We wait for a big new star to come along, then two come along at once! Check them both out here.

George Ezra.

For those who don't yet know, George Ezra Barnett is an English singer-songwriter based in Bristol. The buzz started soon after he released two EPs, Did You Hear the Rain? in October 2013 and Cassy O' in March 2014. With the release of his hit single "Budapest" in November 2013, still charting now, the breakthrough was on. June 2014 saw the release of "Wanted on Voyage," the debut studio album.

Then came rave reviews, most agreeing on the charms of the distinctive deep, dark voice, the occasional surprise of the falsettos and the structurally simple songs delivered with enormous brio. His fluid vocals drift around the registers adding a  contemporary feel to a musical mix that has its roots in Bob Dylan and the folkrock havens of Greenwich village.

Ezra is now playing a string of live dates, visiting Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and London. Next on the agenda is a new video in which Sir Ian McKellen will star alongside the singer.

Wanted On Voyage has now spent 16 weeks in the top 10, including a spell number one after several months.

George Ezra, Budapest

Sam Smith

Making an earlier entry to the mainstream music scene was English singer Sam Smith. The 22-year old first grabbed our attention with his soulful arrival on electronic duo Disclosure’s “Latch” in late 2012. His huge hit, Stay with me" confirmed the arrival of a mega-star with a powerful soul voice and a hauntingly passionate upper register.

The later release of his debut album prompted some discusssion of his sexuality. He subsequently revealed that many of the songs on 'In The Lonely Hour' were written about his unrequited love for a man he fell in love with.

"In The Lonely Hour' is about a guy that I fell in love with last year, and he didn't love me back," Sam explained.  "I think I'm over it now, but I was in a very dark place. I kept feeling lonely in the fact that I hadn't felt love before. I've felt the bad things, and what's a more powerful emotion, pain or happiness? [The album] is about a guy and that's what I wanted people to know, I want to be clear that that's what it's about," Sam declared. "I've been treated as normal as anyone in my life, I've had no issues.

Sam admitted that he was initially nervous to open up about his sexuality fearing that the public might not accept his music. His fears proved groundles as four months after releasing In The Lonely Hour it has already shifted over a million copies worldwide and landed straight at number one in the UK and number two in the US.

"I’ve been very open from a very young age about it. The thought of people not being able to hear the music I make scared me, because that’s my dream,” he explained to the Daily Star. “That’s been my dream from a very young age. So it was a risk but I was proved completely wrong."

Sam’s praises have been sung in many places, not least by the goddess that is Beyonce Knowles. Sam seemed pretty cool about the whole thing. “You recognise them more for their talent than fame. I met Beyoncé. She told me my voice was like butter," he says. Can you imagine?

Sam Smith, "Stay with me."

Lustralboy says: "Once you've heard those tracks, there's nothing more we need to say."

"Life is just a bowl of cherries." If only.....

Yes, we know. Life is not a bowl of cherries. Everyday brings a few downs to balance the ups. So, with a beady eye on the wellbeing of our readership, we're launching a caring service, free of charge and no drain on the resources of our legendary National Health Service.

This page will feature a daily photo. Often they are "selfies", their identity usually unknown, sourced from the huge resource which is Planet Internet. Each represents an image that, through its charm, originality or sheer hutzpah cannot fail to raise the spirits of the viewer. Once a week of images has accumulated, we'll start all over again.

The resulting surge in bonhommie, simply from focussing on a succession of bon homies, should sweep the globe and bring an outbreak of warmth and affection unseen since the Summer of Love, 1967.

So here comes the Autumn of Fun 2014. Don't forget to take your daily dose. Today's up is available immediately

Time to pull the cord?

Travellers in Asia will be familiar with the ability of many good-looking boys to confuse our sense of gender.  Even in conservative Japan, the fine line between male and female has been recognised throughout the centuries. Take model and actor, Hikaru, 21, whose good looks, though here clearly masculine, could easily be transformed into a more feminine likeness.

