Thousands of GLBT Israelis marched in Jerusalem and Haifa June 20, the Haaretz newspaper reported. It was Jerusalem’s second parade and Haifa’s first.

The Jerusalem march started at Safra Square and proceeded through Jaffa Street, Shlomo Hamelech and Agron, ending at Independence Park, the paper said.

There was heavy police presence due to fears that right-wing groups or ultra-Orthodox Jews might disrupt the event. Earlier in the week, the banned, right-wing Kach movement took credit for the destruction of dozens of gay-pride flags that had been put up along the march route.

Interior Minister Avraham Poraz spoke at the post-parade rally and concert. “I have come to wish you a happy holiday,” he said. “We are all proud of you.”

Toronto City Hall stayed open over gay-pride weekend, June 28-29, to issue marriage licenses.

An Ontario provincial court legalized full marriage for same-sex couples on June 10 and the weddings began later that day. On June 17, the federal government announced it agreed with the court that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, and began the process of changing federal marriage law. Same-sex marriage will be legal coast-to-coast shortly.

There is no residency requirement to get married in Ontario. Americans and other foreigners can buy a license and marry the same day.

Toronto has issued about 255 marriage licenses to same-sex couples so far, 30 of them to Americans.

The second-ranking bishop in the Anglican church — York, England, Archbishop David Hope — was outed Jan. 23 by Britain’s best-known gay activist, Peter Tatchell.

“It is hypocritical for homophobes within the Anglican Communion to tolerate Archbishop David Hope but not Canon Jeffrey John,” Tatchell said.

John was recently appointed bishop of Reading, in southeast England. The appointment threatens to tear apart the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion because John is openly gay and lives with his longtime lover, although he has said they no longer have sex.

Anglican conservatives are so horrified by the appointment, made by the bishop of Oxford, that they predict the very existence of the Anglican Communion is at stake.

The same conservatives also are reeling from the election of an openly gay bishop by the Episcopal Church in the U.S. state of New Hampshire last month and from the decision of the Anglican bishop in Vancouver, Canada, to offer gay-union ceremonies.

“There seems to be one moral standard for the second-most-senior figure in the Anglican church and another for lower-level clergy like Canon John,” Tatchell said. “I urge the archbishop to follow Canon John’s example of openness and honesty. My understanding is that Archbishop David Hope is gay and has, in the past, had gay sexual relations.... David Hope’s sexuality is now an issue because he has been tolerated and indulged, while Jeffrey John is being hounded and victimized.... The Anglican Church has always had gay bishops. The only difference now is that Canon Jeffrey John has had the integrity to be honest.”

Tatchell charged that Hope has supported the Children’s Society’s ban on gay foster parents, endorsed the firing of gay clergy and “colluded with ex-gay religious cults that attempt to ‘cure’ homosexual people.”

Hope has not responded to Tatchell’s remarks but in 1995, following an earlier outing attempt, Hope described his sexuality as “a gray area” and said he “sought” to lead a “single, celibate life.”

Researchers interviewed 481 men who have sex with men in Beijing, China, and found that two-thirds of them were married to women.

The interviews took place at bars, cruisy parks and bathhouses.

Fifteen of the men tested HIV-positive, half of the men acknowledged having unprotected sex with men in the previous six months and a quarter acknowledged having unprotected sex with women in that period.

Lead researcher Kyung-Hee Choi of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California in San Francisco said the findings mean some Chinese women who otherwise would be at low risk for HIV infection have a high risk via their bisexual husbands. The study appears in the British medical journal The Lancet.

About 600 GLBT citizens marched in Seoul, South Korea, June 22.

The parade circled Tapgol Park. The Korea Herald took note of “men strutting their stuff in fancy tights and sequins.”

“At least for a day, in a circumscribed area removed from the daily grind of family and work, many seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, as they waved their pink balloons and rainbow-colored flags,” the newspaper said.

Most of the participants wore red ribbons around their arm, wrist or neck as a signal to media that they did not wish to be photographed, the Herald said.

Police said 800,000 people turned out for São Paulo, Brazil’s, gay-pride parade June 22, making it one of the largest gay parades in the world, and the largest in the developing world.

The march featured 30 sound trucks and Mayor Marta Suplicy atop a float. The theme was “constructing homosexual policies.” Brazilian activists are keen to pass a partnership bill that has lingered in Congress for several years.

São Paulo has almost 100 gay bars and restaurants More than 20 other Brazilian cities also celebrate gay pride.