A second Canadian province legalized full same-sex marriage July 8. British Columbia’s Court of Appeal followed in the footsteps of Ontario’s Court of Appeal, which forced legalization of same-sex marriage on June 10.

Less than an hour after the new ruling, Tom Graff and Anthony Porcino were married at Vancouver’s B.C. Law Courts building by United Church minister Tim Stevenson, a gay member of the Vancouver City Council.

Both provinces’ highest courts declared the federal government’s opposite-sex definition of marriage unconstitutional. Following the Ontario ruling, the federal government announced its agreement with the decision and began the process of formally legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

In the meantime, hundreds of same-sex couples already have married in Ontario and now weddings are occurring in British Columbia as well. Neither province has a residency requirement for marriage. Foreign same-sex couples can buy a license and get married the same day.

The B.C. Court of Appeal initially struck down the federal marriage definition on May 1 but suspended its ruling until July 2004 to give legislators time to rework the marriage laws. Subsequently, Ontario’s Court of Appeal struck down the same definition but did not include a grace period. In light of the Ontario ruling, the B.C. court decided to close the gap, thereby legalizing same-sex marriage in the province instantly.

The court stated: “Any further delay ... will result in an unequal application of the law as between Ontario and British Columbia, with same-sex couples being denied the right to marry in British Columbia until July 12, 2004, while same-sex couples in Ontario may marry as and when they choose to do so...”

The gay man appointed bishop of the Church of England’s Reading diocese withdrew his acceptance of the job July 6 following a huge, weeks-long row that threatened to destroy the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church in the U.S.

Canon Jeffrey John has lived with a same-sex partner for 27 years but claims they no longer have sex. That was too much for church conservatives in Britain and several developing nations who threatened that the Anglican Communion would split apart if John’s appointment was allowed to stand.

In stepping down, John said his consecration would cause too much damage to church unity.

Singapore has quietly begun welcoming gays into government jobs, including those considered the most sensitive, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told Time magazine June 30.

Goh said the policy change was inspired in part by a desire not to exclude talented gay foreigners from immigrating.

But the move is not being trumpeted in order to keep from alarming conservatives.

“Let it evolve, and in time the population will understand that some people are born that way,” Goh said. “We are born this way and they are born that way, but they are like you and me.”

Japan’s House of Representatives unanimously passed a measure July 10 that will allow certain transsexuals to change their gender in all-important “family registry” documents.

The measure will take effect in one year.

According to the Japan Times, the law permits people to change their registration if they have been diagnosed by two doctors as having a different psychological makeup from their biological sex and a desire to live as the opposite gender physically and socially. Applicants must be single and childless and no longer have functioning reproductive organs due to sex-change surgery.

The documentation change will eliminate problems that transsexuals face in such matters as voting and filling out job applications, the Times said.

New Zealand’s Parliament legalized prostitution June 25 by a vote of 60-59. The law came into force in early July.

Licensed brothels will operate under public-health and employment laws.

The author of the repeal legislation, gay MP Tim Barnett, called the prostitution ban “the last significant vestige of Victorian moral law [in] the New Zealand statute book.”

More than half of the 354 New Zealanders arrested for prostitution in the past five years were men.

About 4,000 people marched in Budapest, Hungary’s gay-pride parade July 6.

Police wearing riot gear protected the marchers from Neo-Nazis “who formed a marauding throng at the base of Erzsébet híd” bridge, said the Budapest Sun.

Mayor Gábor Demszky attended the pride launch event the previous evening at the Mûvész Cinema complex. He described Budapest as a beacon of tolerance and fraternity.

A July 11 vote on sex education in Britain’s House of Lords had the effect of repealing the notorious Section 28, a law that prohibited local governments from promoting homosexuality and prohibited schools from teaching that homosexuality is acceptable.

The House of Commons had voted to overturn the law in March.

Enacted by the Tory government in 1988, the section stated: “A local authority shall not (a) intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality; (b) promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.”

The section was repealed locally in Scotland three years ago.