The disparity in the figures calculated during the joint study by CNN Money and H&R Block are one result of the Defense of Marriage Act.

The heavily-debated Act defines marriage on the federal level as being between a man and a woman, so while individual states can draw up tax systems according to their own laws on marriage equality, gay couples must file their federal tax returns individually.

The study examined a range of scenarios and determined that for couples with children, one of whom stays at home, one of whom earns more than $100,000 each year, the increased cost for a gay couple was mainly a result of larger exposure to income tax: $4,500.

They added that the way tax credits for children, worth $1,000 per child, were phased out more quickly for couples classed as unmarried by the federal government, which brought the increased cost up to over $6,000 a year.

CNN said other factors which leave gays out of pocket include inheritance tax rules and higher capital gains tax exposure for property ownership.

The analysis also pointed out that with a more complicated tax situation, gays may well spend more on tax accountants’ fees than equivalent straight couples.

Differences in the way gay and straight couples are treated for tax purposes also causes difficulties in Europe.

In November, an EU conference heard that disparities in how countries regard foreign marriages and civil partnerships mean gay couples are facing particular struggles to move freely in the European Union.

The higher costs of living as a gay couple in some member states, caused by inheritance, pensions and tax differences similar to those encountered in the US, are seen as a barrier to movement within the EU.

The Human Rights Commission is challenging laws which it argues are incompatible with those in England, Wales and Scotland, and do not protect the interests of the child in question.

A judicial review of the legislation is being applied for after an historic House of Lords decision in 2008.

In that case, it was held that a man should not be barred from applying to adopt his female partner’s daughter on the basis that they were not married.

Monye Anyadike-Danes QC said: “Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom which provides a gateway for adoption through which only couples who are married may pass.”

Making opening arguments yesterday, the BBC reports Ms Anyadike-Danes saying the challenge is focused on ensuring gay and unmarried couples are not automatically excluded at the first stage of the adoption process.

Instead, their ability to provide “a nurturing and loving and permanent home” should be assessed in the same way as straight couples.

She added: “The current state of the law, we say, is not something that has been established to be in the best interest of the child.

“We consider the status quo, as it impacts on all unmarried couples, to be discriminatory.”

The hearing, which began on Monday, is expected to last three days.

Cathy Ann Daniels, 57, was born physically male. She had lower (genital) sex reassignment surgery last year at a London hospital and hopes to have surgery to increase the size of her bust.

However, she has been told that the £5,000 procedure is classed as cosmetic surgery and is not routinely funded by NHS East Lancs.

Ms Daniels told the Lancashire Telegraph: “I have been left half man, half woman because my doctor will not refer me to the PCT for breast augmentation.

“I have undergone half the operation, but now I’m being kept in limbo because apparently there is no funds.

“Breasts are a really important part of being a woman and being like this is making me suicidal.”

Ms Daniels is being backed by the Gender Society.

Michele Bridgman, from the charity, said transgender people have to face a “geographic lottery” because not all health trusts will pay for surgery.

The American Civil Liberties Union is working on behalf of a former Air Force staff sergeant and 142 former troops who received only half of their expected severance pay after they were fired for being gay.

The Justice Department has asked the US Court of Federal Claims to dismiss the case. However, Judge Christine Odell Cook Miller said she was inclined to allow it to continue, Associated Press reports.

The military grants severance pay which can be halved by a number of conditions. These include discharge on the basis of homosexuality and unsuccessful drug or alcohol addiction treatment.

According to the ACLU, the policy of denying gay troops full severance pay is unconstitutional.

The case was brought by former Air Force Staff Sgt Richard Collins, who was discharged in 2006 after two civilians he worked with saw him kiss his boyfriend on the cheek while off-duty ten miles away from their base.

He expected to be paid $25,702 after his discharge but received just $12,351.

While the Obama administration is not defending the policy, it says that courts cannot rewrite military regulations.

Joshua Block, a staff attorney for the ACLU, said: “The government is too embarrassed to defend the constitutionality of its policy in open court, so it is inventing new reasons to deny these service members justice.

“These veterans served their country honourably and deserve the full recognition and benefits that are afforded to other service members. The sums they seek are small to the military, but make a huge difference when readjusting to civilian life.”

Currently, surviving partners of gay clergy can claim a pension calculated from 2005, when civil partnerships became legal.

Heterosexual widows or widowers can claim pensions based on their late spouse’s working life.

Next week, a two-day meeting of the church’s governing body will consider whether the benefit should be based on the whole of a gay clergy member’s working life.

