Fridae

Can the recent LGBT pride parade and announcement by Vietnam's Justice Minister that the communist country may consider same-sex marriage be taken as signs of social liberalisation and/or progress on gay rights? Scott Long, a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program has more.

Openly gay author and pastor Rev. Oyoung Wen Feng, who legally married his partner Phineas Newborn III on Aug 31 last year in New York, hosted a wedding banquet in downtown Kuala Lumpur last Saturday.

Last month, Justice Minister Ha Hung Cuong announced that his ministry is considering legalising same-sex marriage. Fridae speaks with Le Quang Binh, head of iSEE, a not-for-profit research organisation that promotes understanding of LGBTs in society, about recent developments and societal acceptance of LGBTs.

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday found California's 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

The Australian government has lifted a ban on certificates for same-sex couples who wanted to marry in countries which allow same-sex marriage; gay marriage conscience vote slated for 2012.

View photos from Ouyang Wen Feng and Phineas Newborn III's wedding ceremony in New York on Aug 31.

It’s a wedding between a man and a (transgender) woman, but why is the media (including LGBT websites) calling it gay marriage? 

The only openly lesbian member of the Australian cabinet has announced that her partner is expecting the couple's first child; news of the pregnancy is expected to respark another round of debate about same-sex marriage.

Community advocacy organisation GetUp and Australian Marriage Equality (AME) have outbid high-power business executives to win an online charity auction and will send three same-sex couples to discuss same-sex marriage with PM Julia Gillard over dinner.  

Criticised in the past for declining to support gay marriage, Finance Minister Penny Wong – who’s Australia's first openly gay cabinet member – spoke in favour of a motion which calls on her party to support the legal right of same-sex couples to be married.