This blurring of the genders has, however, rarely had official endorsement, until an untypical day at Fuji Hokuryo High School in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Male and female students were invited to trade uniforms for what the school labelled "Sex Change Day" (or sekusu chenji dee). The event first made the national news and, minutes later, went viral.

3  boys, 2 girls.

According to one of Japan's largest papers,  Asahi Shimbun, the event day took its name from "sex" and "exchange" (or koukan), though calling it "Gender Change Day" would have been more accurate. Boys wore plaid skirts and ribbons, and girls donned slacks and neckties. The aim was to allow students the freedom to distance themselves from the standardised notions of manliness and femininity.

In Japanese high schools and junior high schools, the male and female students typically have different uniforms. Although they often both wear blazers, other uniform items are based on gender. Some schools have male students wear uniforms called "gakuran," while female students wear sailor suits, drawing an even sharper distinction between boys and girls. On this particular day, however, the distinction went out of the window to, apparently, the general pleasure of all concerned.

Life. A Bowl of Cherries? We doubt it. 

Yes, we know. Life is not a bowl of cherries. Everyday brings a few downs to balance the ups. So, with a beady eye on the wellbeing of our readership, we're launching a caring service, free of charge and no drain on the resources of our legendary National Health Service.

This page will feature a daily photo. Often they are "selfies", their identity usually unknown, sourced from the huge resource which is Planet Internet. Each repesents an image that, through its charm, originality or sheer hutzpah cannot fail to raise the spirits of the viewer. Once a week of images has accumulated, we'll start all over again.

The resulting surge in bonhommie, simply from focussing on a succession of bon homies, should sweep the globe and bring an outbreak of warmth and affection unseen since the Summer of Love, 1967.

So here comes more of the Autumn of Fun 2014. Don't forget to take your daily dose. Today's follows almost immediately.

Let's get serious.

​Good morning, world!

Back to work, then?

Lucky doggie.

A cheery morning smile. Priceless.

It's a lovely day!

Yes, life is full of surprises.​

Agencies

New York: DNA Models

Milan: Why Not Model Management

Los Angeles: Vision LA

Barcelona: Sight Management Studio

Paris: Success Models

London: FM Agency

This fresh-faced Texan made it as an editorial star in 2011, appearing in W, Vogue Hommes International, Interview, i-D, and Vogue Hommes Japan. He pulled two successive campaigns for Topman by Alasdair McLellan for Fall 2013 and , ever since, has been umissable for the big brands like H&M and Armani Exchange since then.

His assets include a pair of big, beatiful eyes, a generous mouth, a rangy stance and the height the catwalks love.

Lustralboy says: Sometimes boy next door, sometimes catwalk monster, sometimes prince without a country, Jacob has the versatility and distiinctiveness that means we'll be seeing a lot more of him for a long time to come. That big smile suggests he knows that too.

Prompted by the news of a gender-bending school activity from Japan, we embarked on a whirlwind global update of the world of what used to be called the "Third Sex".

We recalled a story of a another school, this one in Thailand that, discovering that ten percent of its boys consider themselves transsexuals uncomfortable using the boys' toilets, installed 'Third Sex' amenities. The video puts the case quite convincingly.

More recently, the issue was debated in the UK at Sussex University. The idea got as far as some graphic exploration.

Of course, these stories are micro features of a much bigger issue. The term "third sex", popularised by the eponymous lesbian novel, was a common descriptor for homosexuals and gender nonconformists throughout mmuch of the 20th century. With the Gay Liberation movement of the 1970s and the growing distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity, the term fell into disuse among LGBT communities.

The renewed exploration of gender fostered by queer theory and feminism has prompted some in the contemporary West to describe themselves as a third sex again. Most in use, however, is the term transgender, originally referring to those who change their gender, but now increasingly  used to signify gender subjectivity that is neither male nor female. The Harvard Business School application form has three gender options: male, female, and transgender.

