As the Canadian government prepares to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide in January, court cases continue in some of the four provinces and two territories where same-sex couples still cannot marry.

The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is expected to see court-ordered same-sex marriage next, but the mayor of Gander, Newfoundland, will refuse to be a part of it.

“It’s not right for two people of the same sex to be married, and I will refuse to do any same-sex marriages,” Mayor Claude Elliott told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

In Alberta, meanwhile, where Premier Ralph Klein remains adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage, he admitted Dec. 13 that his legal options have run out.

“There are some things that we might try but he [provincial Justice Minister Ron Stevens] anticipates that we would fail,” Klein told the Canadian Press wire service. “Invoking the notwithstanding clause, amending our own Marriage Act, all of those things he feels will be challengeable and we would lose in court.”

Still, Klein says he’s not a homophobe.

“I have friends who are gays and friends who are lesbians, and they are wonderful people,” he said. “But I am a politician as well, and my personal feeling is that I support the traditional concept of marriage.”

Same-sex marriage has been legalized by court order in British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and the Yukon Territory. It remains unavailable in Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Prince Edward Island.

The notwithstanding clause is a very rarely used section of Canada’s Constitution that allows provinces or the federal government to enact temporary laws that contradict the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Such temporary provincial laws, however, cannot usurp federal power – and the definition of marriage is a federal matter.

The Centre for Disease Control in the Canadian province of British Columbia is offering gay men free vaccination for meningococcal C disease (meningitis) after seven gay men contracted the bacterial infection in the past three months.

Three of the men died.

The vaccine also is available to bisexual men and other men who have sex with men.

Among other approaches, health officials will take the vaccine to gay bars and restaurants.

The outbreak has been limited to greater Vancouver and southern Vancouver Island. The bacteria can be transmitted via simple social kissing – a peck on the lips.

Symptoms include a high fever, headache and stiff neck.

Filipino gay activists marched on the House of Representatives in Manila Dec. 8 demanding free HIV testing, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.

Government statistics suggest HIV infections and AIDS cases have doubled in the past two years.

Malta’s Civil Court ordered the director of public registry to change the gender on the birth certificate of a woman who had a sex-change operation.

Justice Noel Cuschieri ruled Dec. 14 that the government’s refusal to alter the document disrespected Sabrina Tanti’s private life in violation of her fundamental human rights.

He also ordered the authorities to pay the costs of the lawsuit.

Two young lesbians who “married” each other in India’s Punjab state say they will demand that officials recognize their union, Britain’s The Independent reported Dec. 11.

“Raju” and “Mala” eloped from their homes in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in late November, then returned, announced they had married in a Hindu ceremony, and urged their families and the state to accept them.

Raju’s mother, Ranjit Kaur, told local media: “It is humiliating for us and for humanity. We only wish they are joking.”

Raju’s father demanded that police arrest the couple, but police said the women had not broken any law.

A gay retirement home is set to open in Berlin’s gay Nollendorfplatz area in 2006, an apparent first for Europe.

The Magnus Hirschfeld House will have 150 apartments, said Hans-Jürgen Esch, one of the developers.

Hirschfeld, one of the world’s first gay activists, founded Berlin’s gay Scientific Humanitarian Committee in 1897.

There are estimated to be about 75,000 gays and lesbians over age 65 in Berlin, the Agence France-Presse news wire said.

Singapore’s police department and Home Affairs Ministry banned a gay circuit party called SnowBall 04, saying it would be “unacceptable to the large majority of Singaporeans” and “contrary to public interest in general.”

The Dec. 25 party, organized by the Fridae.com website and Jungle Media, was allowed in 2002 and 2003.

In a statement, the police department said it permitted the previous parties because it had been assured they were not gay events. But, in fact, “patrons of the same gender were seen openly kissing and intimately touching each other.”

This year’s party had sponsorships from Heineken, Qantas, the InterContinental Singapore Hotel and other big-name companies.