Tasmania Recognizes Gay Marriage, Fidel Castro Accepts Responsibility For Decades Of Abuse Suffered By Gays, Spanish Police Breakup Male Prostitution Ring, Marines Will Not Be Charged With Hate Crime Because Victim Not Beaten Badly Enough

There are reports that the Tasmanian Parliament has approved laws that recognize same sex marriage and civil unions registered elsewhere, amending the country’s Relationships Act. Attorney General Lara Giddings said that the revision will removed discrimination for gay couples in registered relationships. “This is really a small step,” she said, “but a significant and important step for those people who have registered or been through a civil union process elsewhere around the world and want us to recognise that relationship as indeed being in existence.”

Fidel Castro, in an interview with La Jornada, a Mexican newspaper, said he accepted responsibility for an anti-gay movement begun his revolutionary government throughout the 1960’s because he was occupied with other problems, including threats from the United States. The former president of Cuba said that the persecution of gays – at the time marked as counterrevolutionaries and located in labour camps – was a moment of “great injustice,” adding that “If someone is responsible, it’s me.” Cuba decimalized homosexuality in 1979, and today, largely because of the enormous efforts of Fidel’s niece, Mariela Castro-Raul, the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education and LGBT activist, the climate for the gay community in the country has changed dramatically, including the laws advancing the rights of transsexuals.

Spain’s National Police announced Tuesday the arrest of 14 individuals, mostly Brazilians, on suspicion of operating a human-trafficking organization that brought men to the country illegally to work as prostitutes, providing them with Viagra, and recreational narcotics, the men made to be available to have sex with other men on a round the clock basis. The victims are apparently all in their twenties, and are estimated to number between 60 and 80, and were forced to give at least half, if not more of the money they earned.

On Friday, the Chatham County District Attorney offices announced that 23 year old Lance Corporal Christopher Stanzel and 22 year old Corporal Keil Cronauer will not be charged with a hate crime in the violent attack on 26 year old Kieran Daly that occurred June 12th, in Savannah, Georgia, Alicia Johnson, a spokesperson for the office, said the two will be charged with misdemeanour battery – the decision, she said, reached weeks ago. The two Marines will appear in court September 9th. After the attack, gay activists throughout the state called for the FBI to investigate the incident under the newly enacted hate crimes act since Georgia does not have a hate crimes law. According to investigators, the case contained “no merit” to be tried as a hate crime after reviewing Daly’s medical records. “I can’t speak on the specifics because this is a pending litigation, but for a crime to considered a felony (which a hate crime is considered to be) there has to be proof of a sustained injury,” said Johnson, adding that “It’s my understanding Daly suffered only a punch. Based on his medical records we could not upgrade the charge from a misdemeanour to a felony.”