Two rival bills that would lift a ban on gay marriage in Australia were introduced into Parliament on Monday, Feb 13, weeks after the ruling Labor Party lifted its opposition to same-sex unions.
The two bills, sponsored by lawmakers from the Labor and the Greens parties, highlight tensions between the minority government partners that undermine the chances of gay marriage being endorsed by Parliament.
The bills are essentially the same. Both place same-sex couples on the same footing as heterosexuals, while allowing religious ministers the freedom to refuse to solemnize any marriages that are inconsistent with their beliefs.
No timetable has been set for a vote on either bill.
The Greens party has long called for legal recognition of gay marriage in Australia, while the major political parties have opposed it, according to AP.
Meanwhile, a bill that would make the death sentence mandatory for gays who are "repeat offenders" was reintroduced in Uganda's parliament on Feb 7, a move likely to draw fresh condemnation from Western aid donors.
The bill was reintroduced by legislator David Bahati, who said when he first introduced the bill in 2009 that his goal was to protect Ugandan children from Western homosexuals who lure them with money and other promises.
The bill proposed the death penalty for certain homosexual acts, such as when gay people infected with Aids were caught having sex, as well as life imprisonment for other offences. It also proposed a jail term for heterosexuals who failed to report homosexual activities to the police.
Homosexuality remains taboo in Uganda, where Pentecostal clerics have made the fight against gay culture one of their core messages. Homosexuality is already illegal under Uganda's penal code.
In the U.S., a bill to legalize gay marriage in Washington state won final legislative approval on Feb 8, in a largely party-line vote that moved the state to the cusp of becoming the seventh in the nation to recognize same-sex nuptials.
