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Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's first openly-gay mayor, has spoken out against the vandalism of the city's memorial to gay and lesbian victims of Nazi rule. Maylaysia's top opposition leader, 61-year-old Anwar Ibrahim, was accused of having sex with a 23-year-old male aide. Panamanian President Martín Torrijos Espino signed a decree repealing a 1949 law that criminalized sodomy under penalty of a $500 fine or jail time.

Mexico City OKs trans name, ID changes
PlanetOut, September 5
Mexico City's legislature has passed a law making it easier for transsexuals and transgender people to legally change their names and obtain revised birth certificates that reflect their gender identification.

France to ask UN for universal decriminalization of homosexuality
PinkNews.co.uk, September 4
The French minister of human rights and foreign affairs has confirmed that she will appeal at the United Nations for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Gay cleric could become Britain's first openly homosexual bishop
Telegraph.co.uk, September 2
An openly gay cleric is in line to become a bishop, in a move that could plunge the Anglican Communion into fresh crisis over homosexuality. The Very Rev Jeffrey John was appointed Bishop of Reading five years ago but was forced to stand down by the Archbishop of Canterbury, a personal friend of his, after the election sparked outrage among conservatives.

England wins gay football World Cup
PinkNews.co.uk, September 1
Stonewall Lions FC have triumphed at the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association World Championship on August 30. They beat Argentinian team Safgay FC 5-0 in the final at Leyton Orient's Matchroom Stadium in London.

Iraq’s treatment of gays: Don't ask, don't tell, do kill
Newsweek, August 26
Nobody wants to talk about gays in Iraq, much less who is killing them. Many officials say they feel that in a country at war, there are more pressing concerns than gay rights. A Ministry of Justice judge rebuked a reporter for wasting time on such an issue, noting that "crimes of sodomy" are "very rare" in society and even rarer in the courts.

Sydney plans homophobia-free zones
EDGEboston.com, August 25
Australia's gay capital Sydney is set to try and enforce homophobia-free zones which may see clubs and hotels lose their license if patrons commit homophobic abuse or violence, local media said. The move will focus on the city’s main gay precinct Oxford Street, site of the world’s biggest gay and lesbian Mardi Gras each year, and other areas deemed gay and lesbian precincts.

Plan to exhume British cardinal is called 'homophobic'
The Independent, August 25
The Catholic Church is under growing pressure to abandon the "homophobic" exhumation and reburial of the body of one its most famous cardinals, in defiance of his wish to lie for eternity next to the man he loved. Gay rights campaigners have accused the Vatican – which has ordered the disinterment in the first step towards beatification – of attempting to cover up the sexuality of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who died in 1890.

Openly gay Australian Olympian wins gold medal
OutSports.com, August 25
In one of the biggest upsets at the Beijing Olympics, out Australian diver Matthew Mitcham won a gold medal in the 10m platform. The Chinese were heavily favored in the event, and Mitcham was behind Zhou Luxin by about 35 points going into the final dive. But Mitcham hit an unbelievable score of 112.10 on his sixth and final dive to win by just over three points. "It’s absolutely surreal. I never thought that this would be possible," Mitcham said.

Brazil congress rejects adoption by gay couples
Washington Blade, August 22
Brazil's lower house of Congress has rejected part of a pending adoption law that would have allowed gay couples to adopt children. A statement from the Chamber of Deputies says a measure giving gay couples the right to adopt was withdrawn because federal law doesn't recognize same-sex civil unions.

Beijing's homosexuals live in the shadows
San Francisco Chronicle, August 22
Homosexuality has only been legal for 11 years in China. Although the Chinese Psychiatric Association took it off the list of psychiatric disorders in 2001, same-sex unions are still considered immoral by the authorities. The modernization of Beijing in preparation for the Olympics actually made things worse for gays. Several gay clubs were bulldozed during the frenzy of street-widening and high-rise building during the run-up to the games.

