Portugal Pushes Gay Marriage, Argentine Gay Activists Take Action, BBC Called Irresponsible, Matthew Mitcham, Scott Herman, Jake Gyllenhaal

A proposal by the Portuguese government to make gay marriage legal in that county is almost certain to pass, the Socialist led government, with full support from other left of center parties, maintaining a majority in Parliament. Portugal would become the sixth European country to legalize same sex marriage, following Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, and would do so by amending the definition of marriage by removing references to marriage as that only existing between a man and a woman. The law would take effect in April, 2010, a full month before a scheduled four day visit by Pope Benedict XVI.

On Tuesday, Argentina’s gay activists began a campaign to compel that country’s government to legalize same sex marriage, a day of action being called for next week, when simultaneous appeals will be filed at courts in Buenos Aries and in other provinces throughout the country. The Supreme Court is currently considering whether to allow gay marriage, two weeks after a lower court blocked what was to be the first same sex wedding between Alejandro Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello.

Predictably, the United Kingdom National Union of Journalists condemned a BBC World Service talkboard discussion that asked whether gays should be executed, ahead of a program titled Africa Have Your Say, which was to discuss the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill before the Ugandan Parliament. The NUJ believes that the discussion was overly sensationalized, failed to adhere to the BBC editorial standards, and seemed to suggest that BBC was sanctioning the hatred of gays, mostly, the Union argues, because the online discussion was poorly moderated, and invited hateful, vulgar homophobic comments that had little to do with the debate over the Ugandan law.

Matthew Mitcham was among twenty-five named in the third annual Same Same 25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians.

Scott Herman gives the gift that keeps on giving, a present NSFW

Jake Gyllenhaal and his beard du jour Reese Witherspoon have officially ended their arranged relationship, allowing Jake to take another step on the way to formally being revealed as Ted Casablanca’s infamous blind item Toothy Tile.