World News

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand -- An anti-marriage equality website scheduled to be launched in New Zealand on Tuesday by same-sex marriage opponents Family First, crashed in a matter of hours as a result of a "large-scale denial of service attack." [ Read more → ]

Vietnam's Communist government is considering whether to legalize same-sex marriage, positioning the country to be the first in Asia to support marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples. [ Read more → ]

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- The Scottish government on Wednesday announced plans to advance legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage, despite opposition by two-thirds of citizens responding to an official government consultation which produced a record 77,508 responses. [ Read more → ]

BOSTON, Lincolnshire, U.K. -- A 16-year-old British transgender girl was told that she couldn't take her GCSE exam (equivalent to high school finals) and was sent home by teachers to change into the boys’ school uniform. [ Read more → ]

SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- Conservative U.S. Christian "family values" and religious organizations are setting up fronts in Africa to fight for anti-gay and anti-abortion legislation to promote their fundamentalist convictions, according to a report released Tuesday by the progressive think tank "Political Research Associates." [ Read more → ]

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- A British Columbia Human Rights tribunal has ordered the owners of a now-closed Bed and Breakfast to pay $4,500 in damages and expenses to a same-sex couple for refusing them accommodations because they are gay. [ Read more → ]

LONDON -- The Russian embassy in London has issued a warning to parents who send their children to summer schools in the United Kingdom, saying alleging that their children may be placed in "inappropriate housing conditions," including with "families of homosexuals." [ Read more → ]

Should Heather be allowed to marry Maria, or should John and Tom be allowed to tie the knot? Of course, because same-sex marriage doesn’t harm anyone but brings joy to two people. Unfortunately, Germany – a supposedly progressive country – hasn’t evolved beyond the level of seedy beer hall discussions. We have not yet freed ourselves from old prejudices... [ Read more → ]

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Chilean president Sebastian Pinera on Thursday signed an anti-discrimination measure into law that makes it a crime to commit acts of hatred against persons because of their sexual orientation. [ Read more → ]

ROME, Italy -- An official of the Italian Carabinieri -- the national police of Italy -- on Wednesday issued a public apology and after being forced to change a training manual that listed homosexuality as a "sexual deviance" in the same category as bestiality, incest and necrophilia. [ Read more → ]

SARATOV, Russia -- A Russian Orthodox religious community in the southern Russia city of Saratov has issued an ultimatum to social media giant Facebook, demanding that the company stop “flirting with sodomites” and immediately remove all content "promoting homosexuality." [ Read more → ]

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland and the most senior Catholic in the United Kingdom has declared “war on gay marriage” pledging to spend another £100,000 in its campaign against equal marriage rights for same-sex couples in Scotland. [ Read more → ]

LONDON -- New research by the University of Cambridge for British gay rights charity Stonewall UK's School Report 2012 found that 55 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils in Britain’s secondary schools experience homophobic bullying. [ Read more → ]

RABAT, Morocco -- A Holland America cruise ship carrying more than 2,000 gay travelers was turned away from a scheduled port of call stop to Casablanca, Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. [ Read more → ]

MEXICO CITY -- Armando Montano, an openly gay apprentice journalist working as a summer intern for the Associated Press in Mexico City, was found dead early Saturday. He was 22 years old. [ Read more → ]

KAMPALA, Uganda -- A Ugandan judge this week said that the country's security and interior ministries should “infiltrate” gay rights groups to ascertain if children are being “recruited into homosexuality.” [ Read more → ]

A suspect has been arrested in the brutal murder of Thapelo Makuthle in Kuruman, near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa. [ Read more → ]

BERLIN -- Gad Beck, a pioneering gay rights activist and educator in a severely anti-homosexual, repressive post-World War II German culture, has died, just six days before his 89th birthday. Beck was believed to be the last known gay Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. [ Read more → ]

ATHENS -- Dozens of protesters on Saturday interrupted a Pride event in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, hurling eggs and plastic bottles of water at event participants. [ Read more → ]

There are so many groups throughout the world of people who just happily, or nearly so, manage to survive day to day. They might be religious, have no belief except in any crises of their existence, or no desire to believe beyond their own personal intimacy with the deity of their choice. Then there are those who want their religious choice to be everyone’s. Even more threatening and annoying are those who think they must be the deliverer of salvation to the rest of humanity... [ Read more → ]