Toronto

A west-end Toronto school was rewarded for its equality assembly to fight against homophobia with a supportive video appearance by Lady Gaga. Gaga recorded the video after the student council president wrote a letter, asking for a word of support for the assembly. In the clip played to students at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, the pop phenomenon praised the students for being strong advocates for their GLBT community. She told them, "There should be more little monsters like you." MacKinnon says they kept the video a secret from the rest of the students until this morning's event.

Brendan Burke was 21-years old when he was killed in a car crash last February - three months after he came out to his father. Because Brendan's father - Brian Burke - is general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the outing happened publicly. The father-son pair made headlines when it was revealed that Brendan was gay.

CBC News reports that openly gay politician - George Smitherman - is adopting a baby boy.

He and his husband Christopher Peloso's attempt to adopt was approved in principle by the Toronto Children's Aid Society.

"Christopher and I are very proud to share the news," he said in a release.

Richard Florida, considered by some as the guru of urban economic development, was recently welcomed to the University of Toronto's business school.

He's started a $120-million project at the University to research how wealth is created in urban settings.

That's the message behind a new Tourism Toronto campaign marketing the city as one of the world's top destinations for gays and lesbians.

As any marketer knows, gays are "high-value" travellers. Worldwide, the gay travel market is a $55-billion industry.