A church spokeswoman told the Western Mail: “We believe the number of clergy who have entered into civil partnerships is very low. We don’t know exactly how many as clergy are not obliged to tell their Bishop or to notify the Church in Wales pension scheme when they enter a civil partnership.”

Retired cleric Rev Martin Reynolds, who is part of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said: “The church still has to catch up with wider society in its attitude to gay people, but I think it is doing rather well. I would give the church six marks out of ten.

“The particular change that will be proposed next week would bring the Church in Wales into line with what was agreed in England last year.”

The Church of England General Synod approved the change in 2010.

Spencer Lodge, of Dubai, won the date with Sir Elton and his partner David Furnish at the singer’s annual White Tie and Tiara Ball, with the money set to go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

It is claimed that despite repeated requests, he has not paid.

The High Court action was issued by the EJAF.

A source close to Sir Elton suggested that although Mr Lodge had signed paperwork, he backed out in “the cold light of day”.

The source told the Daily Mirror: “Both David and Elton, and everyone involved with the EJAF are really angry about this.

“Elton is not personally hounding the man and demanding the cash, but he is fully supportive of the legal proceedings to benefit the charity.”

The state began granting the benefits in 2008 but a 2009 law sought to remove them.

Yesterday, three judges at the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a lower court’s ruling that the law should be blocked.

They said that the law would violate the state’s Constitution.

Judges wrote: “When a state chooses to provide such benefits, it may not do so in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner that adversely affects particular groups that may be unpopular.”

The law had blocked health benefits for partners of gay employees and straight unmarried employees. However, heterosexual workers could restore their benefits by getting married.

Arizona does not allow gay couples to wed.

Pierre Lagrange, a former trader for JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, separated from his wife a year ago.

He was pictured with his boyfriend, the fashion designer Roubi L’Roubi, in Venice this summer.

Mr Lagrange, who is said to be worth more than £300 million thanks to his company GLG Partners, said his split from wife Catherine was amicable.

The couple filed divorce papers at the High Court last month.

The Sunday Times reports that Mrs Lagrange, a Conservative Party donor, could receive up to half of her husband’s fortune, making the divorce one of the most expensive the UK has seen.

The current record is £100 million, paid by Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky to his former wife.

Mr Lagrange, who has invested in films such as Kick Ass, recently sold his 15-bedroom home in Kensington Palace Gardens to Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich for £90 million.

The Belgian-born millionaire, who says he met Mr L’Roubi after splitting from his wife, said: “My divorce reflects the reality of a separation that has happened a long time ago.

“Our divorce has been the most amicable one, with respect and love from all parties.”

Although Mr Cook has never spoken publicly about his sexuality, he has never denied the claim that he is gay.

Mr Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple after a period of medical leave. In his resignation letter he said “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”

He added: “As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.”

Mr Cook, took over while Mr Jobs took medical leave in January and has become an increasingly important public figure.

At the time, Valleyrag reported: “Cook. . . has been as reticent to acknowledge his sexual orientation as he has his prowess in overseeing the company supply chain. But as Jobs fades back, and as his absences grow more prolonged and uncertain, Cook will become, by necessity, a public figure.”

The website said it had been told by “two well-placed sources” that Cook is gay and that his sexuality has been the topic of at least some discussion within the company.

Some executives were said to be happy to encourage him to come out, but were concerned about whether it would “impact the perception of the Apple brand”.

According to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 33 per cent of state and local government employees can get same-sex partner benefits. For private sector workers, the figure was 29 per cent.

This is the first time the number of workers who can get health benefits for gay partners has been calculated.

In the annual National Compensation Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics asked 17,000 businesses and local governments whether they offer benefits for gay partners.

While half of public sector workers – gay and straight – have access to survivor benefits, just seven per cent of private employees do.

Gay rights groups praised the Obama administration for taking steps to collect the data.

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said:

“With each effort to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees in surveys like this, the Department of Labor moves us closer to being able to better serve the community.

“Data collection is fundamental to addressing the disparities in employment, health, education and income facing our community.”

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said: “As with so much about our community – from the health disparities we face, to simply how many of us there are – we can’t begin to fully understand and address the challenges that LGBT people face until major surveys and studies actually ask about them.

“Thankfully, the Obama administration is taking critical steps to ensure that questions about LGBT people and our families are finally asked.

