Canada’s Senate voted 59 to 11 on April 28 to add sexual-orientation coverage to the nation’s hate-crimes laws. The measure had passed the House of Commons last year. It will take effect after the formality of royal assent.

The legislation had been introduced by gay MP Svend Robinson who is on a medical leave after recently confessing that he stole a $50,000 ring from a jewelry show.

“It’s sort of bittersweet that he’s put so much into it and he’s not able to be there at the Senate to see it go through,” said fellow New Democrat MP Libby Davies.

The changes will protect gays and lesbians from incitement of hatred and genocide under the Criminal Code.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced plans April 25 to rewrite federal marriage law to block courts from legalizing same-sex marriage, The Australian reported.

The changes would prevent states and territories from going their own way on marriage and would bar recognition of gay marriages that take place overseas.

The spokesman for the national gay lobby group Equal Rights Network, Rodney Croome, predicted Howard’s efforts would face an uphill battle in Parliament.

“Such radical changes to our marriage laws are likely to be held up for months if not years by committee inquiries, making John Howard’s move nothing but tawdry electioneering to placate the social right before the national poll,” Croome said. “The move is also wrong because it will deprive those Australian same-sex couples who have already been married in Canada of their right to a day in court.”

Three Australian gay couples are suing to force recognition of their Canadian marriages under provisions of the Commonwealth Marriage Act.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Canada has no residency requirements for marriage.

Conservative activists in the Church of England have demanded a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to protest the appointment of gay canon Jeffrey John as dean of St. Albans Cathedral, The Guardian reported April 24.

Last year, John, who lives celibately with his lover, was appointed bishop of Reading by the bishop of Oxford, but was later forced by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the Church of England, to turn down the job following a prolonged outcry from Anglican evangelicals.

Following the new appointment, the conservatives, calling themselves Anglican Mainstream, accused Blair of moving the church “in a more liberal direction.” They have urged their supporters to complain to the Queen, Blair, Williams, the bishop of St. Albans and the media.

St. Albans is about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of London.

Christian activists pressured five Australian companies to stop advertising on “The L Word”, the Sydney Sun-Herald reported April 25.

The Saltshakers organization convinced Just Jeans, DaimlerChrysler, Roche, Allianz and Centrum to pull their ads from the U.S. program, which is broadcast over-the-air on Australia’s Channel Seven. In the U.S., “The L Word” airs on the Showtime pay-cable network.

The Sun-Herald said the Christians are more upset over the show’s depiction of self-insemination with donor sperm than over nudity and lesbian-sex scenes.

“There are a lot of people out there concerned, and companies concerned that their ads may be supporting women self-inseminating and women bringing children into the world who haven’t got fathers,” said Saltshakers head Peter Stokes.

Gay activists denounced the development.

“It’s disappointing that such big companies would respond to a pathetically small group that nobody has ever heard of and be cowed into reacting that way,” Merryn Johns, editor of Lesbians on the Loose magazine, told the paper.

Two male king penguins at the Kelly Tarlton aquarium in Auckland have been lovers for 10 years, the New Zealand Herald reported April 22.

Julio and Fabio have been together since they arrived from San Diego in 1994 – and they are monogamous, despite king penguins’ penchant for sleeping around.

They never so much as flirt with female penguins. “They have eyes only for each other,” said bird curator Rochelle Deane.

Julio and Fabio swim and play together. They trumpet and bow and regurgitate food for each other, like any penguin couple, the report said.

“They don’t actually bonk,” Deane told the paper. “But they’re totally out there.”

A study by Canada’s Justice Department has determined that gays may make better parents than straight people, the CanWest News Service reported April 25.

The study declared that many gay parents have relationships that are more supportive and egalitarian than those of straight people, which has “a positive impact on children.”

It also suggested that gay dads may have superior fathering skills.

“Gay fathers may be more likely than heterosexual fathers to exhibit authoritative parenting practices,” the report says. “In North America an authoritative parenting style that provides children with clear limitations in addition to warmth, affection and support has been found to be associated with positive child adjustment.”