A groundbreaking resolution on gay rights was scuttled again this year at the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, March 29 in Geneva.

Sponsored by Brazil, the resolution “expresses deep concern at the occurrence of violations of human rights in the world against persons on the grounds of their sexual orientation” and “calls upon all States to promote and protect the human rights of all persons regardless of their sexual orientation.”

Brazil opted to withdraw the measure before it came up for a vote, saying that Muslim nations and the Vatican had enough clout to defeat it.

At last year’s session, the vote was postponed for a year because of opposition from Muslim, African and Latin American countries, Vatican City, China and India. The United States had been expected to abstain.

“Millions of people across the globe face imprisonment, torture, violence and discrimination because of their sexual orientation,” European Member of Parliament Michael Cashman said following Brazil’s backdown. “It’s depressing when religions can succeed in denying ordinary men and women their universal human rights. Both the Vatican and the conference of Islamic states should hang their heads in shame for having reduced their beliefs to the gutter of bigotry and discrimination.”

A statement released by several gay and gay-friendly non-governmental organizations attending the session expressed “disappointment.”

International Lesbian and Gay Association Co-Secretary General Kursad Kahramanoglu voiced dismay at what he called Vatican and Islamic arm-twisting.

“This unprincipled alliance of the Vatican and Organization of the Islamic Conference in the UN has already twisted the arms of many countries to almost the breaking point in the past,” he said. “The lukewarm support from some of the traditional supporters of LGBT rights has also contributed to the feeling of isolation of the Brazilian government.”

Gay couples in England and Wales will gain a long list of marital rights by registering their relationship if the government’s Civil Partnership Bill, unveiled March 31, becomes law.

Spousal rights and obligations would be extended in areas such as immigration, benefits, pensions, inheritance, property and tenancy rights, parental responsibility, court testimony, hospital visitation and accident compensation.

Some gay activists have denounced the bill, arguing that same-sex couples should have access to ordinary marriage and the additional rights that come with it.

“Lesbian and gay couples are being fobbed off with second-best partnership rights,” said the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association.

“Why are gay couples required to sign a different register to everyone else?” asked GALHA spokesperson Terry Sanderson. “Why is the government inventing a whole new structure of partnership registration when there is a perfectly good one in place already – called marriage? The government makes great play about its efforts to give equality to gay people, yet it has gone to enormous lengths to avoid giving equality.”

Gay couples began getting married in the Canadian province of Quebec April 1. It is the third province to open up ordinary marriage to same-sex couples.

The first pair to tie the knot was Michael Hendricks, 62, and René LeBoeuf, 48, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led the province’s highest court to strike down the ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. They have been together for 31 years.

The ceremony at Montreal’s courthouse ended with several french kisses, reports said.

“Everything changes,” Hendricks told the Canadian Press wire service. “We’re now recognized as a couple – socially and even to ourselves. It’s a commitment that’s unbreakable.”

Same-sex couples, including foreigners, also can get married in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada’s two other most populous provinces. In those provinces, couples can buy a license and marry the same day. Quebec has a 20-day waiting period, though it can be waived if advance arrangements are made with the person who will conduct the marriage.

The federal government has said it supports last summer’s rulings that legalized same-sex marriage in Ontario and British Columbia and will introduce legislation to open up marriage nationwide, but it has yet to act except for sending procedural questions and a brief supporting its position to the Canadian Supreme Court.

The newest question, which was added Feb. 20, had the effect of delaying the Supreme Court’s consideration of the matter until this coming October. No parliamentary action is expected until the court answers the questions.

A committee of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, rejected a measure to recriminalize gay sex April 1.

Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1992 shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Legislators said the proposed ban would have been unconstitutional because the Russian Constitution guarantees the inviolability of private life and private and family secrets, according to a report from the Interfax wire service.

Saudi Arabia lifted its bans on GayMiddleEast.com and 365Gay.com March 30, Reporters Without Borders said.

Responding to an appeal from the group, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Internet Services Unit, Eyas Al-Hajery, said, “After receiving your letter, we carried out a new examination of these sites. Since no pornographic content was found, the ban has been lifted.”

365Gay.com, which allows users to post nude photos, also reportedly has been blocked. The Reporters Without Borders press release did not say if it remains blocked.

Gay sex is punished in Saudi Arabia with imprisonment or flogging.