He added: “Offering domestic partner benefits has increasingly become a standard best practice in America’s workplaces, with nearly 60 per cent of Fortune 500 companies offering them. The data released today reflects that progress, but also reminds us that, despite the advances in corporate America, many American workers still lack access to equal benefits for their families.”

The city of Cambridge has been looking for a solution to the issue of unfair federal taxes for six months and now plans to reimburse affected workers.

Although the state allows gay couples to marry, federal law prevents them from benefiting from the same spousal benefits heterosexuals receive.

This means that 22 gay people who put their spouses on their employer-provided health insurance pay an extra $1,500-3,000 a year because the government taxes the health insurance. Straight couples are not taxed for this benefit.

City officials have decided to supplement affected workers’ pay packets to make up the difference.

Other federal benefits not available to gay couples include survivor benefits, immigration rights, joint tax returns and family leave.

Cambridge is the first city to tackle the issue of federal benefits for gay couples. Around 20 companies already have policies, including Google and Facebook,

There are moves to get the federal law repealed at national level.

The AFA’s vice president Buddy Smith attended the Home Depot annual shareholders meeting to address the company’s chairman.

“We presented to the shareholders and to the chairman and the board of directors over 470,000 signature petitions asking them to remain neutral in the culture war, specifically when it addresses gay marriage and homosexual activist groups,” an AFA spokesman said.

Home Depot’s chairman Frank Blake is reported to have thanked the AFA for their feedback bur reiterated the retailer’s support for gay equality.

The AFA’s grievance with Home Depot began last year after the company took place in a children’s event at the Southern Maine gay pride event and sponsoring the Boston pride parade.

This prompted a boycott by the group which was an initiated by an email which stated that “Home Depot is basically encouraging the attendance of children at events which openly expose them to transvestites, cross-dressers, and homosexual activists.”

“Gay pride events have a long track record for offensive public displays of homosexual conduct. Obviously, Home Depot is OK with the idea of exposing children to an unhealthy and risky environment.”
Home Depot has been criticised in the past for its donations to right-wing political groups.

The AFA are currently also boycotting Ford, Pepsi, Campbell Soup Company, McDonald’s and Hallmark for their approach to LGBT equality.

The news coincides with figures released today which show UK HIV diagnoses have almost doubled in the last decade, with a 70 per cent rise in gay and bisexual diagnoses.

A number of groups, including GMFA, Terrence Higgins Trust and PACE, were told last week that the NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) which help to fund their work would be slashing their budgets.

The groups are part of the Pan London HIV Prevention Programme, which is funded by PCTs and commissions a range of small organisations to tackle HIV in the capital.

They were told by Kensington and Chelsea PCT, which manages the programme, that although 21 PCTs in London wish to continue the work, only six-month contracts with reduced funding can be offered at present because PCTs are “not able to continue to commit at commensurate financial levels going forward”.

Each group’s funding is to be cut by 43 per cent from April 1st, regardless of the sums it received in the last 12 months.

The LGBT Consortium, which represents LGBT charities across the UK, said the budget cuts would put gay men’s health at risk.

Director of operations Mark Delacour said the decision was “outrageous”.

He added: “Moreover, they have been given two day’s notice on whether or not to accept the cut. This is poor treatment of our members and bad commissioning practice on behalf of Kensington and Chelsea PCT.

“More importantly it threatens the health of the largest gay and bisexual male community in the country. The communities our members serve are amongst those most affected by HIV and it is absolutely paramount that the needs of gay and bisexual men in regards to HIV prevention remain high on the health agenda in London.”

The letter sent to HIV groups said: “We are keen to ensure that a programme is commissioned as we recognise the importance of HIV prevention work. However, it will be necessary to re-specify and re-tender the work.”

Mark Creelman, joint director of strategy for the Inner North West London PCTs said: “We have offered six-month fixed term contracts to our HIV prevention providers. These contracts will ensure there is no gap in HIV prevention while a public health needs assessment and programme is redesigned and undertaken. All providers and service users will be part of the design programme, which we anticipate will be in place from October 1st.

“Commissioners are meeting with providers today to discuss their six month activities and their impact.”

Carl Burnell, the chief executive of GMFA, said: “On the day that we see HIV rates are rising on a local and national scale, this is not the time to be cutting HIV prevention work.

“Ultimately, it doesn’t even save money. It costs £300,000 to treat a person with HIV over their lifetime. This could prove more expensive for the state.”

Tim Franks, the chief executive of PACE, said the news was another blow, as his organisation was told this month it would lose £92,000 of the £101,000 it usually receives for its LGBT youth groups.

