A constitutional amendment to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation has passed a Venezuelan legislative committee and moved to the full National Assembly.

Should the measure and other proposed changes pass the assembly, they would advance to a national referendum in December.

The same committee also may consider a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage.

Moscow Pride organizers lost an appeal of a slander case against Mayor Yuri Luzhkov on Oct. 11 and now plan to move to the European Court of Human Rights.

Nikolai Baev and Nikolai Alekseev sought a retraction of Luzhkov’s statement that Pride parades are “satanic” and asked for 2,000 rubles ($80) in damages.

On Jan. 29, Luzhkov had said: “Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as satanic. We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future. ...

Some European nations bless single-sex marriages and introduce sexual guides in schools. Such things are a deadly moral poison for children.”

The appeals court, the Moscow City Court, agreed with a lower court that Luzhkov had not attacked Alekseev and Baev personally, but only the Pride parade in general, and also concurred that Luzhkov was expressing a personal opinion.

“We are planning to send a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights,” Alekseev said after the ruling. “It is absolutely clear that the aim of [the] Moscow mayor was not only to refuse the human rights event that we wanted to stage ... but also to show us, as organizers of this event, in [an] unethical and immoral light.”

More than 16,100 same-sex couples registered under the United Kingdom’s marriage-like civil-partnership law in 2006, its first full year of existence, the Office for National Statistics said Oct. 11.

About 4,000 of the ceremonies took place in London. Ninety percent of the unions were in England, 6 percent in Scotland, 3 percent in Wales and 1 percent in Northern Ireland.

The average age of men entering a partnership was 47; for women, it was 44. Sixty percent of the unions were between men.

A civil partnership carries the same rights and obligations as a marriage within the U.K.

The Canadian mayor of Calgary, Alberta, Dave Bronconnier, upset gays Oct. 10 by allegedly saying during a debate that he doesn’t “condone” the gay “lifestyle.”

When a questioner complained that Tourism Calgary promotes the city to gay travelers, Bronconnier responded: “I hear your lifestyle question, and that’s not something I can condone, but Tourism Calgary, they have their marketing. ... Would it have been my choice for an article? Probably not.”

But the next day, Bronconnier said his response had been misunderstood – and that it was the question itself that he didn’t “condone.”

“Her question was why are my tax dollars going to market this,” Bronconnier told the Calgary Herald. “She actually had the ad in her hand. I defended Tourism Calgary’s right to market our city to all groups, including people who are gay, so it’s sort of a trumped-up matter, in my view.”

Some 10,000 GLBT people hit the streets of Taipei Oct. 13 for the city’s fifth Pride parade.

The procession ended at City Hall with a rally and a performance by pop diva A-Mei.

The march’s demands included passage of anti-discrimination and same-sex-partnership legislation.

The parade, which also included parents and children of gays, is believed to be the largest such event in Asia.

Former mayor and current presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou attended the pre-parade kickoff and promised that, if elected, he would push to enact the marchers’ demands.

ILGA, COC denounce Georgia, Azerbaijan

The European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association and the Dutch national gay group COC lectured the nations of Georgia and Azerbaijan on the responsibilities of European Union membership Oct. 16.

“Georgia and Azerbaijan must stop discrimination and incitement to hatred and put in place an inclusive anti-discrimination law in line with Council of Europe and EU standards if they aspire to EU membership,” the groups said in detailed reports on the position of GLBT people in the two South Caucasian countries.

“The reports illustrate the vulnerable position of LGBT communities and the systematic nature of human rights violations against them,” said ILGA-Europe Executive Director Patricia Prendiville. “This situation runs against Georgia and Azerbaijan’s obligations under the European Convention for Human Rights and against European Union laws and values these countries have to respect if they aspire to EU membership in the future.”

COC originally stood for Cultuur en Ontspannings-Centrum (Culture and Leisure Center), but the organization now is known solely by its former initials.

The Istanbul governor’s office is trying to close down the Turkish GLBT rights group Lambda Istanbul.

The office claims the group’s objectives–and even its name–are “against the law and morality.”

The Provincial Associations Directorate of the Governor’s Office, which oversees nongovernmental organizations, says Lambda’s projects violate a Civil Code article that says “no association may be founded for purposes against law and morality,” a constitutional clause that says “[t]he state shall take the necessary measures and establish the necessary organization to ensure the peace and welfare of the family” and a law that authorizes suspension of organizations that contravene “public morality.”

Assistance: Bill Kelley