Cuba to weigh civil unions for gays: Official

Cuba's National Assembly this year will take up the issue of civil unions for same-sex couples, as part of the Communist government's bid to end discrimination, the president's daughter said on Monday....

AFP • Jan 17, 2012

Gay marriage pressure grows in Australia

Prime Minister Julia Gillard personally opposes same-sex marriage rights, but her centre-left Labor party is being urged to reverse its official ban when it debates policy changes at its party conference this weekend. Calls for a shake-up in national laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman have had some high-level backing from lawmakers including Finance Minister Penny Wong....

AFP • Dec 1, 2011

Chile president offers to legalize gay unions

Chile's conservative president proposed legislation Tuesday to recognize gay civil unions, granting them some of the same rights as married couples in the ultra-Catholic country. "All forms of marriage deserve respect, dignity and the support of the state," said President Sebastian Pinera, who signed the proposal and sent it to Congress....

AFP • Aug 10, 2011

Gay Pride marchers in Paris demand legal reform

The march came in the wake of a vote mid-June by the national assembly that rejected a socialist bid to legalize gay marriage. Although the left voted for the plan, a large proportion of the UMP-New Center majority were opposed. According to a poll of a 1,000 people for the Dimanche Ouest-France newspaper however, 63 percent back the idea, with almost the same proportion (58 percent) backing the...

AFP • Jun 26, 2011

Brazil top court recognizes same-sex civil unions

Brazil's Supreme Court recognized the legal rights of same-sex partners in "stable" civil unions, Chief Justice Cezar Peluso announced. The 10 justices unanimously ruled that partners in a same-sex union had the same legal rights as a man and woman in a marriage. "Those who opt for a homosexual union cannot be treated less than equally as citizens," Justice Camen Lucia said. "No one should be d...

AFP • May 8, 2011

World's first lesbian married couple: the struggle continues

The Netherlands was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage, in 2001. Faasen and Thus, both in traditional, flowing wedding gowns, exchanged the first nuptials alongside three pairs of grooms in Amsterdam on April 1 that year before then mayor Job Cohen. Since then, nearly 15,000 gay and lesbian couples have wed in the Netherlands -- about two percent of the total number of marriages regi...

AFP • Mar 30, 2011

Despite new law, no church 'I do' for Swedish gays

Sweden's parliament in April approved by a wide majority a new marriage law that puts gays on an equal footing with heterosexuals. But the Lutheran Church, which was the state church until 2000, has said that while it supports the new law, its synod will only formally decide in October whether to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies....

AFP • May 1, 2009

Japan allows its citizens same-sex marriage abroad

Japan has given the green light for its nationals to marry same-sex foreign partners in countries where gay marriage is legal, a justice ministry official said Friday. Japan does not allow same-sex marriages at home and has so far also refused to issue a key document required for citizens to wed overseas if the applicant's intended spouse was of the same gender....

AFP • Mar 31, 2009