It's seen as an evil desire that is completely unnatural. Soon after, my parents began to arrange a marriage for me. There is often a matchmaker involved in problem cases like mine People I have grown up with would wonder what else I could be capable of. Few would believe that I could still be religious and if I did eventually leave the Haredi community it would mean losing my job, my home and potentially my children. It's just easier for everyone to pretend that there is nothing different about me. In fact, most pe...

BILOXI, Miss. - Canadian rocker Bryan Adams is canceling a performance this week in Mississippi, citing the state's new law that allows religious groups and some private businesses to refuse service to gay couples. Adams said in a statement Sunday night that he was canceling a show Thursday at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi. The singer says he can't "in good conscience" perform in a state where "certain people are being denied their civil rights due to their sexual orientation." The move comes after  Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band canceled a Sunday show in Greensboro, North Carolina , because of that state's new law blocking anti-discrimination rules for the LGBT community. The Mississippi law will take effect July 1. The "Religious Liberty Accommodations Act" prohibits the government from taking "any discriminatory action" against religious organizations that decline to host marriages, employ people ...

BETHANIA PALMA MARKUS 09 APR 2016 AT 20:13 ET             West Hollywood, California, is generally known as an LGBT-friendly city, but a worker at a popular bar says he was called gay slurs during a violent attack on Friday,  KTLA reports . Christopher de la Cruz says he was leaving the bar at about 1 a.m. when two men attacked him, hitting him in the face and pushing his head into the dirt. “They attacked me because I was gay,” he told KTLA. De la Cruz said the attackers held him at knife-point and took his wallet and credit cards. “The other guy came up to me, ski master over his head, and said you f*cking f*g,” de la Cruz told KTLA. He reported the incident to authorities and said he believes it was a hate crime. “They took off running, laughing like it was a joke,” he  Watch the KTLA report here Article Link

HBO is facing backlash for working with Manny Pacquiao following his February comments in which he said homosexuals are “worse than animals.” According to The New York Post Friday, HBO released a statement following his remarks saying it “deplored” Pacquiao’s behavior, but planned to air his pay-per view bout against Timothy Bradley Saturday. The network said it had an “obligation” to both fighters. HBO is still deciding whether to end its relationship with the Filipino fighter, the Post reported. Senior network sources told the paper that HBO executives are hoping to avoid a bigger situation because Pacquiao announced he planned to retire after the Bradley fight. "As of now I am retired," Pacquiao said after his win over Bradley. "I am going to go home and think about it but I want to be with my family. I want to serve the people." Manny Pacquiao, right, of the Philippines, hits Timothy Bradley during their WBO welterweight title boxing bout Saturday, Apr...