Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has reiterated his promise to ban the city’s first Pride parade this May.

Speaking in Berlin Feb. 22 at a press conference with the mayors of Paris, London and Berlin – two of whom are openly gay – Luzhkov said he is “against such a phenomenon in life” and that the parade would “provoke society.”

“I will not permit such parades,” he said, according to Interfax. “My philosophy is my negative attitude to these phenomena, as I believe them to be unnatural to the human nature, though I try to be tolerant to whatever develops in human society.”

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit are both openly gay.

On Feb. 27, Human Rights Watch denounced Luzhkov’s statements, calling them “a threat to civil liberties and civil society.”

In a letter to the mayor, gay-rights director Scott Long said: “Prohibiting this parade would constitute an unacceptable and discriminatory interference with the peaceful exercise of the freedom of assembly [and] violate Russia’s obligations under international law. As a party to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Russia is obligated not to discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

On March 2, gay groups picketed outside Russian government buildings in London, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna and Warsaw.

Liberal Democrat Member of the Scottish Parliament Margaret Smith will “marry” her partner this month under the United Kingdom’s new Civil Partnership Act.

“The ceremony will take place in Edinburgh in the presence of family and friends,” Smith and partner Suzanne Main said in a statement.

Smith came out in 2003, saying: “I am happy to confirm that I am in a relationship with a female partner. … My partner is not in the public eye. We would hope that the media would respect the privacy of both families at this time.”

Around 100 people marched from Wenceslas Square to Prague Castle Feb. 24 in protest against Czech President Vaclav Klaus’ recent veto of a same-sex partnership bill that passed Parliament.

According to the Czech Happenings Web site, they carried signs reading, “We are not in Poland,” “Love is not politics” and “Stop sexual racism.”

The bill has returned to the Chamber of Deputies for a possible override of the veto, which would require an absolute majority of 101 votes. The bill originally passed 86 to 54, with seven abstentions and 53 deputies absent.

Same-sex couples were granted access to joint parental rights over each other’s biological children by France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, on Feb. 24.

The court said a biological partner is free to delegate parental authority to his or her live-in, stable partner when it is in a child’s best interest to do so.

The United Kingdom’s new Civil Partnership Act is in high demand, local media reported in late February.

More than 3,600 ceremonies took place in the six weeks after the law took effect in late December.

The act grants registered same-sex couples the rights and obligations of marriage.

A report in The Daily Telegraph said male unions have outnumbered female unions 2,510 to 1,138 in the period for which figures are available.

Only 298 same-sex couples have tied the knot since New Zealand’s Civil Union Act came into force last April, the Sunday Star-Times reported Feb. 25.

One hundred forty-five male couples and 153 lesbian couples have entered into civil unions, along with 62 straight couples. There have been 15,683 heterosexual marriages during the same time period.

The unions grant all the rights and obligations of marriage.

Interest in the ceremonies is so minimal that some of the 600 celebrants who signed up to officiate at civil unions may not do so again this year, the newspaper said.

New Zealand has a population of 4.1 million.

A transgender woman was beaten to death in Porto, Portugal, in late February.

According to portugalgay.pt, the woman, known as Gisberta, reportedly was beaten, stoned, stomped on, burned, sexually assaulted with a stick and thrown into a deep pit in an abandoned building where she had been living.

Media reports said that 14 boys between ages 10 and 16 admitted to police their involvement in the crime after one of the boys confessed to a teacher.

An immigrant from Brazil, Gisberta, 46, had lived in Portugal for 25 years. She worked as a prostitute and as an occasional performer in gay bars. Her legal name was Gilberto Salce Júnior.

Nineteen priests in the Canadian province of Quebec published a letter in Montreal’s La Presse Feb. 27 denouncing the Roman Catholic Church’s recent pronouncements against same-sex marriage and its new crackdown on gay seminarians, the CanWest News Service reported.

Titled “Enough is enough,” the 1,000-word letter said the church’s categorization of homosexuality as a “disorder” leads to increased societal homophobia.

In November, the Vatican announced a ban on seminarians “who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support so-called gay culture.”