" Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called for any damages paid out from the libel case to be donated to gay charities, claiming Williams ' legal actions had created the impression that it is " bad to be gay.

Tatchell has called for the enforcement of the laws against incitement to violence and murder, and has organised protests outside the concerts of singers whose lyrics he claims urge the killing of ' queers '.

In an interview Tatchell called on the world to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or to take other visible action.

Two years later, Livingstone stated that he " probably shouldn't " have called Tatchell an " Islamophobe ", but defended his actions at the time by saying " in politics you engage with people which you have profound disagreements with ...", giving then-Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov's support of London for the 2012 Olympics as vital to the bid's success in spite of Luzhkov's regular bans of Moscow Pride.

In August 2008 Tatchell wrote about speculative theories concerning possible atmospheric oxygen depletion compared to prehistoric levels, and called for further investigation to test such claims and, if proven, their long-term consequences.

spokesman Peter Tatchell, called for a boycott of the bus and rail group.

The British activist Peter Tatchell says " The lesbian and gay community has a right to defend itself against public figures who abuse their power and influence to support policies which inflict suffering on homosexuals.

In November 1999, as Africa minister he entertained Robert Mugabe in London who told him “ I know you are not one of them, Peter ; you are one of us ,” But the following day, following an attempt by Gay Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell to carry out a ' citizen's arrest ' on Mugabe, Mugabe accused Hain of being Tatchell's " wife ".

However, in December 2009 Tatchell announced he was standing down from the post due to brain damage he says was sustained from injuries by President Mugabe's bodyguards when Tatchell was trying to arrest him for the second time, and by neo-Nazis in Moscow while campaigning for gay rights, as well as from an accident on a bus.

Original UK Gay Liberation Front activists, including Bette Bourne ( on the left ), at LSE 40th anniversary celebration, Tatchell is fourth from the left.

However, the Bermondsey Labour Party continued strongly to support him, and Tatchell worked on convincing Foot that his article was in the tradition of the Chartists and the Suffragettes, and had been misinterpreted by Labour's political opponents.

During the campaign, allegations were made that some Liberal canvassers stirred up xenophobia and homophobia on the doorsteps, playing up the fact that Tatchell was a foreigner born in Australia, and making an issue of his homosexuality.

Then, on 16 December 2009, Tatchell announced that he was withdrawing as the Green party candidate due to brain damage incurred on three occasions ( when assaulted while protesting in Brussels in 2001, when assaulted while protesting in Moscow in 2007, and in an accident on a bus in July 2009 ).

" Writing in the New Statesman, Tatchell reported that on 12 March 2003 he ambushed Tony Blair's motorcade in an anti-Iraq war protest.

In May 2007, Tatchell went to Moscow to support Moscow Pride and to voice his opposition to a city-wide ban on the planned gay pride march.

Following the murder of actor Michael Boothe on 10 May 1990, Tatchell was one of thirty people to attend the inaugural meeting of the radical gay rights non-violent direct action group OutRage!

On 5 March 2001 Tatchell, believing Mugabe was about to visit Brussels, went to the lobby of the Brussels Hilton and attempted a second citizen's arrest on 5 March.

Later on that day, Tatchell was briefly knocked unconscious by Mugabe's bodyguards and was left with permanent damage to his right eye.

Tatchell subsequently failed in his attempt to bring a legal case against Mugabe in Bow Street Magistrates ' Court, trying to secure an international arrest warrant against the Zimbabwean dictator on charges of torture.

Tatchell is critical of Muslim fundamentalism, and first wrote on the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Britain in 1995.

Tatchell has described Sharia law as " a clerical form of fascism " on the grounds that it opposes democracy and human rights, especially for women and gay people.

Tatchell chose Malcolm X as his specialist subject when appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, explaining that he considered him an inspiration and hero ( his other inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King ).

Tatchell had expected " thousands " to attend the event, which was held on 25 March 2006, but police estimated only 250 people attended.

In February 2010, Women Against Fundamentalism defended Tatchell against allegations of Islamophobia and endorsed his right to challenge all religious fundamentalism: " WAF supports the right of Peter Tatchell and numerous other gay activists to oppose the legitimisation of fundamentalists and other right wing forces on university campuses, by the Left and by the government in its Preventing Violent Extremism strategy and numerous other programmes and platforms ".

Ken Livingstone's invitation of Yusuf al-Qaradawi to address a conference on the wearing of the hijab led to a four year rift between Livingstone and Tatchell, who described Qaradawi as " rightwing, misogynist, anti-semitic and homophobic " and as someone who claimed to have liberal positions in order to deceive Western politicians.

The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe, which overwhelmingly come from right-wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamaphobic campaign.

