Gay weddings begin in Argentina
Same-sex couples began marrying in Argentina on July 30, nine days after President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed the bill legalizing same-sex marriage. It passed the Senate on July 15 by a vote of 33 to 27.
A gay couple in the northern province of Santiago del Estero -- José Luis Navarro and Miguel Ángel Calefato -- were the first to marry, quickly followed by several other couples around the country.
Navarro and Calefato said they will accept the Mexico City government's all-expenses-paid honeymoon offer for the first married Argentine gay couple. Mexico City is the only other place in Latin America where same-sex marriage is legal.
Gay and lesbian couples also can marry in Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C.
The New York Times reported July 27 that more than 3,000 same-sex couples have married in South Africa since it became legal in 2006. The paper said that in half of the marriages, one or both partners were foreigners.
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First pride parade planned in Nepal
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Kathmandu, Nepal, will see its first LGBT pride parade Aug. 25, says Sunil Pant, an openly gay member of Parliament.
The procession will include elephants, a band and street performers, he said. There also will be a festival in Basantapur Durbar Square.
Aug. 25 also is a Hindu and Buddhist festival day, "Gai Jatra," on which some men dress in drag and wear masks.
Although the day is "for remembering those who have died in the past year," Pant said, "there is a great deal of merrymaking connected with it."
"Many of the participants wear outlandish costumes," he said. "Traditionally, a good number of the young Newar men in the procession dress in women's clothing. Given this history, Gai Jatra seemed to be a ready-made occasion for the Blue Diamond Society, the Nepalese sexual- and gender-minority association, to stage Nepal's inaugural pride march."
The parade will start at 2 p.m. on Durbar Marg in front of the former Royal Palace.
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Russian marriage case headed to Euro Court
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A Russian lesbian couple sued in the European Court of Human Rights on July 21 over Russia's refusal to register their Canadian marriage.
Irina Fedotova and Irina Shipitko claim the denial violates the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
"When the European Court gives its decision, it will have a revolutionary impact on Russia's marriage laws," said leading Moscow activist Nikolai Alekseev. "I have no doubt that the Russian authorities will have to pass a law that would recognize same-sex unions, even if they are named differently than marriage. It is inevitable."
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Euro Court dings Austria over insurance discrimination
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The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Austria on July 22 for failure to recognize a same-sex partnership as "family," as required by the European Convention on Human Rights.
In the case P.B. and J.S. v. Austria, the court ruled 5-2 that Austria violated the convention by excluding gays' partners from health and accident insurance coverage.
The exclusion violated the convention's Article 14, which prohibits discrimination, and Article 8, which extends a right to respect for private and family life, the court said.
Austria ended such discrimination in 2007 but the case dated from before that time.
"The relationship of the applicants, a cohabiting same-sex couple living in a stable de facto partnership, falls within the notion of 'family life,' just as the relationship of a different-sex couple in the same situation would," the court said.
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Montenegro passes gay protections
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Montenegro passed a law banning anti-LGBT discrimination July 28, fulfilling a requirement for European Union membership.
The vote was 67-6 with 4 abstentions. Passage came despite opposition from the nation's minister for human and minority rights, Ferhat Dinosha, who said the protections run afoul of the "moral code of society."
"We congratulate Montenegro with this important legislation and are happy to see that all countries in the Western Balkans but ... Macedonia ( have ) introduced comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation providing protection from discrimination on all six grounds, including sexual orientation, required by the EU," said Lilit Poghosyan, policy and programs officer for ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
Gays march in Jerusalem
Jerusalem's eighth LGBT pride parade attracted thousands of marchers July
29 along with anti-gay protesters.
The counterdemonstrators carried banners calling gay people sick.
The parade traveled from Independence Park downtown to the Wohl Rose Park in front of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
Thousands of police officers protected the procession and arrested a few people who tried to disrupt the festivities.
Organizers said the march marked "the end of a year of mourning and the beginning of a year of activism in pursuit of LGBT rights and the eradication of discrimination and hate."
Last Aug. 1, a masked man entered a youth-group meeting in the basement of Bar Noar, an LGBT youth organization in Tel Aviv, and shot to death the group's leader, Nir Katz, and 16-year-old Liz Trobishi. Eleven others were injured, including two teens who were left permanently disabled. The gunman remains at large.
This year's march had a long list of demands, including coverage for gender-modification surgery under basic health insurance, approval for men who have sex with men to donate blood, modification of surrogacy laws, recognition of the parental status of non-biological parents, recognition of foreign same-sex marriages, extension to same-sex couples of the rights given couples in common-law unions, and reform of local policies that prevent official funding of LGBT organizations.
Assistance: Bill Kelley
