Switzerland’s same-sex civil-union law came into force Jan. 1 and the first couple tied the knot a day later in the southern canton of Ticino, Swiss public radio reported.

The men, ages 89 and 60, asked to remain anonymous. They have been together for 30 years.

The law extends spousal rights in the areas of pensions, inheritance, taxes and immigration. It does not grant rights to adoption or fertility treatment.

Other countries with nationwide civil-union laws include Andorra, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Greenland, a self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark, also has a civil-union law. There are state or local partnership laws in parts of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico and the United States.

Full marriage is available to same-sex couples in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and South Africa, as well as in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force has paid to join the gay lobby group Stonewall’s “Diversity Champions” program in hopes of making itself more attractive to gay and lesbian potential recruits.

The force also is launching a major advertising campaign in the gay press, with a budget of tens of thousands of dollars.

Member organizations of the Stonewall program are expected to do such things as sponsor Pride events, create a gay/lesbian/bisexual staff organization and extend pensions to same-sex couples.

“The Armed Forces are committed to establishing a culture and climate where those who choose to disclose their sexual orientation can do so without risk of abuse or intimidation,” an unnamed Ministry of Defence spokesperson told London’s Telegraph newspaper.

The obscenity trial of Umut Güner, editor of Turkey’s only gay magazine, Kaos GL, was postponed on Dec. 28, activists reported.

Güner could face up to three years in prison regarding last summer’s issue of the magazine, which critically analyzed the relationship between homosexuality and pornography in articles by several noted Turkish writers.

All copies of the issue were confiscated by police in July after the public prosecutor’s Press Crimes Investigation Bureau sought and received approval for the seizure from Ankara’s 12th Justice Court.

The Supreme Court later upheld the decision, which also was later backed by the Ankara First Instance Criminal Court.

Kaos GL has said it will appeal the seizure and the criminal charges to the European Court of Human Rights.

Gay pop singer George Michael is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 11 to face a charge of being an unfit driver.

Last October, Michael was found passed out in his car in a London intersection. He was arrested and later charged with the driving offense and “cautioned” for marijuana possession.

Meanwhile, Michael has received $3.5 million for a 75-minute performance at Moscow billionaire Vladimir Potanin’s New Year’s Eve party, London’s Daily Mail reported.

That’s about $46,000 a minute and $269,000 for each of the 13 songs he sang.

An entourage of 40 musicians and crew members accompanied Michael to the gig at a private estate outside Moscow. Around 250 people attended the lavish celebration.

Potanin is worth $8 billion and is believed to be Russia’s ninth-richest citizen. He manages a company that is the world’s largest producer of palladium and platinum, according to the Daily Mail.

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled unanimously Jan. 2 that a lesbian couple’s 5-year-old son has three parents: the biological mother and father and the mother’s partner, who had requested the determination.

The father, a family friend, donated sperm to the unnamed, longtime couple and spends time with the boy twice a week.

A lower court previously had dismissed the case, ruling that it lacked jurisdiction, even though it supported the request.

But the appellate court declared: “Present social conditions and attitudes have changed. Advances in our appreciation of the value of other types of relationships and in the science of reproductive technology have created gaps [in the law].

“It is contrary to [the boy’s] best interests that he is deprived of the legal recognition of the parentage of one of his mothers. … Without a declaration of parentage or some other order, the surviving partner would be unable to make decisions for their minor child, such as critical decisions about health care.”

The Institute for Canadian Values denounced the ruling as “naked judicial activism.”

“The only explanation [for the ruling] is that the court saw this case as an opportunity to entrench so-called alternative family structures in law without submitting the idea to the rigours of the legislative process,” the group said.

200 Czech couples have entered civil unions

More than 200 same-sex couples have taken advantage of the Czech Republic’s civil-union law since it came into force last July, local media reported Jan. 2.

The statute, which became law after the Chamber of Deputies overrode President Vaclav Klaus’ veto, grants many of the rights and obligations of marriage but withholds equality in the areas of adoption, pensions, taxation and joint ownership of property.

Activist Jirí Hromada of Gay Initiative told the Mladá fronta DNES newspaper he was surprised that so many couples already had tied the knot but expects the number to increase dramatically as “media attention, which is unpleasant for many, fades away.”

Hromada predicted that around 1,200 couples will enter into civil unions in 2007.

Assistance: Bill Kelley