Gay British Member of Parliament Chris Smith, 53, revealed Jan. 29 that he has been HIV positive for at least 17 years.

Smith, who has been in Parliament since 1983, also served as Prime Minister Tony Blair’s culture secretary from 1997 to 2001.

“When I first heard about it, I was really worried because there was hardly any treatment,” Smith told the Sunday Times, adding that he later was able to remain healthy by taking a combination of antiretroviral drugs.

“I didn’t feel the need to tell people, except for a very, very few, as it was not in any way affecting my work,” he said.

Smith said he was inspired to finally reveal his status by former South African President Nelson Mandela who, on Jan. 6, announced that his oldest son had died of AIDS that morning.

“What Nelson Mandela said very much struck a chord with me,” Smith said.

“He spoke about how nobody should be ashamed of HIV and said that it should be regarded just like any other illness. He was brave and right.”

Speaking to reporters in Johannesburg Jan. 6, Mandela said: “Let us give publicity to HIV/AIDS and not hide it, because the only way to make it appear like a normal illness like TB, like cancer, is always to come out and to say somebody has died because of HIV. And people will stop regarding it as something extraordinary.”

The state of Victoria’s Police Band played “Y.M.C.A.” as police officers marched in Melbourne, Australia’s Pride parade Jan. 30, the Herald Sun reported.

About 15,000 people turned out for the march in the St. Kilda neighborhood. They walked from the Junction Oval about one kilometer down Fitzroy Street to Catani Gardens.

“We live in a very diverse community and our march here is a show of support,” Acting Inspector Mark Keen of the state police’s Equity and Diversity Unit told the Herald Sun.

State Deputy Premier John Thwaites and his family watched from the sidewalk.

“It’s a really great event and it’s got a lot of tradition attached to it now, and I think it’s great that we are showing that we are a very open and tolerant society,” Thwaites said.

The state telecommunications company in the former Soviet republic of Belarus reportedly has blocked access to several Russian gay/lesbian websites.

According to a report from Digital Media Europe, Beltelecom deemed the sites to be obscene and pornographic.

Among the blocked sites are gay.ru, gayly.ru and qguys.ru.

Canada’s government introduced legislation in Parliament Feb. 1 to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.

Courts already have legalized it in eight of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories – British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and the Yukon Territory.

“Canada is a land built on a tradition of equality and respect,” said Justice Minister Irwin Cotler. “The government cannot, and should not, pick and choose which rights they will defend and which rights they will ignore.”

Prime Minister Paul Martin said: “Canada is a country where minorities are protected. ... I don’t think this will change the way we live. I think this recognizes it’s already the law in seven provinces with the majority of the Canadian population.”

A final vote may not take place for weeks or months. If the measure passes, same-sex couples in Alberta, New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Prince Edward Island also will be able to get married.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported Feb. 2 that 10 percent of Newfoundland and Labrador’s marriage commissioners have resigned their positions to avoid having to marry same-sex couples.

Numerous people have signed up to replace them, including a lesbian filmmaker, the report said.

Only two other countries have legalized same-sex marriage nationwide – Belgium and the Netherlands.

Anti-gay Jamaican dancehall singer Sizzla (Miguel Collins) was jailed in Jamaica Feb. 2 for swearing during a Dec. 25 concert.

The two-week sentence resulted from words Sizzla used on stage in St. Thomas parish, despite warnings from local police to watch his language.

He was charged under a law that bans indecent expression and clothing.

Last year, Sizzla’s tour of the United Kingdom was canceled after GLBT activists objected to his “kill queers” lyrics, which include “Burn the man who rides a man from behind” (“Fire fi di man dem weh go ride man behind”).

“They’ve got to apologize to God because they break God’s law,” Sizzla said of gays in an interview with BBC 1Xtra last November. “I sing ‘fire burn for homosexuals’ and sometime in some street I walk, I see them and me no touch them. If I don’t like what you’re doing, I don’t come there, if you don’t like what I’m doing or what I say, you don’t come where I’m at.”

Two years after police raided a gay bathhouse in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, provincial prosecutors have dropped all charges.

Police had claimed that Goliath’s Sauna and Texas Lounge was a den of prostitution and group sex. Prosecutors had alleged that Goliath’s violated community standards of decency by selling lubricants, screening porn in the lounge area and allowing men to lie naked in open-door cubicles and fondle their genitals.

But the provincial prosecutors now say community standards aren’t what they used to be, and there would be little chance of getting a conviction against four employees charged with keeping a common bawdy house.