More than 1,000 gays staged a kiss-in at the Frei Caneca shopping center in São Paulo, Brazil, Aug. 3 in protest against a security guard who had forced a same-sex couple to stop kissing.

Mall management supported the event, staged in the food court, by blanketing the premises with posters of red lipstick kisses. However, a mall spokesperson said the original kissing incident had crossed a line by being excessively intimate and the guard made the right call.

Activists in Mexico City are beginning the process of setting up a media-monitoring group like the U.S.’ Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). It likely will be named Red Nacional (National Network).

GLAAD’s People of Color Media Director, Mónica Taher, will go to Mexico City in October to conduct media training and provide support for the new organization.

A new Environics poll found that 57 percent of Catholic Canadians support same-sex couples’ access to full marriage. Same-sex marriage is available now in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, where it was legalized by courts this summer. The federal government is in the process of extending those rulings nationally. Only 38 percent of Protestants polled in favor of gay marriage. Overall, 53 percent of Canadians approve.

The survey, taken between June 12 and July 6, also found women more supportive (58 percent) than men (49 percent) and people age 18-29 more supportive (65 percent) than people over 60 (33 percent). The survey’s margin of error is 2.2 percent 19 times out of 20.

South Africa’s Constitutional Court July 31 dismissed a lesbian couple’s appeal of the Pretoria High Court’s refusal to let them legally marry. The Constitutional Court said the case should be heard first by the Supreme Court of Appeal because it raises complex questions related to South Africa’s common law.

Marie Fourie and Cecilia Bonthuys had argued that the ban on same-sex marriage violates the South African constitution, which bans all discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Following the ruling, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project announced it will file a class-action suit in the Johannesburg High Court challenging the common-law definition of marriage, which recognizes only male-female unions.

Poland’s Central Statistical Office (GUS) broke a promise to report a count of same sex couples in the new census, gay activists charged July 31.

“Between May and June 2002, just prior to the commencement of the census, LGBT organizations were able to persuade GUS into announcing at a press conference that same-sex couples in fact will be recognized,” said Lambda Warsaw. “This was accomplished with the support of the Prime Minister’s Office.”

But no such numbers appeared when the census was published last month. “It results in a census report which is misleading and misrepresents the reality in Poland,” Lambda said.

The Catholic bishop of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Fred Henry, says Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien may go to hell for his support of same-sex marriage. “He’s putting at risk his eternal salvation,” Henry said July 31. “He’s making a morally grave error and he’s not being accountable to God.”

Canada is in the process of legalizing full same-sex marriage nationwide after courts in Ontario and British Columbia legalized it in those provinces in June and July. Foreign couples can marry in the two provinces as well. They can buy a marriage license and get married the same day.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops took issue with Henry’s statement. “It’s not the sort of language that the rest of the bishops would employ,” said conference General Secretary Monsignor Peter Schonenbach.

Michael Leshner, half of Canada’s first married same-sex couple, called Henry’s remarks “appalling.”

“It’s sickening, it’s obnoxious and it’s got to stop,” Leshner told Toronto’s Globe and Mail. “I think the bishop has eaten too much mad cow.”

One man was hospitalized after around 30 skinheads attacked marchers in Stockholm’s gay-pride parade with rocks and bottles Aug. 2.

The skinheads reportedly carried banners reading, “Crush pedophiles.” A recent ad campaign by gay groups featuring photos of gay activists when they were children has caused controversy.

Police made about 15 arrests.

The man charged with hacking to death the openly gay head of the Fijian Red Cross and his lover was found innocent of the crimes Aug. 6 by reason of insanity. Apate Kaisau, 29, will be held indefinitely in a Suva mental hospital, according to the Australian daily newspaper The Age. Kaisau was charged with murdering John Scott, 53, and his partner, Gregory Scrivener, 39, in July of 2001.