Australia

Police in Sydney, Australia have launched an internal investigation into the treatment of a young man at the city's famed gay Mardi Gras on Saturday after witnesses captured footage of him being violently thrown to the ground. [ Read more → ]

SYDNEY, New South Wales, Australia -- An estimated 10,000 revelers marched along side 115 floats on Saturday in the annual gay pride parade that celebrates Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia. [ Read more → ]

SYDNEY, Australia -- A federal court judge in Australia has ruled that the country's ban on same-sex marriage is not gender discrimination since neither gay men nor lesbians are allowed to marry under the legislation, and thus both sexes are treated equally. [ Read more → ]

HOBART, Tasmania, Australia -- A same-sex marriage equality bill that had passed the lower house of the Tasmanian State Parliament was voted down by the upper house after legal experts, particularly a former state chief justice, called into question the federal constitutional legality of the legislation. [ Read more → ]

HOBART, Tasmania, Australia -- After more than four hours of debate on Thursday, Tasmania's House of Assembly passed a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the Australian island state. [ Read more → ]

The Republican National Convention gets down to business today in Tampa, Fla., where delegates are expected to overwhelmingly pass the Republican Party platform that is unequivocally against marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Despite that, could 2012 turn out to be the year of marriage equality? [ Read more → ]

HOBART, Tasmania, Australia -- Tasmania's Premier Lara Giddings, during a speech delivered to the State Labor Party conference Saturday, announced that she would move to legislate same-sex marriage equality by the end of the year. [ 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 → ]

Just hours after the LGBT advocacy group “Truth Wins Out” published an interview in which a senior Salvation Army official in Australia said the belief that gays must die is part of the Salvation Army’s “Christian doctrine,” the organization on Saturday issued an apology to the LGBT community. [ Read more → ]

BRISBANE, Australia -- Conservative lawmakers in the parliament of the Australian state of Queensland have voted to redefine civil partnerships, downgrading them to the lessor class of "registered relationships," and said they also plan to ban same-sex couples from having children through surrogacy. [ Read more → ]

Marriage equality took center stage again on Monday, with progress on both coasts -- in Washington out west, and in the east, New Jersey. [ Read more → ]

Here's the wrap-up for Sunday, February 12, 2012, and a preview on some stories making news on Monday. [ Read more → ]

In terms of the news -- international reporting -- this was the year of same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage (or 'marriage equality' or 'gay marriage') was a leading international concern -- whether in the West or raised as a chimeric threat, particularly in Africa. [ Read more → ]

A new law in Ireland means that New Yorkers now have more rights on the Emerald Isle than they do in their own country. A hospital in Tennessee violates federal guidelines in denying visitation to a lesbian couple. There's a new ad for marriage equality in New Hampshire that epitomizes Yankee thrift. And 20,000 Australian doctors agree: marriage equality is good for your head. [ Read more → ]

Prop 8's finished -- or at least, oral arguments in the appeals court are all done. Now a ruling on California's marriage ban could come at any minute. A couple in Hawaii sues for marriage; Scotland may reform its marriage laws; Australian legislators are moving towards equality but the battle's still far from over. [ Read more → ]

Believed to be the world’s first intersex mayor, Councillor Tony Briffa has been elected in Australia., winning in the City of Hobsons Bay in the suburbs of Melbourne at the end of November. [ Read more → ]

Prop 8's back in court -- but why, exactly? I'll answer all your questions about what's going on this time. Plus, the backstory behind the most effective -- and adorable -- marriage equality video ever made. Prop 8's legal team celebrates a bill in Nigeria that would throw you in prison for over a decade just for witnessing a gay couple getting married. All that, plus robot marriage, and one gay couple looks back on their 50-year romance in a new book. [ Read more → ]

Fiona Simpson, a member of the Queensland Parliament, who is actively seeking a ministerial position in a Liberal National Party government that would entail responsibilities for community services and women's services agencies, is being criticized for a 2002 speech where she said that "people can grow out of the homosexual lifestyle thanks to efforts by “compassionate” support groups" such as Exodus Ministries International. [ Read more → ]

Michael Kirby is a former justice of the High Court of Australia. He is the world’s first openly gay justice of a national supreme court. When he retired, he was Australia’s longest-serving judge. [ Read more → ]

A national opinion poll conducted by the Galaxy research group released earlier this week -- ahead of a rally against same-sex marriage in the Australian capital city Canberra -- finds a majority of Australian Christians support same-sex marriage. [ Read more → ]