Adrian Gillan looks back upon some of the key events of 2008 in the gay UK....

• JANUARY - Sir Ian McKellen is made a Companion of Honour in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List. Former Stonewall and Women and Equality Unit chief, Angela Mason, is upgraded from OBE to CBE; and Kylie Minogue gets an OBE.
• FEBRUARY – Minister Kevin Brennan speaks at Schools OUT’s annual conference, which coincides with the start of the 4th LGBT History Month.
• FEBRUARY – Following an employment tribunal, The Bishop of Hereford is ordered to pay more than £47k to gay youth worker John Reaney, whose appointment he blocked in 2006.
• MARCH - Queer clubbing legend, DJ Tallulah, dies, unexpectedly, age 60.
• APRIL - Stonewall’s 10th star-studded Equality Dinner sees actors rub shoulders with ministers at the Dorchester Hotel in London, raising £320k for the gay mega-charity’s campaigning work.
• APRIL - Veteran campaigner Peter Tatchell, ambushes a bus bearing the Olympic torch, as it passes through central London.
• MAY – 81-year old Reverend Ian Paisley, Northern Ireland’s First Minister - once famous for his “Save Ulster from Sodomy” campaign – stands down.
• MAY - The House of Lords passes new protections against incitement to homophobic hatred.
• MAY – Tory Boris Johnson is elected the new Mayor of London; pushing gay Lib Dem candidate Brian Paddick into third place.
• MAY – 58-year old Paul Patrick, Co-Chair of Schools Out and LGBT History Month, dies.
• JUNE - Iris Robinson, wife of the First Minister of Northern Ireland and MP for Strangford, tells BBC radio, "I have met people who have turned around to become heterosexual” - subsequently claiming that gay people are worse than paedophiles.
• JUNE - Thousands of walkers – including celebs Dannii Minogue and Alan Cumming - make the annual 10k Crusaid Walk for Life through central London, aiming to raise £400k.
• JUNE - The British Government initiates an official project requiring its 261 embassies, high commissions and other assorted diplomatic outposts around the world to proactively support and promote LGBT human rights in their respective countries.
• JULY - An estimated 500,000 people throng the streets of the English capital for the annual Pride London celebrations.
• JULY - A tribunal decides in favour of Islington registrar Lillian Ladele, who refused to conduct same-sex civil partnerships on the grounds that it conflicted with her religious beliefs.
• JULY - 51-year old Alan Duncan becomes the first Tory MP, and the first member of either the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet, to enter a civil partnership.
• AUGUST - Former MP, Leo Abse - who helped secure the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in 1967 – dies, aged 91.
• AUGUST - A spokesperson for 45-year old George Michael claims that the veteran gay pop icon is “not going to play any more big arenas" after the climax shows of his 25 Live tour – although he subsequently does!
• SEPTEMBER - 67-year old Christian pop legend Sir Cliff Richard confesses he has shared his life with a former Roman Catholic priest for the past 7 years – and is tired of the speculation.
• SEPTEMBER- Treasury Minister Angela Eagle enters into a civil partnership with her partner-of-eighteen-years - becoming the first lesbian MP to so do.
• OCTOBER - Hitherto gay EU Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, is made a Lord and appointed Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform in a Cabinet reshuffle - having twice previously resigned from former PM Tony Blair’s top table.
• OCTOBER - Little Britain star Matt Lucas becomes the country's first celebrity gay divorcee.
• OCTOBER - The House of Commons passes the new Human Fertilisation & Embryology Bill which, amongst other things, protects the right of lesbian couples to access NHS clinics.
• OCTOBER - Former Mr Gay UK, 36-year old chef Anthony Morley, is sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his former boyfriend in Leeds back in April. Morley cut his victim’s throat, and stabbed him repeatedly, before cooking and eating part of his thigh.
• NOVEMBER - The 3rd Stonewall Awards are hosted by actor Richard Wilson. Winners include Hero of the Year, openly gay US Bishop of New Hampshire, Rt Rev Gene Robinson .
• DECEMBER - A new Equality Bill, is announced in the Queen's Speech, that should place a duty on public bodies to actively promote LGBT equality in all their services.
• DECEMBER - Sometime-icon Boy George is convicted of “false imprisonment” after keeping a 28-year old Norwegian escort he had met on Gaydar, at his London flat, against his will.

Adrian Gillan