Whatever the terminology used, the concept has a reach that is both ancient and international. Mesopotamian mythology, among the earliest written records of humanity, contains references to types of people who are neither men nor women. Ancient Egyptian pottery shards from the Middle Kingdom (2000–1800 BCE), found near Luxor, list three human genders: tai (male), sut ("sekhet") and hmt (female).

Evidence of third sex categorisation is evident in the South American Olmec, Aztec, Inca and Mayar cultures, often in a ritual context, as confirmed by a sixteenth century Spanish account: "And in each important temple or house of worship, they have a man or two, or more, depending on the idol, who go dressed in women's attire from the time they are children, and speak like them, and in manner, dress, and everything else they imitate women. With them especially the chiefs and headmen have carnal, foul intercourse on feast days and holidays, almost like a religious rite and ceremony."

Unsurprisingly, multiple genders feature too amongst the indigenous cultures of North America, with social gender categories that are collectively known as Two-Spirit. Individual examples include the Winkte of Lakota culture, the ninauposkitzipxpe ("manly-hearted woman") of the North Peigan (Blackfoot) community, and the Zapotec Muxe of Mexico.

Male and female god, Aaryan Kaal Mandapam, Meenashki Amman Temple, India,

Moving up to today, by far the largest current transgender body are the  "Hijra" of India estimated at between 5 and 6 million individuals.

In Pakistan the "Khawaja sara" live in groups small groups headed by a Guru, normally the oldest. The group earns its livelihood by performing and singing at family functions e.g. birthdays, marriages or child births. It is obligatory for hosts to pay khawaja sara, usually in money or grain.

ID card, Nepal.

Transgender options now exist in many places, on New Zealand birth cetificates and passports and on Nepalese id cards,  In 2011, the Australian Passport Office introduced new guidelines for issuing of passports with a new gender, and broadened availability of an X descriptor to all individuals with documented "indeterminate" sex.

Thailand, of course, can claim the highest global visibility through its Kathoey, or Ladyboy, community. Originally poularised throught the notorioius Thai sex trade, Kathoeys are gradually gaining acceptance through entertainment, business, and fashion industries, where the they play significant roles in leadership and management positions.

Brazilian model, Edu Beber

Andrej Pejic, now Andreja.

More publically, the catwalks and editorials of the fashion industry have focussed inceasingly on young, androgynous males to models their designs for women. The star of that community, Andrej Pejic, only recently declared himself now a woman. Check out the related stories below for more fashion related features.

Popular actress and model, Nong Poy, born a boy in 1986.

Whether impacting on school life in conservative Japan, at the Eurovision Song Contest, on the streets of Bangkok or through the fashion media, the transgender community look likely to remain a controversial, high profile group as our societies continue to evolve.

I’m sure you know who François Sagat is. How can you not? The French porn actor is best known for his rugged looks and scalp tattoo. Now, Mr. Sagat turns his signature style into a fashion label, KICKSAGAT!

From socks to shorts, from underwear to swimwear…KICKSAGAT is a well designed sexy menswear collection. And for this Christmas, KICKSAGAT introduces the “Kick’mass Pack”!

In this BIG package, you will get a copy of the 2015 KICKSAGAT calendar (limited edition), a X’Mass Tee, a pair of X’Mass Socks and the classic KICK red brief!

Buy now and give your loved ones the hottest Christmas ever!

SHOP HERE

So here come the Top Ten images that you have most liked for their charm, wit or simple loveability throughout the month of October 2014. They come from either the Adrenaline Corner, Kickstart Your Day, Tattooed Boys, Selfie Heaven and The Lustralboy One-a-Day Spirit Lifter feature pages. Presented in reverse order, here comes  No 10.

No. 10

No. 9

No. 8

No. 7

No. 6

No.5

No.4

No.3

No.2

Congratulations, Number 1.

Looking foward to November? Want to check you didn't miss anything? Then click on the related stories below.

"Life is just a bowl of cherries." If only......

Yes, we know. Life is not a bowl of cherries. Everyday brings a few downs to balance the ups. So, with a beady eye on the wellbeing of our readership, we're launching a caring service, free of charge and no drain on the resources of our legendary National Health Service.

