Some 1,000 GLBT people staged a kiss-in at Rome’s famed Colosseum Aug. 2, after police arrested two gay men there on July 27.

Backed by the national gay group Arcigay, the 20-something gay couple maintain they were arrested merely for kissing.

But seven members of Rome’s Carabinieri paramilitary police filed a report claiming one of the men was fellating the other.

The couple was accused of “lewd conduct,” taken to a police station, then released.

A police spokesman said the men had engaged in “an obvious violation of the norms that govern a place visited by thousands of people.”

The Council of Europe’s second annual “All Different, All Equal” rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, was canceled in late July after local media incorrectly reported it was a Pride parade, which provoked outrage in religious and other circles.

Similar pro-diversity rallies have been held since 1995 in many of the Council of Europe’s 47 member nations.

“This was a demonstration targeted at youth for intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, where children could have shown their views on mutual respect and love with their songs, pictures and creativity,” local organizer Paata Gachechiladze told The Messenger, a Georgian English-language newspaper.

The confusion started after the local Alia newspaper ran a story headlined “Pederasts are Getting Ready for a Parade in Tbilisi.” Other media then repeated the story without doing their own research.

Gachechiladze called the Alia report a total fabrication, commenting, “The filthy gossip of one journalist caused such a big mess.”

Italy’s top court for civil and criminal cases, the Supreme Court of Cassation, has ruled that a gay illegal immigrant from Senegal can remain in Italy for now, and ordered a judge to examine the man’s claim that he faces persecution in Senegal based on his sexual orientation.

The court denied a request to overrule a Turin judge who had annulled the man’s deportation order, local media reported July 29.

The new ruling said “homosexuality is a condition of the human being deserving legal protection” and “sexual freedom must be construed as freedom to live without interference and restrictions with reference to sexual preferences.”

At the recommendation of the National Human Rights Commission, prisons in Mexico City have granted gay inmates access to conjugal visits.

The commission welcomed the change in policy, calling it “an important step in terms of nondiscrimination regarding sexual preference.”

A gay prisoner at the Santa Martha Acatitlá facility had filed a complaint with the commission after being denied a sexual visit with his partner.

Eighty percent of Finns have no objection to living next door to gays, people with HIV or immigrants, according to a survey carried out by the Väli-Suomi newspaper.

However, 92 percent do not want to have neighbors who use drugs, 78 oppose living beside an alcoholic, 56 disapprove of criminals as neighbors, and 44 percent reject the notion of an emotionally unstable neighbor.

Costa Rican President Óscar Arias has issued an executive order lifting the nation’s ban on blood donations by gays and bisexuals, InsideCostaRica.com reported July 28.

Activist Alberto Cabezas, who led the drive to lift the ban, said the move makes it clear that Arias sees gays as “humans [who] have the same rights” as others.

Numerous countries ban blood donations by any man who has had sex with another man even once since the time that HIV likely first infected humans in the 1970s.

Some gay groups have argued that this is unfairly discriminatory, pointing out that certain other societal groups at elevated risk for HIV infection are not banned from donating blood, and that donated blood is screened for HIV with methods that can detect HIV infection nearly immediately after it occurs.

French actor Michel Serrault, who played gay nightclub owner Albin Mougeotte in “La Cage aux Folles,” died July 29 of cancer in Honfleur, France. He was 79.

In a statement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Serrault a “monument of the world of theater, cinema and television.”

Serrault, who was straight, appeared in 130 other films and won three César awards, France’s version of Oscars.

Despite losing $5 million in their initial effort last year in Montreal, the World Outgames will be staged a second time in 2009 – July 25-29 in Copenhagen.

“Thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender sports enthusiasts, cultural movers and shakers, activists, their families, friends and supporters will gather in the Danish capitol [sic] for 9 absolutely fabulous days of serious sport, serious culture and totally serious fun,” gushed a press release issued Aug. 1.

Organizers expect 8,000 athletes to compete in 30 sports.

The Outgames were born in 2006 after Gay Games organizers in Montreal and the Federation of Gay Games got into a nasty, prolonged argument over financial planning and other matters. The federation eventually moved the 2006 Gay Games to Chicago, and the Montreal organizers launched the competing Outgames under the auspices of the relatively young Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association.

Assistance: Bill Kelley