About 100 Christian fundamentalist protesters met Rosie O’Donnell’s cruise for gay families and their kids when it docked in Nassau, Bahamas, July 16.

They carried signs reading, “Gay ways are not God’s ways” and “If you are openly gay, stay away.” Police prevented the demonstrators from getting too close to the gay families.

In a statement, the local U.S. embassy defended the right of American gays to visit the Bahamas unmolested.

Buju Banton, one of several Jamaican dancehall-music stars whose lyrics urge listeners to kill gays, will be questioned in connection with a violent attack on several gay men, Britain’s The Guardian reported July 17.

Several witnesses identified Banton as part of a group of armed men who broke into a house in the Jamaican capital of Kingston on June 24 and beat up the occupants while hurling homophobic verbal abuse.

Jamaica is considered to be one of the world’s most overtly antigay nations. The country’s most prominent gay activist, Brian Williamson, was knifed to death in his apartment June 9, in what gay leaders called an antigay hate crime.

Canada may be about to see its first same-sex divorce.

Two Toronto women, identified only as M.M. and J.H., got married on June 18, 2003, eight days after Ontario became the first of the three provinces and one territory that have legalized full marriage for gay couples.

Now they have petitioned the Superior Court of Justice to end their marriage.

But there’s a catch. Same-sex marriage was legalized by court orders in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and the Yukon Territory. But the federal government has not yet opened up the institution in the rest of the country, though it has promised to do so, and that means the Divorce Act also has not been modified to recognize married gay couples.

M.M.’s lawyer has asked the court to rewrite the Divorce Act to remove language that defines “spouse” as “either of a man or woman who are married to each other.”

The federal Justice Department responded that the act is, indeed, unconstitutional as currently written, and said it should be struck down.

Justice Ruth Mesbur will hear the case on Sept. 13.

Canada has its first openly gay federal Cabinet minister.

Prime Minister Paul Martin selected MP Scott Brison of Nova Scotia as minister of public works and government services July 20.

Brison, 36, came out in December 2002 as he sought the federal Tory leadership post. He did not win that position and later jumped to the Liberal Party.

“As one who has never really been in the closet, it doesn’t seem like a big event to come out,” he told the Halifax Daily News at the time. “It’s the first time I ever spoke to media about it, but it certainly wasn’t a secret.

“I didn’t want there to be any misperception out there that I had any fear of dealing with this issue openly and honestly,” he said. “[This] does eliminate the ability for anybody to participate in whisper campaigns.”

Spain’s Roman Catholic Church July 20 urged its followers to fight Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s plan to legalize full same-sex marriage.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Spain’s leading bishops denounced gay marriage as an aberration of nature and an unprecedented affront to traditional values.

“Legal recognition of homosexual unions, and especially placing it on the same level with marriage, would constitute an error and an injustice with very negative consequences for the common good and the future of society,” the bishops stated.

Legislation legalizing gay marriage likely will be introduced in Parliament in September and enacted in January.

A poll released July 22 found that 70 percent of Spaniards support same-sex marriage. Only 11.6 percent of the 2,479 people questioned said they were quite or very opposed.

However, the poll also found that about 20 percent of Spaniards consider homosexuality unnatural and 4 percent think it should be illegal. About one-third said it would be a serious problem if one of their kids was having gay sex.

The poll, conducted by the Center for Sociological Investigations, has a 2 percent error margin.

Full same-sex marriage is allowed in Belgium; the Netherlands; the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec; Canada’s Yukon Territory; and the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Marriagelike partnership laws are on the books in the Australian state of Tasmania, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, and the U.S. states of California, Hawaii, New Jersey and Vermont.

Singapore’s Film Appeals Committee July 22 upheld a ban on the gay-themed Taiwanese film Formula 17 – Taiwan’s top-grossing movie this year.

The teenage romantic comedy encourages homosexuality, the committee said: “[It] creates an illusion of a homosexual utopia, where everyone, including passersby, is homosexual and no ills or problems are reflected. ... It conveys the message that homosexuality is normal, and a natural progression of society.”