Britain’s new Sexual Offenses Act, which took effect May 1, treats gays and straights the same when it comes to sex crimes, for the first time.

Two offenses that applied only to men who have sex with men – buggery and gross indecency – no longer exist.

Men who had to register as sex offenders for having sex with teenaged males 16 and older before the age of consent was equalized can apply to be removed from the registry.

Male group sex is no longer illegal.

A new measure criminalizes gay or straight sex that takes place in public toilets, but it is only a “nuisance” crime. Violators will not have to register as sex offenders.

“For years, outdated attitudes enshrined in law have fostered mistrust and made generations of gay men criminals,” Home Office minister Paul Goggins told London’s The Pink Paper. “The government has ended this unjust situation.”

The Vatican’s apostolic nuncio (ambassador) to Spain, Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, said May 3 that same-sex unions should be recognized but same-sex marriage should remain banned.

“There are other forms of cohabitation and it is good that they be recognized,” he said. “They are not the same as marriage. We will leave the term marriage for that which it has always referred to, and other arrangements should be given other names.”

Monteiro also said he supports extending spousal rights, such as social-security payments, to gay couples.

The statements contradict official Catholic positions.

Online hackers stole the membership list of leading Polish gay organization Campaign Against Homophobia, The Gully reported April 19.

The list contained names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses which the thieves quickly posted on the Internet, resulting in a barrage of hate mail to list members.

Some news reports linked the theft to a neo-Nazi skinhead organization, which denied responsibility.

A gay former police employee from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, was turned down for asylum by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board May 3 because he is too butch.

The board said Fernando Enrique Rivera, 30, is not “visibly effeminate” and likely could live unharassed in Mexico City, which the board claimed is more gay friendly than Puerto Vallarta, according to Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper.

“I know some gay refugees who put on lipstick and dressed effeminately for their hearings because they thought it would help their case. But that is not who I am,” Rivera told the paper.

Rivera left Mexico four years ago after local cops repeatedly blackmailed him with threats of being outed, he said. He faces deportation unless a final appeal on humanitarian and compassionate grounds succeeds.

South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, where Durban is located, is marketing itself to gay tourists, following Cape Town and Western Cape province’s successes in that undertaking, Business Day reported May 6.

Tourism KwaZulu-Natal unveiled its new Pink Map during the nation’s main tourism trade show this month.

“In six months the Zulu Kingdom will be an attractive destination to the international gay and lesbian traveler,” said Jayne Darkes, a spokesperson for the new KwaZulu-Natal Gay and Lesbian Tourism Association, which Tourism KwaZulu-Natal helped found.

Ghana’s commissioner for human rights and administrative justice, Anna Bossman, says the government should consider decriminalizing gay sex, GhanaWeb.com reported May 6.

“Engaging in these practices is not currently legal. It may be said that this is a form of discrimination,” she said. “Why would you criminalize actions between two consenting adults?

“The more advanced societies just softened their laws on homosexuality. Our laws are lagging behind.”

However, decriminalization would be a hard sell, she predicted.

“Most people, religious leaders and even judges will probably say ‘no way,’” she said.

The African nation’s criminal code states: “Whoever is guilty of unnatural carnal knowledge – (a) of any person without his consent, is guilty of a first degree felony; or (b) of any person with his consent, or of any animal, is guilty of a misdemeanor.”

Photos of U.S. forces abusing POWs at an Iraqi prison, published May 6, 7 and 8 in the Washington Post and elsewhere, contain homophobic or homoerotic elements.

Naked male prisoners are shown being led on leashes, shackled to bars, shackled to beds, tied up together front-to-back and piled on top of one another.

A photo published in London’s Daily Mirror shows a male soldier urinating on a hooded male detainee’s bare torso and mouth area.

A photo published May 8 on MSNBC’s website shows a naked, hooded male prisoner shoving his penis into the face of a naked, kneeling, hooded male prisoner and holding the man’s head tight against his groin.

MSNBC’s caption reads, “Two hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners made to simulate oral sex inside the Abu Ghraib prison in this undated photo.”

U.S. soldiers also have reported they saw male prisoners forced to kneel naked in front of other naked male prisoners, and a male prisoner standing and masturbating over the open mouth of a kneeling male detainee.

President Bush said May 5 that the photos made him sick to his stomach and “the wrong-doers will be brought to justice.”