In the wake of Canada’s legalization of gay marriage, the United Kingdom is planning to create civil partnerships for same-sex couples that will give them the rights and obligations of marriage, The Independent reported June 18.

There are similar laws in the majority of European Union nations but the U.K. has lagged behind. (Two European nations — The Netherlands and Belgium — let gays marry under the ordinary marriage laws.)

The British initiative will be announced in November’s Queen’s Speech and should become law next year.

“The changes would transform the lives of gay and lesbian people, allowing them to benefit from a dead spouse’s pension, exempt them from inheritance tax on a partner’s home and give next of kin rights in hospitals,” The Independent said. “The proposals make the civil partnership as close to a marriage contract as possible, even including provision for a form of divorce through ‘dissolution’ of a partnership.”

Openly gay Toronto city councilor Kyle Rae and his partner of nine years, Mark Reid, got married at a downtown art gallery June 20.

The province of Ontario’s highest court legalized full marriage for same-sex couples July 10 in a decision that took effect immediately. A week later, the federal government said it agreed with the decision and will open up marriage nationwide within a few months. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien accepted the court’s determination that banning same-sex marriage violates Canada’s constitution, which prohibits any discrimination that cannot be “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”

Ontario has no residency requirement for marriage and there have been many Americans among the scores of same-sex couples who have gotten hitched since June 10. One can purchase a marriage license and marry the same day.

“I’m hoping more Americans come up here and get married and erode the [U.S. Congress’] Defense of Marriage Act,” Rae told the Washington Post. “I think as more and more Americans come up to get married, states will have a difficult time not recognizing a sovereign state’s marriage license.”

Canada’s first openly gay member of Parliament, Svend Robinson, traveled up north to Iqaluit, Nunavut, in mid-June to urge passage of a pending territorial gay-rights law and attend gay pride.

Nunavut, created in a split from the Northwest Territories in 1999, is the only Canadian province or territory that does not ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“Gay and lesbian people are everywhere, including in Nunavut,” Robinson told a gay-pride picnic in Sylvia Grinnell Park, according to CBC North.

The report said few of the 100 attendees at the picnic were native Inuit people who, picnic organizers said, are afraid to come out.

“I’ve had phone calls and e-mails from people who say, ‘I would just love to come, but it’s a small community and I’m just too afraid,’” organizer Allison Brewer told the CBC.

Nunavut’s proposed Human Rights Act, which would ban anti-gay and other discrimination, awaits action by the territorial Legislative Assembly.

The mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was forced to proclaim Gay Pride Week in mid-June, in violation of his Roman Catholic beliefs.

Bill Smith acted after pride organizers filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission — a case the city was sure to lose and which likely would have resulted in a payout of damages.

Smith refused to issue the proclamation for the previous eight years, provoking the Edmonton Pride Week Society to finally take legal action.

“I want to make it perfectly clear that my personal opinion on this issue has not changed,” Smith said. “I have been advised that if I fail to fulfill my legal obligations ... by my continued refusal to make this proclamation, the city of Edmonton would be liable for damages.”

The Dutch government has given the Ukrainian gay group Our World 170,000 euros ($199,000).

The group used some of the money to buy an office in Kiev, the capital. The remainder will fund operations and pay four employees for two years.

Our World lobbies legislators, coordinates local gay organizations, promotes tolerance and provides “correct information” on homosexuality, said the Kiev Post.

“We’re the first organization in Ukraine that’s trying to be loud and visible,” said the group’s Andry Kravchuk. “And this has been good, because when we approached government bodies the first time around they were shocked. But the second time they were already getting used to us.”

Police in São Paulo, Brazil, arrested 145 transvestite sex workers May 29 and 31 in and around Indianapolis Avenue.

Media reports showed the cross-dressers being beaten and forced into police vehicles.

Police said the transvestites had committed robberies and engaged in sexual intercourse without condoms.

The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission took issue with the manner in which the arrests occurred, accusing police of using unnecessary force and violating privacy rights.