This page will feature a daily photo. Often they are "selfies", their identity usually unknown, sourced from the huge resource which is Planet Internet. Each repesents an image that, through its charm, originality or sheer hutzpah cannot fail to raise the spirits of the viewer. Once a week of images has accumulated, we'll start all over again.

The resulting surge in bonhommie, simply from focussing on a succession of bon homies, should sweep the globe and bring an outbreak of warmth and affection unseen since the Summer of Love, 1967.

So here comes colourful Xmas, 2014. Don't forget to take your daily dose. Today's follows almost at once.

Not yet wide awake.

Yes, let's celebrate!

Our Christmas spirit starts here.

We move into 2015 with a look at a model already well along the path of his modelling career. London boy, Callum Wilson, now 22, first came to light six years ago, quickly acclaimed for his distinctive features and an ability to be as at home in exotica as in streetwear. Follow his progress through this gallery of memorable images, many of which fashionistas will recognise. With recent editorial work for Vogue, Italy and GQ, Russia, plus appearances for Moschino and Alexander Wang, he's clearly not resting on his laurels.

STATS

Agencies

Paris New Madison
Milan Why Not Model Management
London Select Model Management

HEIGHT 184 - 6' 0.5"
CHEST 91 - 36"
WAIST 74 - 29"
HIPS 86 - 34"
SHOE SIZE 42,5 - 10
HAIR COLOR BROWN
EYE COLOR BLUE

Lustralboy says: Callum has that rare edginess that makes for memorable images to linger over. So, guys, happy lingering!

The image of the year. Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony. Marks: only 4 out of 5! See below.

January

The year opened with a review of 2013's heroes and villains. It will come as no surprise that a featured villain has maintained his profile to great effect in 2014. Yes, Bad Vlad, following on from his canny interventions in Syria, his myriad poses in shirtless mode and his popularity-enhancing repression of his domestic gay community, has now wreaked local havoc in the Crimea and Ukraine. Some may feel that he entirely deserves the plumetting oil price and penal sanctions that are wrecking the Russian economy. Others may just worry about quite what extreme ideas he might need to embrace in order to sustain his grasp on Moscow politics while the Russian state crumbles back into anarchy.

Vladimir Putin, updated, and not surrounded by friends at the G20 summit in Brisbane.

February

Spitting blood at Putin's homophobic policies, as we were, the then looming Sochi Winter Olympics seemed to us to offer a potential vehicle for protest about gay rights, not only those of the regime in Russia, but also globally. Events in the first few weeks of 2014, outbreaks of homophobia in Nigeria, Uganda, Rome and the UK simply confirmed how important an opportunity for protest the Sochi games were. In the event, local protests were few. Johnny Wier, former skating champion turned commentator, wore an adrogynous outfit on television and it was left, magnificently, for the Olympic rings to make their own protest and, in so doing, create the image of the year. See above.

Johnny Wier. That blouse!

March

We try to stay as alert to good news as we do to the other sort. So we welcomed the new issue of the American Journal of Public Health that featured a study proving that straight people who hold anti-gay views are more likely to die younger than those who don’t.

Based on a sample of 20,226 respondents between 1988 and 2008, it concluded that those who were not prejudiced against gay people lived on average 2.5 years more than those who were. The research team, led by Mark L Hatzenbuehler of Columbia University wrote: ”Anti-gay prejudice is associated with elevated mortality risk among heterosexuals, over and above multiple established risk factors for mortality.”

The prejudiced: slated for an earlier exit. Hoorah!

April

After many years of determined campaigning in the face of the vitriolic abuse of reactionaries and the religiously misguided, the first same-sex weddings took place across much of the UK. We opted to celebrate this fact, not because of the institution of marriage itself, but because it marked yet another giant stride towards the equality that we have sought for so long.