He said: “I’m extremely concerned. Cutting prevention work doesn’t save money. Everybody understands that when you’re looking at an incurable illness which requires long-term treatment, it is much, much better to prevent it.”

Adam Wilkinson, Terrence Higgins Trust’s regional delivery manager for London, said the charity had understood that there would not be a PLHPP this year and was “pleased” that funding would now be awarded.

Mr Wilkinson declined to reveal the amount of funding the charity would receive.

But he added: “However, the level of funding is disappointing and we are also disappointed that only 21 of the 32 PCTs have decided to contribute. But we are very pleased that the work will continue.”

However Lord Freud, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for work and pensions, accepted that the matter might need to be looked at further – and continuing pressure from the courts mean that it is far from resolved. The problem was created with the passage of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) in 2004.

This was, in turn, a response to mounting legal pressure from European and domestic courts and a series of cases in which it was ruled that the absence of a legal framework within which trans men and women could obtain recognition within their new gender was discriminatory.

In theory, the GRA solved matters. In practice, it left as unfinished business individuals who said they had been advised not to claim a pension in their new gender by the Department of Work and Pensions (cases brought by individuals Richards and Grant before European courts), and those who had been told they were not entitled to a pension (see the Christine Timbrell case) because they refused to dissolve a pre-existing marriage.

Other losers were those unlucky enough to be caught by the fact that the gender recognition panel, responsible for granting gender certificates, required a period of at least two years “living in role” before they would do so. Thus, trans women who transitioned in or around 2005, when the Gender Recognition Act came into force, would have been unable to start claiming their pension as a woman until 2007.

In an attempt to resolve this issue, Lord Boswell of Aynho put an amendment to the Pensions Bill, currently going through its committee stage in the House of Lords, on Tuesday.

His proposal would have granted retrospective pension rights to trans women who had been caught out by the timing of the Act, granting full female pension rights to anyone who lived in their acquired gender “for a period of two years before the passage of that Act, or who have received a full gender recognition certificate under the terms of that Act within a period of two years after its coming into effect”.

Lord Boswell is no stranger to this issue. As the Conservative MP for Daventry from 1987 to 2010, he was active in assisting a constituent seriously affected by these issues: he later led for the Conservative Party in the standing committee appointed to consider the Gender Recognition Bill.

He told PinkNews.co.uk that he understands the intricacies involved and is sympathetic to the government’s difficulties on the issue.

But he added: “Ministers can’t hand out benefits like sweets.”

He is equally aware that any attempt to introduce “retrospectivity” into legislation frequently creates as many problems as it resolves.

For the government, Lord Freud resisted the proposal on two grounds: first, that the scale of the problem was a good deal greater than Lord Boswell had suggested. The latter put forward a view that the total number of individuals affected by such legislation was likely to be of the order of 50 – and therefore, the cost to government would be negligible.

Lord Freud claimed that estimates provided by the Inland Revenue were that 750 people would be affected, at a net cost to the economy of between £9 million and £38 million in total.

A spokeswoman for the DWP told us that these figures were an estimate of all trans women potentially covered by the 2006 court ruling.

Lord Boswell also argued that this was not “the thin end of the wedge”: granting rights to this group could not be an argument for extending similar retrospective considerations to others.

Lord Freud disagreed, citing women now in their 70s and 80s who draw only a small married women’s pension because they were too old to benefit from the various pension reforms that have taken place since the 1970s. He argued that if trans women were granted retrospective rights, this much larger group might also put in a claim for backdated payments.

It seems unlikely that the matter will rest there. The Timbrell case, heard last summer, ended in a ruling that a trans woman who transitioned before the GRA came into effect was entitled to her pension because there was no alternative legal framework within which she could claim her rights. The government therefore already faces the possibility of further legal challenge from those who would have been covered by this amendment.

If, at some future date, government also recognises gay marriage, then it may not be too fanciful to anticipate challenge from those denied a pension because they refused to divorce in order to gain their GRC.

Lord Boswell withdrew his amendment, but remains hopeful that the government will look at the issue further. As he told PinkNews.co.uk: “My impression was that the government is listening – and I have told the minister that if he would like further assistance in considering these matters, I would be happy to help.”

The website began as a sort of gay Foursquare-style game based around users’ Facebook connections. It then evolved to a gay version of Groupon.

But neither really took off despite millions of dollars of investment from influential angel investors and the Washington Post. The company will now reform as a Groupon clone centred around design enthusiasts.

