Sixty percent of Australians say gay couples should be able to get married, a Galaxy poll has found.

Thirty-six percent of those questioned oppose same-sex marriage and 4 percent lack an opinion on the issue.

The poll also found that 58 percent of respondents think foreign same-sex marriages should be recognized in Australia.

“Clearly, Australians believe marriage is first and foremost about love and commitment, not your partner’s gender,” said Peter Furness, national convener of the group Australian Marriage Equality.

“This poll scuttles the only rationale put forward by the (Prime Minister Kevin) Rudd government for opposing equality, namely that a majority of Australians believe marriage should only be between a man and a woman. It surely increases the pressure on the Labor Party to endorse same-sex marriage at its upcoming national conference.”

A 2004 amendment to Australia’s Marriage Act bans marriage between same-sex couples as well as recognition of overseas same-sex marriages.

On Aug. 1, marriage-equality activists will stage a National Day of Action in several Australian cities.

Lithuania’s parliament, the Seimas, passed a bill June 16 that bans public dissemination of information that “agitates” for homosexuality, bisexuality or polygamy.

The measure applies to schools and to any information that can be viewed by a minor — seemingly threatening Lithuanian gay Web sites and access to foreign gay Web sites, among other information.

The vote was 67-3 with four abstentions. Sixty-seven MPs did not vote.

Amnesty International said the “Law on the Protection of Minors Against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information” classifies “homosexuality alongside issues such as ... the display of a dead or cruelly mutilated body of a person, and information that arouses fear or horror, or encourages self-mutilation or suicide.”

The European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (aka ILGA-Europe) said the law “seriously undermines the right to education and can have detrimental effects to young people who are lesbian, gay or bisexual as they are now officially banned from receiving any information and support.”

“We call on the European institutions to react firmly and without delay,” said ILGA-Europe Co-Chair Martin K.I. Christensen. “This is clearly a discriminatory and dangerous move which is against the principles of the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. ... A member state of the European Union just legitimized exclusion and discrimination against a whole fraction of the society by instituting a second-class citizenship status to young LGB people and ripped them off of any support and protection.”

If signed into law by outgoing President Valdas Adamkus, the measure likely would end up before the European Court of Human Rights, where it probably would be found to violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

Twenty-one people were injured after São Paulo’s 13th Pride parade June 13 when a bomb was detonated in a downtown square that is home to nightclubs frequented by gays and lesbians.

Five of the injured were taken to hospitals. It appeared the bomb, which scattered shrapnel, was tossed from a building.

About 3 million people turned out for the eight-hour pride extravaganza.

The Zagreb (Croatia) Pride Organizational Committee is upset with how the police behaved at the June 13 Pride parade.

“The police violated human and civil rights on multiple occasions, permitted an unconstitutional fascist gathering, permitted hate speech and, therefore, drastically decreased democratic standards of public assembly that have been established in the past years through work and cooperation with the police,” the group said in a statement.

Organizers said that counterprotesters were allowed to illegally chant “Kill, kill faggots” and “Faggots to concentration camps” at Ban Jelacic Square, the center of the city.

The organizers also charged that police took no action against people who spit on and threw things at the marchers.

The committee vowed to take the matter up with “the European Commission, embassies of EU (European Union) countries, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.”

Between 700 and 800 people marched, the committee said, making it “undoubtedly the largest Pride march so far.”

“We have shown and proved, for the eighth year in a row, to the entire society what a peaceful assembly is, by expressing our dignity, courage and pride despite intimidation and the permitting of an undemocratic and unconstitutional gathering on Ban Jelacic Square,” the organization said.

A lesbian couple in Moscow filed suit in Tverskoi District Court on June 16 after they were denied a marriage license.

Irina Fedotova-Fet and Irina Shepitko said they will appeal their case up to the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary.

In the meantime, they will fly to Canada and get married there in August, then return home and demand recognition of the marriage.

Moscow Pride founder Nikolai Alekseev, who is a lawyer and is supporting the case, said Russian law requires recognition of all foreign marriages except in cases such as bigamy and incest. Homosexual unions are not among those prohibited, he said.

“It’s sort of a loophole in the law that really allows us to fight for this,” Alekseev told the Moscow Times.

Assistance: Bill Kelley