Tatchell denounced a " naked appeal to homophobia and xenophobia " echoing " the racist, xenophobic language of the BNP ", and Yosef apologised, claiming the " slap in the face " remark was a " figure of speech ".

Writing for Desi Xpress, Yosef accused Tatchell of Islamophobia but was attacked by gay organisations for " encouraging violence against Tatchell " and for using " xenophobic " and " homophobic " language.

* In January 2006, the newspaper published a column by Yosef which was seen as an attack on Mr Tatchell himself.

Tatchell was selected as Labour Party Parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey in 1981, and was then denounced by party leader Michael Foot for supporting extra-parliamentary action against the Thatcher government.

After revelation about Hughes ' long rumoured sexuality, which came four days after Mark Oaten resigned from the Liberal Democrat front bench and gave up on the leadership race, Peter Tatchell confirmed his view that, despite the 1983 Bermondsey incidents: " I hope Simon is elected as party leader because of all the contenders he is the most progressive on human rights, social justice and environmental issues.

Goodwin's own constituency party in Bermondsey had been taken over by the left, including Peter Tatchell who was soon to be selected to succeed Robert Mellish as the MP.

A magazine article he had written about direct action was used by a Social Democrat MP to embarrass Labour Party leader Michael Foot who impetuously denounced Tatchell and stated that he would not be endorsed, but the party was forced to accept him when Mellish resigned from the House of Commons, triggering a by-election widely regarded as one of the dirtiest in history.

Tatchell came in for immense local and national vilification and in a shock result the Liberal candidate Simon Hughes established that his party had the best chance of the other candidates, and monopolised the anti-Tatchell vote.

Tatchell was a leading member of the left-wing faction that had taken control of the local party the previous year.

Mugabe responded by describing Tatchell and his OutRage!

" Tatchell responded saying Livingstone's remarks are " dishonest, despicable nonsense ", adding " The Grand Mufti was not singled out ", he further said the Mayor had brought his " office into disrepute " and " has revealed himself to be a person without principles, honesty or integrity.

Peter Gary Tatchell ( born 25 January 1952 ) is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements.

Members of the Liberal Gay Action Group campaigned wearing lapel badges emblazoned with the words, " I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell " as a protest against the perception that he was attempting to hide his sexuality ( see Bermondsey by-election, 1983 ).

In the mid-and late-1980s, Tatchell worked as an author, writing books including The Battle for Bermondsey ( the story of the by-election ), Democratic Defence and a ground-breaking guide to surviving with HIV and AIDS, AIDS: A Guide to Survival.

The group took the name ' FROCS ' ( Faggots Rooting Out Closeted Sexuality ) and Tatchell was the group's go-between with the press, forwarding their news statements to his media contacts.

protest, which disrupted the Easter sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, with Tatchell mounting the pulpit to denounce what he claimed was Carey's opposition to legal equality for lesbian and gay people.

in African issues, which led Tatchell to respond in the comments sections with the argument that he favoured working with the radical LGBTI groups in Africa rather than the more conservative leaders who had signed the statement.

Tatchell also pointed out that the African statement contained no concrete evidence to confirm the allegations made by African activists, that many African activists had refused to sign it and that many African activists continue to work with him.

Tatchell has since reiterated that he does not condone adults having sex with children.

The civic action support group Sokwanele urged Tatchell to check his sources with the group, speculating that it may be an invention of supporters of the Zimbabwe government in order to justify violent action against its opponents.

Tatchell defended himself by noting that the campaign was at the behest of the Jamaican gay rights group J-Flag, and the UK-based Black Gay Mens Advisory Group, with which he works closely.

" Tatchell denies equating Sizzla with Hitler.

presence was greeted with hostility by some other demonstrators, and Tatchell claims they accused him of being a Mossad agent sent to disrupt the march, of being a racist or a Zionist, a supporter of Ariel Sharon, or an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency or MI5.

On 15 September 2010, Tatchell, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter, published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.

The dispute became bitter with Tatchell leading a demonstration against Qaradawi and with Livingstone claiming that Tatchell has " a long history of Islamophobia ", and had " constructed a fantasy world in which the main threat we face, worse than the far right, is Islamic fundamentalist hordes ... him into a de facto alliance with the American neo-cons and Israeli intelligence services who want to present themselves as defending western " civilisation " against more " backward " civilisations in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Following the vote by the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, in 2007 in favour of bills to ban lesbian and gay pride parades in Jerusalem, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism criticised Tatchell saying " Peter Tatchell and others who have distinguished themselves by the speed of their quite proper defence of lesbian and gay rights when these have been attacked by Black, Arab, Muslim forces or regimes have still refused to condemn with equal force the official attacks on lesbian and gay rights by the highest institutions of the State of Israel.