Jason Goldberg, its founder, wrote in a frank blog post explaining the decision: “Gay rights progress over the past year had a positive impact on the gay community but a negative impact on the demand for our services.”

He added: “With developments like the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the court victories over California’s Proposition 8 gay marriage ban, the Obama administration’s tacit rejection of the Defense of Marriage Act, and the anti-bullying ‘It Gets Better Project’ continuing to integrate gays into the mainstream, we saw a diminished need for a gay Facebook or a gay Yelp or a gay Foursquare or a gay Groupon.”

Mr Goldberg also admitted that he “couldn’t do the math” to turn Fab.com into a big business.

He added that there is a larger market for well-designed products, the focus of the next incarnation of Fab.com, than there is for a gay-orientated online venture.

While Fab.com managed to gain more than 140,000 registered users, other social networking platforms are growing much faster.

Dot429.com, a newly launched gay take on Linkedin, has started to gain traction and gay mobile networking applications including Grindr and BoyAhoy have grown significantly, particularly in the UK.

This week Grindr launched on the Android platform.

Writing on PinkNews.co.uk’s comment section, Mr Goldberg explained: “Grindr is the only true success story in new online gay services, and that’s because it’s about a critical need: hookups. But we didn’t want to be another hookup site at fab.

“I do not believe at this point that there is legitimate demand for a non-sexual social network for gay men that would garner more than 1M members. And if you can’t get to 10M members, it’s hard to build a significant business in this space.”

Grindr has more than 1.65 million regular users in 180 countries worldwide, with London being the app’s most popular city.

The application is essentially a hyper local dating service, listing 100 gay guys together with their photographs by their distance in metres from the user.

Although the service has been on the iPhone for two years, it has been absent from the Google led Android mobile platform. There are now more Android users than Apple iPhone owners. Many of Grindr’s competitors including the granddaddy of gay networking Gaydar are already on the Android platform and have gained market share.

PinkNews.co.uk obtained a beta version of the Android application and has been told by sources at Grindr that a live version will go live in the Android Marketplace “imminently”. A Grindr source told PinkNews.co.uk that the app was being launched after “tremendous demand” from users.

Grindr’s iconic status was partly gained after Britain’s most famous technophile Stepher Fry did more than just mention Grindr on Top Gear. He effectively hijacked the BBC motoring programme, with an estimated global syndicated audience of 350 million viewers, for a minute and a half as he explained Grindr’s intricacies to host Jeremy Clarkson and tried to find another Grindr user in the studio audience.

Some have criticised Grindr for promoting sexual promiscuity as the service can be used, should the user wish to find sexual partners with relative ease. Others have warned about personal safety, Daniel Gomez, Community Engagement Manager at The Lesbian & Gay Foundation said: “Programmes like Grindr are the new ‘Gay Bar’ of the millennium. But a word of caution…use common sense when meeting up with men from the internet. We sometimes forget that it doesn’t always do what it says it does on the tin! I think sometimes it’s easy to forget, that not everyone has the same intentions you do when looking to meet men online”.

But in an interview with PinkNews.co.uk last month, Mr Simkhai said: “As a company we employ moderators to monitor content, but Grindr users are no more vetted than the ones you meet in bars or clubs. Do we encourage promiscuity? Not at all, the platform we provide is neutral in that sense. We simply make it easier to meet people, be that for friendship, dating or otherwise. We’ve even had a Grindr user get help to fix his broken down car using our app.”

The company has already said it is planning to launch a version of Grindr for lesbians as well as straight people. It has publicly said it is working on an Android application.

Grindr did not comment on the leak when PinkNews.co.uk went to publication.

Complaints of homophobia are brewing over the latest TV ad for Foster’s lager.

In the ad, Dean seeks advice from Australian duo, Brad and Dan, on how to deal with his friend, who has just asked him “to rub sun cream on his back”.

Dean is visibly uncomfortable about his friend’s request, as is one of the Australian pair, who proceed to give Dean advice on how to avoid looking gay during this “delicate situation”.

They say: “Only put cream where he can’t reach, between his shoulder blades, the safe zone.”

The camera cuts to a blond woman in a bikini and shorts putting up a dart board, who receives a thumbs up from one of the Australian men before they continue: “Whack it on thick mate, the last thing you wanna do is a second coat.”

They give some final pointers: “Remember Deano, the following things are not permitted: eye contact, scented candles, power ballads, and do not apply if he’s wearing budgie smugglers.”

Budgie smugglers is an Australian slang term for tight fitting swimwear.

