Large anti-gay
rally in Madrid
Tens of thousands of Catholics rallied in Madrid's Plaza de Colón Dec. 30 in support of the 'traditional' family and against same-sex marriage and easier divorce.
Cardinal Antonio Cañizares conducted a mass at the gathering and Pope Benedict XVI addressed the ralliers via video link.
Cañizares said the liberal policies of Prime Minister José María Rodríguez Zapatero threaten the very existence of society.
The pope said the family is 'based on the unbreakable union of man and woman.'
Spain legalized same-sex marriage in 2005.
Organizers pegged the rally's turnout at 1.5 million.
'These atheist, irreligious governments want to make us believe that our life has no meaning,' one of the organizers, Kiko Argüello, told Reuters.
Spain holds a general election March 9. In recent polling, Zapatero's Socialist party held a 2 percent lead over the conservative Popular Party.
In response to the rally, Zapatero said his policies are supported by the 'vast majority' of Spaniards and that the Roman Catholic Church should stop attempting to curtail citizens' constitutional rights.
McKellen becomes
Companion of Honour
Openly gay actor Sir Ian McKellen was made a member of the prestigious Order of Companions of Honour in Queen Elizabeth II's New Year honors.
The order, founded by George V, has only 65 members.
McKellen, who has been a knight since 1990, was honored 'for services to Drama and to Equality,' and now can place the initials 'C.H.' after his name.
'I am honored to join an order which includes such distinguished practitioners in the arts,' McKellen, 68, said. 'It is particularly pleasing that 'equality' is included in my citation.'
Other members of the order include Sir John Major, Dame Judi Dench, Sir David Attenborough and Prof. Stephen Hawking.
Canadian bill
would protect
transgender people
Canadian Member of Parliament Bill Siksay has introduced a bill to ban inciting hatred or advocating genocide against transgender people, the Vancouver gay newspaper Xtra! West reported.
Gays have had such protections since 2004.
The bill would add 'gender identity' to the list of distinguishable group traits in the Criminal Code.
The measure also gives judges leeway to impose harsher sentences for crimes motivated by 'bias, prejudice or hate' based on gender identity.
Siksay, who is gay and represents a Vancouver-area district, said Canadian 'transgender and transsexual people are regularly victims of abuse, harassment and physical violence.'
Only one of Canada's 13 provinces and territories—the Northwest Territories—explicitly prohibits anti-trans discrimination.
Cuban lesbians marry
in government
agency courtyard
Two Havana lesbians were symbolically married Dec. 23 in the courtyard of the state National Center for Sex Education ( CENESEX ) , Inter Press Service reported.
Mónica, 19, and Elizabeth, 28, tied the knot before 60 friends and supporters in the first-ever same-sex union to receive support from a government agency.
The ceremony was filmed by students from the Cuban Higher Institute of Art.
'We are trying to raise awareness of this issue based on that which makes us most human, our feelings—in this case love,' the director of the film, Hanny Marín, told IPS.
CENESEX is pushing legislation to create legal same-sex civil unions, and the measure could see parliamentary action this year. The agency and the Federation of Cuban Women submitted the bill to the Political Bureau of the Communist Party Central Committee in June.
IPS said the Communist Party has instructed CENESEX to 'prepare' the public for gay civil unions via a media campaign, but agency director Mariela Castro Espín, daughter of acting President Raúl Castro, has acknowledged that the bill faces 'a great deal of resistance.'
It would extend spousal rights in areas such as inheritance, housing and adoption.
The Roman Catholic vicar general of Havana, Monsignor Carlos Manuel de Céspedes García-Menocal, supports 'stable same-sex relationships' being 'protected by civil laws,' he said in the July/August 2007 issue of the archdiocese's magazine.
'Contemporary Western society is no longer the same as that which arrived at present clarifications concerning marriage,' Céspedes wrote.
Although the church 'is not going to renounce criteria established by revelation and set by tradition,' he said, 'neither can it ignore contemporary personal and family reality.'
Bulgarians don't
like gays
Eighty percent of Bulgarians have a negative or extremely negative attitude toward gays, according to a Skala poll published Dec. 20.
Seventy percent would prevent their child from attending a school with an openly gay teacher, half don't want to work with a known homosexual and only 17 percent said they feel they could communicate freely with a gay person.
About half also said they could not accept it if one of their children were gay.
The study found that negative attitudes are strongest toward cross-dressers and weakest toward lesbians.
Spain investigates
minister's gay-cure program
The government of Spain's Galicia region is investigating Protestant minister Marcos Zapata for running a seminar called 'How to Raise Heterosexual Children,' Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Dec. 28.
The paper said that at one recent event, Zapata called homosexuality an illness that can be cured via family therapy, said he promotes masculinity in his own family by making his sons watch professional wrestling, and urged attendees to 'hug your sons as much as you can, because if you don't, perhaps another man will.'
A government spokesman suggested it is illegal to proselytize minors with 'homophobic attitudes.'
The head of the National Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals, Toni Poveda, said his group also will pursue legal action against Zapata.
'After so many legal victories in this country ... we have to deal with fundamentalist groups which take us back to the Franco dictatorship,' Poveda told The Guardian. 'We are going to try to stop this from happening. Sexual orientation is innate and there's no way to change it.'
Bolivia to protect
gays in constitution
Bolivia is set to become the sixth nation to ban anti-gay discrimination in its constitution.
Article 14 of the finalized text of the planned new constitution states: 'The State prohibits and punishes any form of discrimination based on sex, color, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, origin, culture, nationality, citizenship, language, religious creed, ideology, political affiliation or philosophical beliefs, marital status, economic or social status, type of occupation, level of education, disability, pregnancy, or other factors that have the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of the rights of everyone.'
Once ratified, the constitution will become the first in the world to protect transgender people.
The other nations that protect gays constitutionally are Canada, Ecuador, Fiji, South Africa and Switzerland. Sweden's constitution, in a section on press freedom, prohibits agitation and threats against gay people as a group.
Nepal Supreme
Court mandates
gay protections
Nepal's Supreme Court on Dec. 21 ordered the government to pass new laws and rewrite old ones to extend equal rights and anti-discrimination protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and intersex people.
The ruling came in a public-interest case filed by four gay organizations.
Current Nepalese law prohibits 'unnatural' sex under penalty of up to two years in prison.
'Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex are natural persons irrespective of their masculine and feminine gender and they have the right to exercise their rights and live an independent life in society,' the court said.
The court also ordered the government to form a committee to study same-sex marriage in other nations with a view to changing Nepalese law in that area, as well.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