Same-sex couples would also be able to marry in Scotland by the end of 2014 as Queen Elizabeth II had signed the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill, into law a few weeks earlier. Northern Ireland is now the only remaining UK nation where equal marriage has not been legalised.

But let's not fool ourselves into believing that the fight for equality is anything like won. Even in America, whither goes much of the credit for pioneering the path to equality, the battle still continues on a number of fronts.

News of more gay marriages welcomed in Montreal

May

As the iconically gay Eurovision Song Contest approached, attention turned to Austria who, according to the All-Russian Parent Meeting would be "represented in Eurovision 2014 by the transvestite contestant Conchita Wurst, who leads the lifestyle inapplicable for Russians"

They went on to explain that "The popular international competition that our children will be watching has become a hotbed of sodomy at the initiation of the European liberals."

Sorry, folks, some tides of history are not for turning back. Conchita, deservedly, went on to win by a huge margin.

Conchita Wurst, Eurovision Winner

June

If the fates had given us a heaven-sent (sic) good news story in Conchita, natural disasters laid at the door of those of a gay persuasion threatened to undo our feelgood factor.

Fortunately, we were able to identify a whole gallery of crazies whose aim in life seemed to be blaming gays for everything. Chaplain John McTernan, the founder of Defend and Proclaim the Faith Ministries,, claimed that Hurricane Sandy was specific proof of God's response to the “homosexual agenda.” Clearly devoted to his theme, he had previously made similar allusions about Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Isaac (2012). Hurricane Sandy caused dozens of deaths and billions of dollars in damage, but McTernan used the then-pending hurricane to remind followers that the massive storm was just another bit of evidence that America is en route to destruction.

Sorry John, America was still there last time we looked.

Not our favourite Sandy.

July

The remorseless acceptance of gay marriage in most of the developed world has, unsurprisingly, encouraged more and more gay people to feel safe about emerging from the the closet.

For the younger generations, it seems like a natural evolution but not for Gen X and the baby boomers who, when young, either hid their gayness or were considered freaks, rebels or villains. So it's really not surprising that once they do come out, many face a number of challenges that make it even harder. We reviewed eight of them, accompanied by proposed solutions. And, along with countless millions worldwide, revelled in the touching and hilarious marriage of Modern Family's Mitch and Cam. Now that's what we call a splendid endorsement for an "out" lifestyle.

Mitch, Cam. Happy ever after.

August

In the months that saw the comings out of swimmer Ian Thorpe and footballer Thomas Hitzelberger, the big gay kiss at the Commonwealth Games, activist skater and commentator Johnny Weir in drag at the Sochi Olympics and more cheerful stripping by the Warwick Rowers, the sporting routes to combatting homophobia had become more eclectic than ever. We reflected, however, that crucially,the beautiful game sadly continues to lag so many other sports in yielding up its gay stars. There's still not much sign of change on this particular horizon.

John Barrowman plants a kiss at the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

September

In August, "Going viral on the Internet" didn't have to mean Kim Kardashian's arse. A more productive concept stole all the headlines.

The Ice Bucket Challenge had gone phenonemal, raising funds for good causes like ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Motor-Neuron Disease as well as bringing some moments of comedy to a media-hungry world. The challenge had also reached out to other charities, like the MacMillan cancer charity. Recognising that just a few of our followers might have in them a touch of the exhibitionist, a generous-hearted soul, a superhero or a bit of all three, we offered some helpful input. And identified some of the more rewarding images.

The "Fault in our Stars" actor Ansel Elgort won our favourite before and during pic award.

October

Unusually, we came right back home this month, deeply saddened by the loss of a dear friend, David Harvey. Briefly encapsulated as a "textiles journalist" in the Draper's Record trade magazine, he died on September 2 at his home, the Mill, in Cuxham, Oxfordshire. He was 84 years old.

Why did we choose to share his life with readers of Lustralboy? The reason is simple. A boy born in Croydon in 1930 went on to travel the world, charming his way through the hallowed halls of the fashion industry, the corridors of power in Washington, the inspiring open spaces of Australia and the green lanes of his beloved Oxfordshire countryside. His life could and should be an inspiration to gay folk of all ages, whoever and wherever you are.

