Spain’s government sent its bill to legalize full same-sex marriage to the Congress of Deputies Dec. 30, reports correspondent Jordi Petit.

The measure also will extend adoption rights to married same-sex couples.

The bill is expected to pass the Congress of Deputies easily, then move to the Senate where progressives and conservatives are evenly split on the measure, said Petit.

If the Senate approves the bill, same-sex couples will begin marrying in April. If the Senate rejects the bill, it will return to the more powerful Congress of Deputies for a second vote that will nullify the Senate’s vote against it. In that case, same-sex marriage will not be available until May or June.

“The right to marry is a right for everyone, without distinction. It cannot be understood as a privilege,” Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega told a press conference. “The recognition of homosexuals’ rights eradicates unjustified discrimination.”

Full same-sex marriage currently is permitted in Belgium, the Netherlands, eight of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories, and in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

France banned defamation, hatred and violence based on sexual orientation and gender Dec. 22.

The law, passed by the Senate and, earlier, by the National Assembly, punishes anti-gay activities with up to a year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros ($60,800).

The Catholic Church and Reporters Without Borders opposed the measure, fearing it infringes free-speech rights.

But Justice Minister Dominique Perben said France is “confronted with a rise in homophobia” and must “stand up to this negative evolution.”

The leader of Scotland’s Catholic Church, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, defamed gays in an address to the Scottish Parliament Dec. 22, calling them “captives of sexual aberrations.”

Bisexual member of Parliament Patrick Harvie, speaking to the Herald newspaper, fired back: “I would say people who make a commitment to celibacy which has no rhyme nor reason are more trapped by sexual aberration than I am. And they’re probably suffering for it a lot more than I am for being bisexual.”

Member of Parliament Rosie Kane called O’Brien’s remark “utterly shameful.”

But a church spokesperson told the paper, “It’s not exactly a surprise if a Catholic church leader comes out and says homosexuality is a sexual aberration.”

Israel’s Interior Ministry cannot deport a Colombian gay man with an expired visa as long as he remains coupled with his boyfriend, who is an Israeli Defense Forces soldier, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled Dec. 29.

Judge Uzi Vogelman said common-law same-sex couples have the same right to stay together that married people have.

Former Australian diplomat Robert Michael Scoble has been detained in Bangkok and told he will be deported for distributing an allegedly pornographic gay magazine, The Australian reported Dec. 27.

In March, Scoble received a four-month suspended jail sentence and a 10,000 baht ($256) fine for distributing Thai Guys magazine, which Judge Suthikorn Libnoi said “had a feeling of inviting men to come for sex”.

On Dec. 25, when Scoble went to his weekly sign-in with immigration police (a condition of his bail), he was unexpectedly jailed and told of the deportation plan.

Scoble plans to appeal his case, arguing that Thai Guys is not pornographic.

Police said they also found child pornography during their March raid of Scoble’s home. But it is not illegal to possess kiddie porn in Thailand unless you are distributing it, which Scoble was not, the police said.

Scoble resigned as head of Australia’s mission in Hanoi in the mid-1980s after being accused of sending child pornography to a colleague in a diplomatic pouch, The Australian said.

In addition to publishing Thai Guys, Scoble and his business partner, American John Charles Goss, run the gay travel company Utopia Tours.

Hungarian TV2’s Aktiv program broadcasted an exposé Dec. 13 showing that the 449-year-old Királyfürdö Turkish baths is a hotbed of homosexual shenanigans.

Armed with a hidden camera, journalist Zoltán Garabuczi witnessed a gay orgy and said that he “was constantly approached by bathers with little or nothing to hide their modesty,” as The Budapest Sun put it.

Garabuczi reported that men openly embraced, kissed and had sex in the historic, state-owned spa’s public pools.

The facility, which is also a popular tourist attraction, is the only surviving Ottoman-era Turkish bath in Budapest.

The popular Auckland gay bar Flesh was firebombed Dec. 27, the New Zealand Herald reported.

About 20 customers and staff fled the 11:15 p.m. attack through an emergency exit. No one was injured.

The building experienced fire and smoke damage estimated at up to NZ$100,000 ($71,310).

“Because of all the homophobes out there in this country we are still vulnerable,” owner Nicholas, who wouldn’t give his last name, told the Herald. “All we were doing was minding our own business, doing our own thing and suddenly we were fire-bombed.” l