The Australian Defence Force extended equal partner and family benefits to military personnel in same-sex relationships Oct. 21.

Australia lifted its military gay ban in 1992.

“Military personnel and their families make sacrifices for their country, often having to relocate between posts regularly,” said Australian Coalition for Equality spokesperson Rod Swift. “It is right that the ADF now provides all service personnel with the same benefits to help them, their partners and their families equally.”

It was not immediately known if the Department of Veterans’ Affairs would follow suit and extend veterans’ benefits and pensions to same-sex families.

The anti-gay positions of newly elected Polish President Lech Kaczynski could imperil Poland’s voting rights in the European Union, Britain’s The Guardian reported Oct. 25.

Kaczynski’s support for the death penalty also could cause problems, the European Commission warned.

EU rules require member states to protect minorities from discrimination and not have a death penalty. Under the Treaty of Nice, noncompliant nations can have their voting rights suspended at ministerial meetings.

“We are going to follow the situation very attentively,” commission spokesperson Jonathan Todd told The Guardian.

As mayor of Warsaw, Kaczynski banned this year’s Pride parade, saying he opposed “propagating gay orientation.”

Some 2,500 GLBTs marched on June 11 anyway. Around 300 anti-gay protesters hurled eggs and shouted slurs at the marchers. Ten people were arrested and three were injured, including a police officer.

Three postoperative transsexuals have brought cases to South Korea’s Supreme Court seeking to have their gender changed in the nation’s family register, The Korea Times reported Oct. 23.

Lower courts have issued conflicting rulings on the matter, with some saying appearance doesn’t equal gender. The Times said 40 of 81 transsexuals who tried to change their listed gender between 2000 and 2004 were prohibited from doing so.

There are believed to be between 4,000 and 10,000 South Koreans with what the newspaper called “gender identity disorder.”

In 2002, an Inchon district court allowed famous singer and actress Harisu to change her name and gender in the register.

The court said, “Considering that Ha has been socially recognized as female after her transgender operation, it is appropriate that we regard Ha physically as a woman.”

The court noted that the South Korean constitution guarantees individual pursuit of happiness and dignity.

Harisu, 30, changed her legal name from the masculine Lee Kyong-yop to the feminine Lee Kyong-eun.

Sweden’s state-funded Lutheran church will begin blessing same-sex couples who have entered a registered partnership.

The Church of Sweden’s Church Assembly voted 160-81 in favor of the policy Oct. 26.

Some 80 percent of Swedes are members of the church.

Sweden has offered registered partnerships – which bestow nearly every right and obligation of marriage – since 1995.

In related news, beginning in April, civil registrars no longer will be allowed to refuse to perform partnership ceremonies.

About one-fifth of Stockholm’s 256 registrars have refused to do so.

“Those who refuse will lose their authorization to perform wedding ceremonies,” said Ministry of Justice spokesperson Niklas Ljunggren.

The United Nations’ special envoy to Africa on HIV/AIDS, Stephen Lewis, says South Africa still isn’t getting anti-HIV drugs to enough of its citizens, Johannesburg’s Business Day reported Oct. 26.

“I have great respect for SA’s increase in funding, but what I have taken exception to is the slow rollout of treatment – the situation is too dire … to be proceeding so slowly,” Lewis said.

“The ambiguity and hesitation … expressed by [Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang] and others about the appropriateness of antiretrovirals, the possibility of looking for alternatives, and giving a platform to professional denialists [who claim HIV doesn’t cause AIDS] has cast a pall over the energy that would otherwise be released.”

About 837,000 of South Africa’s 6.3 million HIV-positive citizens need to be on antiretrovirals right now, Lewis said, but only 78,000 are getting them from the government. Another 60,000 people are thought to be accessing treatment via private health care.

South Africa has a population of 47 million.

The head of the health department in Cape Town, South Africa, has denounced the local blood-transfusion service’s ban on donations by gay men, Independent Online reported Oct. 26.

Dr. Ivan Toms said the policy is irrational since black women have a higher HIV-positive rate than gay men in South Africa.

Newly acquired technology tests donated blood not only for HIV antibodies but also for the virus itself, which is usually detectable within days of infection.

Germany’s HIV transmission rate increased 20 percent in the first half of 2005 compared to last year.

There have been 1,164 new cases, most of them among gay men between ages 25 and 45, said the Robert Koch Institute, the nation’s main center for study of infectious diseases.