Sunrise, the Mill, Cuxham, Oxfordshire

November

On October 13, the world's media, from the BBC to the Economist to the Huffingtonm Post, exploded with enthusiastic headlines "A Giant Leap for Gays, "The Earthquake that shook the Vatican", "The Shift to a Softer Tone" and "A Sea Change." Just a week later, and after Lustralboy revealed a darker tone emanating from Cardinal Burke, the story had changed to "Vatican Waters Down...", "Vatican Backtracks..." and "Gays still Unwelcome".

Not only was this a huge disappointment to gay catholics who had naively believed that their homophobic bishops were about to undergo a Damascean conversion to gay tolerance, it was also a major setback for the more compassionate new Pope, Francis, and a top drawer PR debacle for the Vatican.

Happily, in a subsequent update, we were able to announce that Burke had beeen fired. In subsequent weeks, Pope Francis has laid into the Vatican Curia, describing his conservative cardinals in less than glowing terms. Having never worked in Rome before his election as pope last year, and, as a Vatican outsider from the other end of the world, he is clearly frustrated by the slow-moving Vatican bureaucracy, complaining of "spiritual Alzheimer's" and "the terrorism of gossip". Will he pull off a revolution? In the interests of the world's many gay Catholics, we sincerely hope so.

The Pope sparing no blushes as he criticises the Curia in Rome.

December

In recent months, our feature topics have focussed on the issues faced by gay sportsmen, gay Roman Catholics, young gays coming out and senior gays looking for love. We regularly turn our gaze to the repressive regimes of many African states, as well as that of Russia and those of the Middle East. One topic, however, remained unexplored. It burst into view with the news that Japan, that most conservative of cultures, had witnessed a gender-exploring event at one of its high schools. This fostered both a news item and this feature, an introductory tour of the world of transgender. 

More publically, the catwalks and editorials of the fashion industry have focussed increasingly on young, androgynous males to model their designs for women. The star of that community, Andrej Pejic, only recently declared himself as a woman, Andreja.

Andreja Pejic, supermodel.

January

So as the year comes to an end we look forward to more excitement in 2015, wary, as always, of the dark corners of homophobia still lurking in the world, but inspired by the individual examples of courage that constantly cross our vision and the irresistible signs of progress that must strike ever greater fear into the hearts of the bitter and bigotted. It's not just Kylie and Sir Ian who have something to smile about.

A Warwick Rower fund raiser makes an impact on Sir Ian and Kylie.

Happy New Year, one and all.

So here come the Top Ten images that you have most liked for their charm, wit or simple loveability throughout the month of December 2014. They come from either the Adrenaline Corner, Kickstart Your Day, Tattooed Boys, Selfie Heaven and The Lustralboy One-a-Day Spirit Lifter feature pages. Presented in reverse order, here comes  No 10.

No.10

No. 9

No. 8

No. 7

No. 6

No. 5

No. 4

No. 3

No.2

Hooray! No.1

Looking foward to January? Want to check you didn't miss anything? Then click on the related stories below.

"Life is just a bowl of cherries." If only.....

Yes, we know. Life is not a bowl of cherries. Everyday brings a few downs to balance the ups. So, with a beady eye on the wellbeing of our readership, we're launching a caring service, free of charge and no drain on the resources of our legendary National Health Service.

This page will feature a daily photo. Often they are "selfies", their identity usually unknown, sourced from the huge resource which is Planet Internet. Each represents an image that, through its charm, originality or sheer hutzpah cannot fail to raise the spirits of the viewer. Once a week of images has accumulated, we'll start all over again.

The resulting surge in bonhommie, simply from focussing on a succession of bon homies, should sweep the globe and bring an outbreak of warmth and affection unseen since the Summer of Love, 1967.

So here comes the New Year of Fun 2015.  Don't forget to take your daily dose. Today's is up right now.

A sweet dream?