The call ends just as Dean’s “mate” appears wearing yellow Speedos, at which point Dean looks down at him, points and says “You have to change!”

One viewer commented on YouTube that the ad “reinforces stereotypes about what it means to be a man”, and added: “This is not going to help anyone who is ‘straight’ and hangs out with straight men but thinks he might be gay.

“Men are often uncomfortable about close contact because they’re scared they might be thought gay. This fear is exactly what this advert taps into. Funny? Depends on how important you think it is that gay men should be able to respect themselves.”

The bill, which would give Federal Parliament – as opposed to a federal minister – the power to override territory laws, was given support by Labour MPs in a Caucus meeting on Tuesday.

Subsequently however, a group of MPs told ABC news that the implications of the bill were not fully outlined, and that they suspected it was a deliberate “stitch up” by the Labor left and Greens MPs, who do support gay marriage.

ABC also reported that Ms Gillard said there was nothing unusual about caucus members coming to her with concerns.

“The caucus meeting on Tuesday considered an amending proposition about the ability of territories to make their own legislation.

“The Labor Party supported similar legislation in 2006, so there was a discussion at caucus and we have supported similar legislation in the past. Subsequent to the caucus meeting, a number of caucus members raised a concern with me about the breadth of that legislation.”

Ms Gillard also dismissed reports that labour members were concerned about the effect of the Greens on Government legislation.

Last November, the Green Party won a motion calling on MPs to ask their constituents about the issue.

Recent polls are showing increased support for a change in the law.

Before Christmas, Fairfax-Neilsen research found that 57 per cent of 1,400 were in favour of gay marriage, while a poll carried out for gay rights groups in October found that 62 per cent were in favour.

The Labour party will debate its policy on gay marriage at its conference this year. Ms Gillard has said she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Peter Casbar, 43, and Noel Robichaux, 46, visited the Union City restaurant in 2007 but were met with rudeness from a cashier.

They left the restaurant but were pursued by staff, they said.

Their attorney, James F Fine said in a statement: “The manager and a group of angry restaurant employees chased the couple and then mercilessly kicked, beat and spat upon the two men while screaming hate-filled anti-gay invectives.”

Two Burger King employees, Angel Caraballo and Christopher Soto, have already pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

Mr Casbar and Mr Robichaux used New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination to sue Food Service Properties Corp and Union City Restaurant Corp which own seven Burger Kings in Union City.

According to the Jersey Journal, the couple were charged with harassment when police arrived to find them being attacked by Caraballo and Soto. The charges were later dropped.

Last week, a gay waiter at one of London’s Michelin-starred restaurants was awarded £21,500 after colleagues subjected him to anti-gay taunts.

Vincent Ma, 31, who worked at Yauatcha Chinese restaurant in Soho, had his nipples tweaked by a customer and saw two male managers simulating sex in front of him.

Mitchells and Butlers, the owners of the 137-year-old Kings Cross in Cardiff city centre have ignored a campaign led by Layton “Percy” Jones, who garnered the support of more than 2,000 locals to save the venue’s gay identity.

“The owners told us they intend to turn the place into a gastropub,” he told the South Wales Echo. “This place holds a lot of memories for a lot of people. It’s awful.”

Supporters of the campaign to save the gay venue included the gay former Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas and the leader of Cardiff council, Rodney Berman who is openly gay.

Mitchells and Butlers spokesman Andrew Roache told the newspaper: “It is our intention to carry out a significant yet sympathetic refurbishment of the building, shifting its focus from a late-night drinking venue to a pub restaurant catering for customers throughout the daytime and evening.

“As the owners of the Kings Cross for many years we recognise the pub’s importance to its existing loyal customer base.

“We are aware that many people have fond memories of the Kings Cross, but it is clear the business is no longer sustainable as a late-night drinking venue.”

Mr Berman, the leader of Cardiff council told the South Wales Echo: “This is a unique venue with a long history in the city centre. have vociferously opposed the loss of this pub have appeared to fall on deaf ears.

“I also suggested that if the company decided they no longer wished to run the venue in its current guise because of a shift in focus to operating food-led businesses, then perhaps they should consider selling the business to someone who would recognise its value.

“I wrote to Mitchells and Butlers to urge them to reflect on the strength of feeling in the LGBT community against the review and asking them to reassure customers. It concerns me greatly that the council has invested in regenerating this area of the city but this decision sends out a message, even inadvertently, that a pub aimed at the gay community appears not to be welcome there.”