Hong Kong High Court Judge Michael Hartmann struck down the Chinese region’s bans on gay sex Aug. 24, calling them discriminatory and unconstitutional.

One of the laws punishes male sodomy with life in prison when one or both of the partners are under age 21.

Another bans gross indecency between males when one or both are under age 21. The corresponding law for heterosexual sex is pegged to age 16.

The case was brought by a 20-year-old gay man, William Roy Leung, who said the laws discriminated against him.

Judge Hartmann called the statutes a “grave and arbitrary interference with the right of gay men to self-autonomy in the most intimate aspects of their private lives.”

Hong Kong has charged people under the laws at least 65 times in the past five years, activists said.

The Caribbean island of Aruba must recognize and register a marriage between a local woman and a Dutch woman, the island’s Superior Court ruled Aug. 23.

“Since Aruba is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it must comply with demands of the Kingdom,” the court declared.

The Aruban government said it will appeal the ruling, taking it to the Netherlands’ Supreme Court, local media reported. A spokesperson for Aruban Prime Minister Nelson Oduber said he considers it a moral issue.

Kingdom law mandates that Aruba, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles recognize each other’s legal documents. But it also grants Aruba self-rule.

Charlene and Esther Oduber-Lamers got married in the Netherlands in 2001, shortly after it became the first nation in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. They then settled on Aruba.

In 2004, facing harassment after they sued for recognition of their union, they moved to the Netherlands.

The couple also was faced with Aruban immigration rules that prohibited Esther, the Dutch partner, from spending more than half of each year on the island. And Charlene’s government employer had refused to grant Esther spousal health coverage.

Aruba has a population of 71,566.

London Zoo will host a Gay Day in September, Gay.com U.K. reported.

Zoo officials made the move after realizing the zoo had become a hot destination for gays on dates. The day will feature DJs, drag queens and access to a special cocktail lounge.

The zoo plans to make the event an annual affair.

The 64-year-old Roman Catholic bishop of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, resigned Aug. 19 after a videotape circulated showing him having gay sex with a 23-year-old.

Diocesan authorities claimed Juan Carlos Maccarone stepped down for health reasons, but the resignation came just two days before the prominent daily newspaper Clarín publicized the tape.

Santiago del Estero is 600 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.

A Bosnian gay movie, Go West, was a surprise hit when it premiered at the 11th Sarajevo Film Festival Aug. 20, Reuters reported.

The film chronicles the lives of a male couple – a Muslim and a Christian – as they flee Sarajevo at the beginning of the 1992-95 war.

The audience of 2,500 people gave the movie a lengthy standing ovation, Reuters said.

British Home Secretary Charles Clarke is being asked to halt the pending expulsion of an Iranian gay man back to his homeland, the Observer reported Aug. 21.

In making its request on behalf of the unnamed 29-year-old man, the gay group Stonewall pointed out that Iran has a death penalty for gay sex, and uses it.

The man fled Iran and sought asylum in England after police seized a video of him and a friend kissing and arrested the friend, he said.

Iran recently executed two gay teenagers. The government said the teenagers had raped another boy, but activist groups claim to have information that the rape charge was bogus and that the two were hanged solely for being gay.

At an Aug. 23 Cabinet meeting, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra asked which Cabinet minister had embarrassed the government by getting a silicone injection to enlarge his penis, Bangkok’s The Nation newspaper reported.

“Who did it?” Thaksin asked. “Tell me. This has affected the reputation of the Cabinet, because the news went ’round the world. I don’t want the people to think that Cabinet members are obsessed with this kind of thing.”

No one fessed up.

The story became public when a woman accused a clinic of disfiguring her face, the clinic sued her for defamation, and the woman then told the penis story and asked the Cabinet minister to come forward as a defense witness in her case.

As the unusual exchange continued to unfold in the Cabinet meeting, Thaksin jokingly asked Public Health Minister Suchai Charoen-ratanakul to determine which minister had done the deed.

“The next room is empty,” he said. “Can you use it to check the ministers right now?”

Deputy Finance Minister Varathep Ratanakorn replied that former public-health minister Sudarat Keyuraphan, a woman, had volunteered to carry out the check.

“It won’t be hard to check,” Sudarat said later. “Just scan ministers when they attend the next meeting. If it shows something opaque, we can guess that’s it.”