It's been a busy month for popular British presenter and actor, Stephen Fry.

He officially married his partner, comedian Elliot Spencer, less than two weeks after revealing the couple planned to wed. The 57-year-old-actor and presenter posted a picture on Twitter of him and Spencer, 27, signing their marriage certifcate in a registry office in Dereham, Norfolk. The caption read: “Gosh. @ElliotGSpencer and I go into a room as two people, sign a book and leave as one. Amazing.”

In the photograph, Fry and Spencer wore matching green carnations, a reference to the habit of supporters of the writer Oscar Wilde who was imprisoned for gross indecency due to an affair with the son of the Marquis of Queensberry in 1895. Fry played Oscar in the movie based on the writer's life.

Just a few days later, Fry went on the offensive about the iniquitous section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. Eventually overturned in 1967, the act saw at least 50,000 British men convicted of homosexual acts, persecuted, imprisoned or chemically castrated. Fry and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein will campaign for pardons for those convicted.

The issue has been highlighted since the release of The Imitation Game, the biopic of war-time code-breaker Alan Turing. Prosecuted under the old law in 1952, he committed suicide two years later. The Oscar-nominated film is produced by Weinstein and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing. He was pardoned by the government in 2009 but many  thousands more have not received the same treatment.

Alan Turing

"Should Alan Turing have been pardoned just because he was a genius," Fry asked, "when somewhere between 50 to 70 thousand other men were imprisoned, chemically castrated, had their lives ruined or indeed committed suicide because of the laws under which Turing suffered? There is a general feeling that perhaps if he should be pardoned, then perhaps so should all of those men, whose names were ruined in their lifetime, but who still have families." He continued, "It was a nasty, malicious and horrific law and one that allowed so much blackmail and so much misery and so much distress. Turing stands as a figure symbolic to his own age in the way that Oscar Wilde was, who suffered under a more but similar one."

Lustralboy commented: We wholly endorse Stephen Fry's campaign. With equality for gays now enshrined in law, what possible case can there be for allowing the shadow of those prosecutions to linger over the names of so many unjustly treated gay men?

Yet another Aussie model graces our pages this month. Nathaniel hales from Sydney. He had a decidedly special introduction to the world of modelling when he was scouted riding a horse on the beach. Not many models can claim that! Now explore.

STATS

Agencies
New York: New York Model Management
Paris: Elite Paris
London: Supa Model Management
Sydney: Priscilla's Model Management

H.  BROWN
E.  BLUE
H.  185CM/6'1"
CH.  94CM/37"
W.  79CM/31"
SH.  44 EU/10 US/9.5 UK
SU.  97CM/38"/48 R

QUOTES
Best feature: My eyes I think.
Favourite food: Japanese
Hobbies: Motorsport, gym, shopping, music
Fitness Regime: Lift weights 5 days a week
Guilty Pleasure: Milk and Cookies
Dislike: Parisian pick-pockets
Dream country to visit: Japan. I’ve been three times now and I still adore it.
What was the last thing to make you laugh out loud: Southpark
One word to describe yourself: Inquisitive.

Lustralboy says: Yes, another successful modelling career comes home to Sydney! Go Nathaniel.

Todays question is : where might we find the only shrine on the planet dedicated to the support of gay men in their search for love? Could it be on the streets of San Francisco, in a corner of the liberal Marais quarter of Paris, close to a ruined temple somewhere in Greece, buried under the jungle greenery of Angkor Wat or up a grubby Soi in Bangkok?

Taoist priest Lu Wei-ming at the shrine of the Rabbit God in Taipei, Taiwan.

The answer, surprisingly, is to be found down a narrow alleyway in a bustling district of New Taipei City. Welcome to Wei-ming temple, devoted to a deity who has watched over gays for four centuries. So let us introduce Tu Er Chen, the "Leveret Spirit" or "Rabbit Deity."

