Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court overruled the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court on May 7 and un-banned the following day’s Baltic Pride march, which was then targeted by more than 1,000 anti-gay protesters.

The court said European Union law obligates the nation to protect the rights to free expression and assembly.

“Lithuania was the last EU member state whose authorities were trying to prevent LGBTI people from their constitutional right to peaceful assembly,” said ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. “This (is) a triumph of the rule of law and democratic values.”

The May 8 march featured 500 marchers, 800 police officers protecting them, and more than 1,000 anti-gay protesters trying to hurt them.

The anti-gays threw rocks, bottles, fireworks and other items, but failed to breach the police cordon. Police used tear gas to keep the homophobes at bay.

More than a dozen people were detained.

Marchers included several members of the European Parliament, foreign ambassadors, and Swedish Minister for European Affairs Birgitta Ohlsson, who said: “Today we are marching for Europe. ... We would never accept homophobia taking over our streets.”

The lower court had banned the march on May 5 at the request of interim Prosecutor General Raimondas Petrauskas, agreeing with him that the authorities could not protect marchers from radical anti-gay protesters.

“This parade is like a red rag for a bull,” Petrauskas said.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite had expressed shock at that ruling.

“The president is astounded ... that the police claim they are ready to ensure safety, but the acting prosecutor general sees a threat,” her spokesman told Baltic News Service. “The constitution guarantees the right to peaceful assembly.”

The Baltic Pride march was part of five days of events for LGBT people from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

A recent Eurobarometer poll found that 93 percent of Lithuanians say they don’t know anyone gay, and another poll in March found that 73 percent of Lithuanians don’t want gays to hold parades.

Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies voted to legalize same-sex marriage May 4 after 11 hours of debate.

The vote was 125 to 109 with 15 absences and 6 abstentions.

Deputies were allowed to vote their consciences rather than their party’s position–a step usually reserved for particularly controversial matters.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear.

President Cristina Fernández has vowed not to veto the measure if the Senate sends it to her.

Argentina has been experiencing chaos around same-sex marriage since late last year.

Four gay couples and one lesbian couple have been allowed to marry following judicial rulings that applied specifically to each couple. But other judges then annulled four of the five marriages, at the request of hostile parties. Then, one of the four annulled marriages was un-annulled.

The canceled marriages included the groundbreaking Dec. 28, 2009, marriage of Buenos Aires gay activists Alex Freyre and José María Di Bello that took place in the far southern province of Tierra del Fuego.

Should Congress fail to legalize same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court also is looking into tackling the issue.

Iceland’s parliament is expected to legalize same-sex marriage within several weeks.

The relevant bill was submitted by the nation’s justice and human rights minister.

The proposal also would allow religious organizations to perform same-sex marriages.

Iceland already has same-sex registered partnerships that are nearly identical to marriage.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Mexico City, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

Activists in 31 Russian cities took part in the LGBT Day of Silence on April 24 and 25.

The youth-oriented international event targets anti-LGBT discrimination, defamation and violence.

In most Russian localities, activists opted for a “flashmob” approach, since it’s difficult or impossible to get city permission for LGBT events on public property.

Activists appeared and distributed literature in the cities of Abakan, Arkhangelsk, Cheboksary, Chelyabinsk, Cherepovets, Glazov, Ivanovo, Izhevsk, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Kemerovo, Kirov, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novokuznetsk, Oboyan, Omsk, Perm, Petrozavodsk, Pskov, St.

Petersburg, Samara, Severodvinsk, Syktyvkar, Tyumen, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Voronezh, Vyborg and Yekaterinburg.

For the most part, “the reaction of the passersby was calm and even friendly,” said national coordinator Valery Sozaev of the Russian LGBT Network. “People took flyers with interest.”

One exception was in Syktyvkar, a city of 230,000 people located 1,000 km (620 miles) northeast of Moscow.

Local organizers had to change the date of the protest following threats from neo-Nazis, who gathered on the original date at the original location with the intention of stopping the event.

“Our Day of Silence was successful, since we were able to attract 21 new cities,” Sozaev said. “Most importantly, in most of the regions, people took initiative on their own, without waiting for organizations. This is very much in the spirit of the Day of Silence–individual responsibility in the process of building the world without homophobia.”

Assistance by Bill Kelley