By Christopher Cappiello

Public and Politicians Protest Moscow Gay Pride Ban

Citizens and fellow mayors of other European cities have joined in loud, vocal opposition to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's recent ban on what would be the Russian city's first gay pride parade.

"I am outraged that anyone in an elected position would even consider such oppressive actions," Jean Lambert, a member of the European Parliament from London, said in a protest in that city according to BBC News. "The mayor of Moscow's decision must be reversed immediately as part of Russia's progress towards a modern and democratic country."

The mayors of London, Berlin and Paris have all urged Luzhkov to reconsider his decision. In addition, protesters took to the streets across the European Union on March 2 to call for action against Luzhkov. Among the cities that saw demonstrations were London, Paris, Vienna, Warsaw, and Stockholm.

"Mayor Luzhkov is giving prejudice a veto over the rights to peaceful expression and assembly," Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "The freedom to speak out and demonstrate publicly is not just a reflection of diversity. It is essential to democracy."

Gay rights activists have been trying to organize a Moscow event for May 27, the anniversary of the 1993 decriminalization of gay sex in Russia. The mayor claimed that concern about potential violent protests convinced him to ban the planned parade, according to the BBC, and that any attempt to hold the event would be "resolutely quashed." A number of Russia's religious leaders have spoken out against a pride event, including Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin, a leading Islamic cleric, who purportedly said, "If they [gays] come out on the streets they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that."

Moscow, a city of nine million people, has a large and active gay population that still faces conservative social views left over from the Soviet era when homosexuality was strictly forbidden. Former Soviet bloc countries have been slow to accept gays and lesbians and last year gay pride marches were banned in the Polish cities of Krakow and Warsaw and the Latvian city of Riga. The European Parliament passed a resolution in January 2006 condemning such prohibitions and their accompanying "incitement to hatred and violence," Human Rights Watch reports.

Quebec Priests Publicly Challenge Vatican on Gays

In a rare expression of dissent from clergy, 19 Roman Catholic priests signed an open letter in a Montreal newspaper questioning the Vatican's stands on gay issues, Canada's CBC News reports.

"What we are saying is that human nature is constantly evolving," said Rev. Claude Lemieux, one of the signatories, to The Associated Press. He went on to explain that the church invokes "natural law" to condemn homosexuality, but that the same arguments were made to support slavery. "We believe this position is closer to that which is shared by our parishioners."

The 980-word letter was published in the Sunday, Feb. 26, edition of La Presse with the title, "Trop, c'est trop!" ("Enough is enough!"). In the letter the priests ask, "Does the church have the last word on the mysteries of political, social, family and sexual life?" The public dissent was a response to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' recent opposition to gay marriage, and the Vatican's November 2005 order for seminaries to reject applicants with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies."

Same-sex marriage became legal across Canada in 2005, after the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia began accepting gay marriages in 2003. The AP estimates that there are 13 million Catholics in Canada (approximately 43 percent of the country's population), and that almost half of them live in the French-speaking province of Quebec.

French Court Gives Gay Partners Parental Rights

Upholding a 2004 decision by an appeals court, France's highest court ruled Feb. 24 that both partners in a same-sex relationship have parental rights, according to The Associated Press.

The ruling came in a case that centered on two women who have been living together for more than 16 years and registered their civil union in December 1999. One of the women had given birth to two daughters through artificial insemination and sought legal channels for extending parental rights to her partner. A local court in their central France city of Angers denied the request, but an appeals court overturned that decision. The Cour de Cassation, the country's highest court, upheld the ruling, saying, "The civil code is not opposed to a mother, as sole holder of the parental authority, delegating all or part of the duties to the woman with whom she lives in a stable and continuous union, as long as the circumstances demand it and as long as the move conforms with the child's best interests," AP reports.

While France offers civil unions to same-sex couples, marriage is only available to heterosexual couples. Some activists see this court ruling as a strong argument in favor of gay marriage.

Two Men Jailed for Gay Sex in Cameroon

After admitting to police that they had engaged in sexual activity together, two men in Cameroon were sentenced to a year in prison, Reuters reports. The two had been held in jail for several months awaiting trial.

Like many of its neighboring countries in Africa, Cameroon outlaws gay sex, with a maximum sentence of five years. Sodomy cases can include forced medical examinations to determine if the defendant has engaged in anal intercourse. By pleading guilty, the two men avoided such humiliating treatment.

Cameroon's tabloid press made headlines in January 2006 by outing more than 50 individuals believed to be homosexual, including Communications Minister Pierre Moukoko

Mbonjo. "Whether it is heterosexual or homosexual, sexual intercourse takes place in an intimate environment between two persons," Mbonjo told representatives of the media, according to the BBC.

The editions listing alleged homosexuals sold out, with one paper having to do two extra print runs, according to Reuters, and many newspaper vendors took to selling photocopies to meet the public's demand.