According to Zi Bu Yu, a book written in the 17th century, Tu Er Shen was a man called Hu Tianbao, a young soldier, in love with a very handsome imperial inspector of Fujian Province. Hu Tinbao, caught peeping at the inspector through a bathroom wall, confessed to his affections for the other man. The inspector, sadly, had his admirer sentenced to death by beating. One month after Hu Tianbao's death, he returned from the dead in the form of a young hare, or leveret, in the dream of a village elder. The leveret demanded that local men build a temple to him, where they could burn incense in the interest of "affairs of men".

After his dream the elder erected a shrine to Hu Tianbao. He became so popular that, in late Qing times, his cult was targeted by government officials for extermination. Zhu Gui (1731-1807), a Fujian grain tax circuit intendant, attempted, in 1765, to moderate the morality of the people with a "Prohibition of Licentious Cults". The one cult which he found particularly resistant was the cult of Hu Tianbao.

So nowadays, the Wei-ming shrine to the Rabbit God is a house of Taoist worship with a difference: almost all of its congregants are gay.

"In Chinese history, 'rabbit' was a derogatory term for homosexuals," said Lu Wei-ming, who founded the temple in 2006, at a time gays were excluded from most religious ceremonies. Lu, who has taken a vow of celibacy and declined to answer questions about his sexuality, said he wanted to create a welcoming environment for a flock that had long been ostracized. "This was a group with no one to look after them, and I wanted to fill that void," said the 28-year-old priest, adding that Wei-ming is the world's only shrine for homosexuals. Lu added that, although mainstream Taoist society remains in a conservative mindset, the most vocal opposition to Wei-ming temple has come from Christian activists protesting in front of the temple, including one pastor who attempted to perform an exorcism before the altar of the Rabbit God. Not much sign of that Christian tolerance here, then!

As part of his devotions, Lu pours a small cup of rice wine on the smoldering ashes of a devotee's prayers."Rabbit God loves this kind of liquor," he said. Pleasing the deity could lead to a match made in heaven. The nearly 9,000 people who seek Lu's counsel each year have one common goal, namely to find a suitable partner. Gay love was, of course, a common feature of Chinese life, as seen below.

This painting depicts Qing-dynasty scholar and bureaucrat Bi Yuan and his male lover Li Guiguan. Yuan was born in China in 1730. Whilst still a struggling student, Bi Yuan met a successful opera singer Li Guiguan who went on to support the boy financially as he finished school and worked his way up in the government sector. The two men lived as a married couple for many years and were the inspiration for Chen Sen’s 1857 novel "Precious Mirror for Ranking Flowers", the first gay novel in China.

Had Stephen Fry and Elliot Spencer, happily married in England a few weeks back, been lovers in Fujian province in the Qing era, no doubt they would have visited the shrine to Hu Tianbo in Fujian Province. Today a trip to Taiwan is the modern option. Maybe they are on their way there?

So here come the Top Ten images that you have most liked for their charm, wit or simple loveability throughout the month of December 2014. They come from either the Adrenaline Corner, Kickstart Your Day, Undies in Selfies and The Lustralboy One-a-Day Spirit Lifter feature pages. Presented in reverse order, here comes  No 10.

No. 10

No. 9

No. 8

No.7

No. 6

No. 5

No. 4

No. 3

No. 2

No. 1

Looking foward to February? Want to check you didn't miss anything? Then click on the related stories below.

Charlie, now into its fifth year, is the vision of New York based designer Matthew Zink.  The former Design Director for Victoria's Secret Swimwear created Charlie to indulge men and women who desire an elite swimwear experience. Unsuprisingly it's now one of hottest brands of the hour. Just click on those beach hunk photos on Instagram and you will find a huge percentage of those boys wearing Charlie's swimmies.

With the price range between $120 and $300, Charlie by MZ's swimwear collection is definitely not for the cash-strapped. But, reflecting the confidence of their models featured below, there may well be some for whom the proce is worth it!

Here comes the Lustralboy selection of Charlie by MZ's Resort 2015.

For the full Charlie experience, check it all out here; http://www.charliebymz.com/