Italy’s government will introduce a bill by the end of January to extend some of the rights of marriage to same-sex and other unmarried couples.

The civil-union measure is expected to cover areas such as health insurance, health care decisions, hospital and prison visitation, inheritance, immigration, alimony and transfer of leases.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi told local media that such a law will be a “fundamental step forward.”

The European Court of Human Rights ruled 4-3 on Dec. 11 that two elderly British sisters who have lived together all their lives have no right to an exemption from inheritance taxes.

Joyce and Sybil Burden had argued that British law discriminates against nonromantic couples in granting an exemption only to married opposite-sex couples and same-sex civil-union couples.

The sisters’ house was built for $20,000 in 1965 but is now worth $1.72 million, well above the inheritance tax-free threshold. When one sister dies, the other will owe about $120,000 in inheritance tax. Since they don’t have that money, the surviving sister will have to sell the home to pay the tax.

The European court also slapped the sisters with a $19,600 legal bill for the case.

An Irish lesbian couple who married in Canada are not married in Ireland, the Irish High Court ruled Dec. 14.

Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan were married in Vancouver in 2003 and launched attempts to have their marriage recognized at home in Ireland in 2004. But the High Court said the 1937 Irish Constitution contains no provisions to address marriage between persons of the same sex.

Zappone and Gilligan said they will appeal the ruling to Ireland’s Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party has introduced a same-sex Civil Unions Bill into the Dáil, the chamber of the Irish Parliament whose members are elected by voters. It would extend marriage rights to civil-union couples in areas such as inheritance and taxation. Debate is expected to begin in early 2007.

The Glasgow LGBT Centre in Scotland has banned long-established ScotsGay magazine from both the center and the privately run café and bar on the premises.

“We consider the sexual content of the magazine inappropriate for the center,” said spokesperson Ruth Black. “We have to take into account that people as young as 13 are using the place.”

According to ScotsGay Publisher John Hein, “The bone of contention appears to be what is claimed to be the explicit nature of some of our personal ads – tame by comparison with other publications – the fact that, in common with most LGBT publications, we carry adverts for escorts, and that there are willies [penises] on the covers of some of the DVDs advertised by a licensed gay sex shop in Edinburgh.”

The parliament of the Faroe Islands, known as the Løgting, voted 17-15 on Dec. 15 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Similar bills failed in 1988, when only one MP voted to protect gays and lesbians, and in 2005, in a 12-20 vote.

The new push for the law followed a homophobic attack in a bar in Tórshavn, the capital, on popular local radio host Rasmus Rasmussen, who is openly gay. Rasmussen and his family also received threatening phone calls after local media reported on the beating.

Residents of the 27 nations that make up the European Union are all over the board on gay acceptance, the latest Eurobarometer poll has found.

Overall, 44 percent support same-sex marriage, but the support ranges from highs of 82 percent in the Netherlands, 71 percent in Sweden and 69 percent in Denmark to lows of 11 percent in Romania, 12 percent in Latvia and 14 percent in Cyprus.

Thirty-two percent of those polled support same-sex adoption. Approval ranges from highs of 69 percent in the Netherlands, 51 percent in Sweden and 44 percent in Austria and Denmark to lows of 7 percent in Malta and Poland and 8 percent in Latvia and Romania.

The poll is conducted every six months. It questions 30,000 people and has a margin of error of 1.9 to 3.1 percentage points.

Majority support for same-sex marriage also was found in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain and Luxembourg. Full same-sex marriage already is legal in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.

In France, meanwhile, 62 percent of respondents in a different poll said they support letting same-sex couples marry, and 55 percent support gay adoption. The Ipsos poll, published by the gay magazine Têtu, questioned 1,008 adults in November.

France has offered same-sex couples civil unions for six years.

A civil-union bill that had passed Colombia’s Senate died in the House of Representatives Dec. 20.

According to the Bogotá daily El Tiempo, “Up until the last moment of the [2006] legislature, [the bill] was on the agenda and when it came time to vote … the quorum disintegrated.”

New York City activist Andrés Duque, a native of the South American nation, said: “The bill was actually brought to the floor for a vote but some cowardly legislators jumped up and left their seats. Incredibly disappointing if not necessarily surprising.”

The bill passed the Senate in October by a 48-40 vote. It would have set up a registration mechanism and granted registered couples marriage rights in the areas of social security, health benefits, pensions and joint ownership of property.

Assistance: Bill Kelley