World record: 3 million march in São Paulo
Three million people took part in the 11th gay pride parade in São Paulo, Brazil, on June 10, making it easily the world's largest such parade ever.
The president of the São Paulo Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transvestite Parade Association, Nelson Matias Pereira, said the march down Avenida Paulista aimed to confront homophobia, machismo and racism, according to the Agência Brasil wire service.
Marchers included the mayor, the governor and the federal sports and tourism ministers.
The official attendance figure was provided by police. Last year, 2.5 million people turned out.
According to the BBC, 70 other Brazilian cities also have gay pride parades.
The day before the march, about 1 million evangelical Christians staged an anti-gay 'March for Jesus.'
Reports said one participant, Christian pastor André Fabiano, used a public-address system mounted on a truck to chant, 'Vade retro, Satanism! Vade retro, homosexuality!'—a paraphrase of a medieval exorcism formula.
Bucharest pride succeeds with heavy police protection
It took 800 police officers to protect it, and the arrest of 108 counterprotesters, but the June 9 gay pride parade in Bucharest, Romania, was a success.
Officers tear-gassed hundreds of anti-gay protesters who threw rocks, fireworks, garbage, eggs and tomatoes at the 500 marchers. No injuries were reported.
Pride organizers called for anti-discrimination protections and legalization of same-sex partnerships.
'The police did ... very professional work,' said Maxim Anmeghichean, programs director of the European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association.
'The participants were guarded by tall iron police trucks on one side, which, being literally half a meter behind each other, formed a protection fence. Hundreds of policemen stood on the other side of the march, also forming a live fence of protection.'
Since most of last year's attacks on marchers occurred in subway stations after the parade, police cleared the metro stops of neo-Nazis before allowing the marchers to disperse this year.
The parade, organized by the gay group ACCEPT, was part of Gay Fest 2007.
' [ It ] was ... very colorful, empowering and protected with much professionalism,' Anmeghichean said.
Lesbian Japanese politician gets married
Openly lesbian Japanese politician Kanako Otsuji, 32, and her girlfriend, Maki Kimura, 32, got married June 3 in Tokyo.
They wore white dresses and carried roses in the ceremony that was not recognized legally.
A former member of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly, Otsuji is a proportional-representation candidate for the National Diet's House of Councilors, the upper house of parliament. Under the proportional-representation system, the percentage of votes cast for the Democratic Party and Otsuji's spot on the party's list of candidates will determine if she wins election July 22. She would become Japan's first-ever openly gay MP.
'Ten years ago, it would have been impossible for me to stand as the official candidate of a major party,' she told The Scotsman newspaper. 'I want to give all kinds of minorities in Japan a voice to express themselves in the political world ... single mothers, the victims of domestic violence, common-law couples who do not have the same rights as married people—not just gays and lesbians.'
Otsuji came out publicly at Tokyo's 2005 gay pride parade.
'Homosexual people have often kept silent for fear of discrimination and prejudice,' she said at the time. 'By declaring I'm homosexual, I would like to highlight the problems and put an end to a vicious circle of discrimination and prejudice.'
She later published an autobiography called Coming Out: A Journey for Finding Your True Self.
Australia sees 1st adoption by gay couple
Australia saw its first adoption by a same-sex couple June 13 in Perth, local media reported.
No details were provided about the couple or the child, but reports said the birth mother approved of the action.
Recent law changes allow adoption by same-sex couples in the states of Western Australia and Tasmania, as well the Australian Capital Territory.
'The only consideration when it comes to adoption is the best interests of the child,' Western Australia Attorney General Jim McGinty told the Australian Associated Press. 'So long as the child is in a loving, caring relationship I don't think he can ask for much more than that.'
—Assistance: Bill Kelley