Canada’s Supreme Court Feb. 20 postponed its hearings on marriage for gays and lesbians until October.

Marriage for gays and lesbians was legalized by provincial court orders in Ontario and British Columbia last summer, and weddings began taking place immediately. Thousands have occurred.

The federal government said it agreed with the rulings by the provinces’ highest courts and would introduce legislation to open up marriage nationwide. But the feds also sent three procedural questions to the Canadian Supreme Court. Then, in January, the government added a fourth question. That question caused the postponement.

Canada’s Parliament will not consider legislation to legalize Marriage for gays and lesbians in the other provinces and territories until the Supreme Court answers the questions.

In the meantime, gay and lesbian couples from anywhere in the world can still go to Ontario or British Columbia, buy a marriage license and get married the same day.

Several thousand gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual couples descended on a downtown Mexico City plaza Feb. 14 to demand recognition of same-sex unions, Reuters reported.

They hugged, kissed and received symbolic marriage licenses, the wire service said.

Three out of four voters aged 18 to 35 in the Australian state of Western Australia, where Perth is located, support equal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships, a poll has found.

But the Westpoll survey saw support plummet to 43 percent among people aged 36 and older, according to a report in The West Australian newspaper.

Pollster Keith Patterson said older voters probably have had less exposure to gays and lesbians.

“Gay people in older age groups are more likely to have repressed their sexuality than gays in the under-35 age group,” he said. “Older people are therefore less likely to knowingly have friends who are gay, and would be viewing the great gay revolution at somewhat more of a distance than would their younger counterparts.”

The poll also found that political conservatives and people who live in “the bush” are less gay-supportive than liberals and city dwellers.

Ten percent of Irish university students are gay or lesbian and 18 percent have had same-sex sexual experiences, a survey by the Union of Students in Ireland has found.

The organization quizzed 500 students in 15 colleges across the island.

Other findings included: 70 percent of those questioned said Irish society is homophobic, 28 percent said they had experienced homophobic taunts, and 21 percent do not wish to see gay and lesbian couples engage in public displays of affection.

Seventy-nine percent would react positively if their best friend came out of the closet but only 40 percent would have a positive response if their brother or sister came out.

A survey conducted by the Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) found that 10 percent of gays and lesbians have faced violence due to their sexual orientation, the Malta Independent newspaper reported Feb. 15.

And half of the island’s gays reported they had experienced anti-gay harassment.

The attacks were perpetrated by strangers, employers, family members, religious leaders and police officers, the survey found.

In releasing its report, MGRM called for enactment of anti-discrimination, hate-crimes and domestic-partnership laws; a ban on negative depictions of gays and lesbians in schools; anti-homophobia training for police officers; and ratification by the government of European Convention on Human Rights Protocol #12, which provides for a general ban on all discrimination by public authorities.

The group also urged the government to launch efforts to help gays and lesbians come out of the closet and feel less isolated.

On Feb. 19, members of MGRM’s steering committee presented their data to Maltese President Guido de Marco, the Independent reported. The delegation included MGRM Coordinator Sandro Mangion, International Secretary Christian Attard and Administrator Ruth Baldacchino.

Thousands of gays and lesbians staged a kiss-in in Rome’s Piazza Farnese on Valentine’s Day, the BBC reported.

“Italy is one of the very few European Union countries that doesn’t recognize same-sex couples, and this has to change,” said organizer Sergio lo Giudice of the gay and lesbian lobby group Arcigay. “Political parties ... are too afraid of the Vatican.”

The Vatican declared war on marriage for gays and lesbians and civil union and domestic partnership laws last July.

The church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asserted: “There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. Homosexual acts close the sexual act to the gift of life [pregnancy]. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

“When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic law-maker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral.”

The owner of a gay bar in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, was sent to prison for eight years Feb. 18 for running a gay prostitution ring, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Li Ning, 33, was also fined $7,300 by the People’s Court of Qinhuai District.