Only one Canadian same-sex couple has gotten married in Toronto this year, while 118 American same-sex couples have married there along with 201 same-sex couples from elsewhere in the world.

Same-sex marriages account for 4.3 percent of marriages so far this year.

Ontario legalized same-sex marriage in 2003 and hundreds of Canadian same-sex couples have married in Toronto since then. In 2005, Canada legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Last year, 924 same-sex couples married in Toronto, 107 of them Canadian, 338 American and 479 from other nations.

Opposition lawmakers introduced a same-sex civil-union bill in Costa Rica June 19.

It would grant spousal rights in areas such as inheritance, bereavement leave and medical decisions.

The bill’s sponsors, from the Citizens Action Party and Social Christian Unity Party, said they couldn’t predict whether the measure would pass.

Three pro-gay protesters were arrested June 27 outside the European Commission office in Moscow during a picket by 25 people urging the European Union to revoke Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s right to travel in the 25-country bloc.

The protesters said Luzhkov doesn’t deserve to visit the EU because he has twice banned Moscow’s Pride parade, calling it “satanic.”

Police halted the protest and arrested its apparent leaders even though the activists had a permit for the event. They were charged with “breach of a street demonstration order.”

“The formal reason [for the police action] was the construction which had suddenly appeared in front of European Commission office just a day ago,” said gay activist Nikolai Baev. “The police argued it could not protect demonstrators in this situation. … There was no construction technique, just two holes digged on a huge and enclosed area. Perhaps this ‘construction’ will disappear in few days as suddenly as it appeared.”

The picket had received approval from city officials on June 25. The individuals who requested the permission were not known to the city as gay activists. But the media then reported that the picket was related to Luzhkov’s anti-gay actions. On June 26, the organizers received phone calls from officials saying the picket could not be held due to street construction. On June 27, the authorities announced they could not guarantee the safety of the protesters. On June 28, at the picket itself, police then produced a document banning the event.

“Activists applied [for] this picket as a demonstration which formally was not related to the Moscow gay community,” said Baev. “Among picket organizers was no one who was known by the homophobic authorities as gay or lesbian activist. Therefore the picket was originally approved in such an easy way. But as soon as mass media announced the picket as a demonstration of LGBT people, the Moscow authorities decided to cancel the rally. … This is a very clear example of homophobic discrimination which is practiced by the Luzhkov administration.”

The picketers did manage to deliver a letter to the European Commission office demanding that Luzhkov’s EU visa be revoked. Addressed to EC President José Manuel Barroso, the letter detailed Luzhkov’s “homophobic … violations of freedom of assembly.”

For the past two years, attempts to stage banned Pride events in Moscow have ended in violence and bloodshed. Full stories on the mêlées are at www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=9858.

Newly elected Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri once told a daily newspaper that gay people are sick.

In a 1997 interview with Página/12, Macri was asked if he’d accept gay players on the Boca Juniors soccer team he owns.

He answered: “This situation hasn’t come up. It’s a complicated situation. It’s a sickness. This is not a 100-percent healthy person. … It’s an undesirable deviation.”

The interviewer responded that seeing homosexuality as a sickness is “a bit of an old-fashioned idea.”

And Macri replied: “Would you be happy if your son were homosexual? Please. The world has made us so we join with a woman. Why are we going to join with a man?”

By last month, however, Macri had moderated his stance. Answering a candidate questionnaire from the organization Argentina Homosexual Community, Macri said, “Society as a whole needs public campaigns that discourage and condemn all types of violence and discrimination, and that includes sexual orientation.”

But Macri was otherwise very cautious in answering several specific questions, choosing to speak against discrimination in general and not committing to any other specific actions on behalf of GLBT people.

Istanbul police raided two gay bars June 16, pushing patrons into the streets with threats of using pepper spray and billy clubs.

When the patrons then ignored orders to disperse and instead began clapping, some were clubbed, said the Commission for Monitoring Human Rights of LGBTT Persons and Law, a project of several Turkish gay organizations.

The same officers, from the Beyoglu District, then went “hunting” for gays and transgender people elsewhere and attacked several, the commission claimed.

The commission demanded that the city’s public prosecutor, the mayor, Parliament and the prime minister “investigate, search and monitor the human rights violations against LGBTT persons.”

“We will not be quiet against being prevented from our basic rights of being a human with any arbitrary practices,” the group said.

The bishops of Canada’s Anglican Church voted 21-19 June 24 against giving dioceses the option of allowing priests to bless same-sex marriages.

To be approved, the measure needed majority support in separate votes by three groups at the General Synod meeting in Winnipeg: the bishops, the clergy and the laity. The latter two groups voted in favor of same-sex blessings. The clergy vote was 63-53 and the laity vote 79-59.

Assistance: Bill Kelley