Mexico City’s law legalizing same-sex marriage took effect March 4 and hundreds of gay and lesbian couples applied for marriage licenses at civil-registry offices.

The first weddings are expected around March 12 when the couples’ documents have been processed.

The law, which passed the Legislative Assembly in a 39-20 vote on Dec. 21, redefined marriage as “the free uniting of two people.” It also legalized adoption by same-sex couples.

By law, marriages entered into in Mexico City must be recognized elsewhere in the nation.

On March 14, a mass gay wedding is planned in the city’s Cuauhtémoc district. Local officials said some 300 couples will tie the knot.

The European Court of Human Rights held its first-ever hearing in a same-sex marriage case Feb. 25.

The hearing considered the admissibility and merits of a case from Austria, Schalk and Kopf v. Austria. A decision on those points will be forthcoming.

The court granted permission to Prof. Robert Wintemute to make oral submissions on behalf of four intervening parties: the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association; the Advice on Individual Rights in Europe Center; the International Commission of Jurists; and the Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme.

Horst Michael Schalk and Johann Franz Kopf are a gay couple in Vienna.

They were denied a marriage license in 2002 by the Vienna Municipal Office, which said people of the same sex can’t marry.

The couple appealed to Vienna’s regional governor and then the Constitutional Court, losing both times.

Their European case argues that in refusing them a marriage license, Austria violated articles of the European Convention on Human Rights that guarantee the rights to marry, protect one’s property and not be discriminated against based on sexual orientation.

The sometimes notoriously slow ECHR has been sitting on the case for more than five years.

Lithuania’s “Law on the Protection of Minors Against the Detrimental Effects of Public Information” took effect March 1.

It bans information that promotes sexual relationships, “denigrates family values” or encourages a nonheterosexual concept of marriage and family.

Such information is prohibited when it could be accessed by a minor, such as in magazines and libraries and on the Internet.

Earlier versions of the bill specifically banned “information which agitates for homosexual, bisexual and polygamous relations.”

“The latest version of the law is marginally better than earlier drafts

(but) the European Union will not let a member state restrict its citizens’ fundamental rights,” said Michael Cashman, co-president of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights. “Lithuanian people, including young people, are the victims of parliamentarians’ outdated fears. What they need is access to information on the society and family of the 21st century.”

Amnesty International’s John Dalhuisen said the new law violates “freedom of expression and will directly discriminate against people on account of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

“It will stigmatize gay and lesbian people and exposes advocates for their rights to the risk of censorship and financial penalties,” he said. “This law is an anachronism in the European Union.”

Half a million people signed a petition that was delivered to Ugandan Parliament Speaker Edward Ssekandi on March 1 opposing the pending bill that would jail gays for life and punish some with the death penalty.

The petition campaign was spearheaded by an HIV-positive Anglican priest, Canon Gideon Byamugisha, along with other religious leaders and HIV activists, including former Anglican Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo.

“In the interests of safer, healthier, more peaceful, and more prosperous lives for all Ugandans; we as Aids Service Providers, pastors and spiritual mentors of all Ugandans are calling for the withdrawal of this Bill from Parliament,” the petition read in part. “We are united in opposing this Bill because if passed into law it threatens the health, peace and well being of Ugandan citizens and goes against the Ugandan Constitution.”

The “Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009” would imprison for life anyone convicted of “the offense of homosexuality,” punish “aggravated homosexuality”—including repeat offenders and anyone who is HIV-positive and has gay sex—with the death penalty, forbid “promotion of homosexuality” and incarcerate gay-rights defenders, and jail individuals in positions of authority for up to three years if they fail to report within 24 hours the existence of all LGBT people or sympathizers known to them.

England’s Pink Triangle Trust, a gay humanist group, denounced the House of Commons on Feb. 24 for passing an amendment to the Children, Schools and Families Bill that would allow sex education to be taught in a way that “reflects” a school’s “religious character.”

“This bill ... will shift the focus of the law as it applies to faith schools away from the needs of children, towards the religious prejudices of the school,” said PTT Secretary George Broadhead.

A recent study by the gay lobby group Stonewall found higher levels of anti-gay bullying in religious schools, Broadhead noted.

“How is this going to be tackled if such schools are permitted to teach pupils that gay sexual relationships are sinful?” he asked.

India’s Aligarh Muslim University is in the city of Aligarh, not Lucknow, as incorrectly stated last week.

Assistance: Bill Kelley