The founder of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association, FannyAnn Eddy, was murdered in the organization’s offices Sept. 28.

Reports said she was raped repeatedly and stabbed and her neck was broken.

“To all of us who knew her and shared the great privilege of her wit, sense of the absurd, steely determination, intelligence, and unwillingness to let bureaucracy and lies stand in the way of justice, our loss is incomprehensibly great,” said Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

“FannyAnn Eddy was a person of extraordinary bravery and integrity, who literally put her life on the line for human rights,” said Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT project. “Again and again, within her country’s borders and beyond, she drew attention to the harassment, discrimination and violence lesbian and gay people face in Sierra Leone.”

Eddy, 30, was part of the delegation IGLHRC and Human Rights Watch took to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva last spring to advocate for the failed Resolution on Sexual Orientation and Human Rights.

She leaves behind a 9-year-old son. Donations to support the boy and the Sierra Leone gay group are being collected by the African gay website Behind the Mask. Go to www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to the website.

The same-sex partner of the outgoing mayor of Viseu, Pará, Brazil, cannot succeed her because the constitution prohibits executive posts in local government from passing between family members, the nation’s top electoral court ruled unanimously Oct. 1.

Eulina Rabelo had to drop out of the race when the court ruled that she and Mayor Astrid Maria Cunha e Silva are a family, Reuters reported.

It’s unclear what else might follow from the decision to treat the couple as married. Only one Brazilian state, Rio Grande do Sul, offers same-sex civil unions, but those unions have been recognized by the federal social-security system.

Viseu, population 52,139, is located some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) north of Rio de Janeiro.

Uganda’s Broadcasting Council fined Radio Simba the equivalent of $1,058 for letting homosexuals appear on a talk show, Kampala’s The Monitor reported Oct. 3.

The council said Radio Simba violated the Electronic Media Act’s ban on broadcasts that are contrary to public morality, and the Penal Code’s ban on homosexuality.

The station also was forced to apologize for the gay broadcast over the air and via print media.

“We are a God-fearing country and homosexuality is illegal in Uganda,” said Information Minister Nsaba Buturo. “When you have an audience and you are in effect encouraging others to be homosexual, it causes a great deal of distress to the whole country.”

No charges were brought against the gays who appeared on the program, reports said.

Two American men who work in Belgium became the first U.S. same-sex couple to be married there Oct. 9, in the city of Enghien.

Phillip Sorensen, 46, and Christopher Staker, 49, both of whom work for NATO in Brussels, tied the knot in the City Hall civil-weddings room before local friends and 37 other friends and family members from around the world, including 25 who came from the U.S. for the event.

An Oct. 1 law change made it possible for any foreign same-sex couple to marry in Belgium if at least one of the spouses has lived there for at least three months. Previously, foreign same-sex couples could marry in Belgium only if their home country or countries also allowed same-sex marriage.

Sorensen and Staker are from New Hampshire. The only U.S. state that allows same-sex couples to marry is Massachusetts.

Staker is NATO’s director of health promotion and preventive medicine.

Sorensen is NATO’s director of occupational health and epidemiology.

The United Nations will continue to offer spousal benefits to employees whose home countries have recognized their same-sex unions.

The directive took effect last February but the General Assembly – pressured by the Vatican and numerous Islamic and African nations – insisted that Secretary-General Kofi Annan reconsider it.

A new, revised policy no longer mentions the apparently problematic phrase “domestic partnership” but reaffirms, “The practice of the organization when determining the personal status of staff members for the purpose of entitlements ... has been done, and will continue to be done, by reference to the law of nationality of the staff member concerned.”

The U.N. previously recognized only marriages between one man and up to four women. Several U.N. member nations accept polygamy.

Britain’s 17-year-old gay weekly The Pink Paper shut down Oct. 4 due to financial problems.

The magazine (it used to be a newspaper and did not change its name when it adopted a magazine format) was distributed free around Great Britain in bars, bookstores and elsewhere.

General manager David Bridle said the magazine faced serious competition for advertising dollars from websites such as Gay.com and Gaydar.co.uk.

The company will continue to publish its other gay magazine, the weekly Boyz.

While The Pink Paper was news-focused, Boyz is an entertainment and listings publication. Bridle said it is more profitable.