Polish Reformed Church denies "gay sect" accusations
PinkNews.co.uk, August 21
The Reformed Catholic Church has responded to a recent spate of articles from the Roman Catholic Church in Poland which have described the church as a "gay sect". Roman Catholic officials in Poland have dismissed the sect as not being a true church.

Argentina grants gay couples partner pensions
CNN.com, August 19
In a nationwide measure, Argentina has granted gay couples the right to collect the pensions of their dead partners. The National Social Security Administration's director is to sign the resolution on Tuesday, and it will become law upon publication the following Wednesday. It requires that same-sex couples show they have lived together for at least five years.

Berlin Mayor condemns vandalism of gay memorial
PinkNews.co.uk, August 19
Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's first openly-gay mayor, has spoken out against the vandalism of the city's memorial to gay and lesbian victims of Nazi rule. he memorial, opened on 27th May 2008, was damaged on 16th August.

British recruitment drive for gay spies
The West Australian, August 17
Britain's domestic intelligence agency is actively recruiting gay spies and wants its staff to be more open about their sexuality, the Financial Times reported today. The chief executive of Stonewall, a gay rights lobby group, told the business daily it had been hired by the Security Service - better known as MI5 - to help the agency encourage more gay applicants for positions.

Arabic magazine warns that gays are diseased
Jawa Report, August 17
An article in a German Arabic-language magazine has sparked outrage by warning readers that shaking hands with gays can transmit diseases. The article, in the free magazine al-Salam which is distributed to restaurants and cafes around the German capital, is couched in pseudo-scientific language, and accompanied with graphic photos of skin diseases.

Gay sex scandal imperils Malyasian pol
Chicago Sun-Times, August 17
In headlines, on TV news and around dinner tables, the talk has turned lurid in Malaysia these days. The country of 27 million people is transfixed by a drama whose second act unfolded in June when the top opposition leader, 61-year-old Anwar Ibrahim, was accused of having sex with a 23-year-old male aide. It sounded very much like a case from 10 years ago, when he was imprisoned on a similar charge involving his driver.

Gay pride march in Mumbai
Mid-Day Mumbai, August 17
Mumbai's first ever gay pride march that took off from the historic August Kranti Maidan yesterday afternoon and wound up at Girgaum Chowpatty. The parade made such a powerful statement for the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender community in the city that even the roar of the South Mumbai traffic could not drown it out.

Panama legalizes gay sex
Inside Costa Rica, August 14
Panamanian President Martín Torrijos Espino signed a decree repealing a 1949 law that criminalized sodomy under penalty of a us$500 fine or jail time. The move followed protests by the gay group New Men and Women of Panama and other human-rights defenders, local media said.

Gay tourists flock to Israel
Seattle Times, August 13
Tel Aviv, with its warm climate, cosmopolitan feel and lively nightlife, has, in the past few years, become a hot destination for gay travelers. But this is also a country where there is no separation between religion and state, and in which the majority of tourists come here for some form of religious experience — which all leads to an ambivalent official attitude toward the phenomenon.

Diary aims to shed light on gay Vietnam
AFP, August 12
His name means bravery, and that's what it took for Nguyen Van Dung to talk about life in "the third world" -- a reference in Vietnam not to poverty but to the gay and lesbian community. At age 41, he has decided to lay bare almost everything in a tell-all diary called "Bong," a slang term for homosexuals, written by two local journalists after more than 300 hours of taped interviews with him.

Olympics still rough terrain for openly gay athletes
Washington Blade, August 11
The International Olympic Committee has become more welcoming of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes in recent years, including allowing post-operative transgender athletes to compete for the first time during the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Gay Filipinos arrested in Saudi Arabia
PinkNews.co.uk, August 8
Two men from the Philippines have been arrested in the Saudi capital Riyadh for homosexual acts. The arrests by the Muslim nation’s "morality police" is the latest in a crackdown on gays.

Mexico's anti-homophobia campaign offers lessons to world
newKerala.com, August 7
In Mexico City, home to the 17th International AIDS Conference, it is not uncommon to see men embracing and kissing each other in shopping malls or walking down the street holding hands.