The New York State Legislature voted this week to legalize gay marriage, a measure hurriedly signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo late Friday night.

The gay marriage law takes effect in 30 days.

In one of the highest profile celebrity responses, actor Neil Patrick Harris immediately and officially proposed to longtime partner David Burtka.

“It PASSED! Marriage equality in NY!! Yes!! Progress!! Thank you everyone who worked so hard on this!! A historic night!” Patrick Harris tweeted late Friday night.

The two had been planning for years to marry as soon as it was legal in New York. The couple plans a blowout wedding.

“This is going to be as traditional as it gets. We’re going to do it at the Four Seasons, a place that is like gay church to me,” he told the Associated Press.

The bill faced opposition from conservative and religious groups, but in the end, the right to marry rode a wave of progressiveness that has swept through New England but has not reached California.

In Arizona, Phoenix-based gay rights group Equality Arizona hopes the New York vote will help the passage of gay marriage there.

The group has a major uphill battle, as the state already voted to make gay marriage illegal in 2008, and the state is run by a conservative governor.

Outside the historically liberal New York City, more than 100 people gathered in Syracuse in upstate New York, to celebrate the vote.

“The victory we had last night was one of love and justice,” Mark Spadafore told the gathered crowd outside First English Lutheran Church, according to a report in The Post-Standard newspaper. “Enjoy today, enjoy this moment. We won! We won!…We won, but we have more work to do.”

But gay marriage is still without support at the very top of the country. President Barack Obama said he favors equal rights for gay couples, but he is not an advocate for legalizing gay marriage.

Under pressure from millions around the world, Ugandan officials are considering amending their proposed “anti-gay” bill that would, if passed, call for the death penalty or life imprisonment to those found to engage in homosexual behavior after being diagnosed with HIV.

Even with this people around the world, including me, still believe the bill to be outrageously prejudiced toward a societal group that very much does not deserve this discrimination. They certainly do not deserve to be treated like terrorists or murderers. They do nothing wrong.

Yesterday, on International Human Rights Day, groups around the world protested in front of Ugandan embassies calling for the government to put an end to the nonsensical bill. The government of Uganda, as well as several churches, are defending the bill as one intended to protect minors from being sexually harassed by older men.

Regardless of this claim, countries like Sweden have threatened to cut off aid to Uganda and some have even called for it to be thrown out of the Commonwealth.

But, now that officials are considering removing the death penalty and life imprisonment clauses in the bill, more factions of the Ugandan society may back it, as it may now be seen as less “controversial” or less medieval. However even if the amendments are made, the opposition will remain strong. This sort if justified, required-by-law discrimination against an innocent societal group is disgusting.

In 2006, when the BBC reported that a Ugandan newspaper went as far as printing the names of 45 suspected homosexuals in the country, I knew there was a problem. I just never thought it would ever come to this. Just horrible.

SYDNEY, Australia — Lesbian relationships in Australia received welcome recognition this November after two bills enforcing equality were passed through the Senate.‚ The amendments expanded the terms “de facto relationship”, “parent”, “step-parent” and “relative” to include same-sex couples giving them equal rights on a number of issues.

Australian Social Security entitlements, Medicare health care, tax, and employment benefits were some of the areas where gay and lesbian couples would receive equal rights.

Openly gay Labor Senator Penny Wong said her government had followed through on last year’s election promises to remove discrimination from Australian Commonwealth laws.

“They deliver, on an important day for us, on a very important election commitment”, she said.‚ ”More importantly, they will deliver the sort of equality before the law that same-sex couples have never previously experienced.”

Liberal opposition Senator George Brandis acknowledged the significance of the bills saying they would complete law reform in the area of same-sex relationships which began 40 years ago when homosexual relationships were decriminalized.‚ Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens party and also openly gay, was not so commending.‚ While he commended the ‚ recognition of rights, he was scathing for the ‚ lack of leadership to include equality in same-sex marriage.

“Both the older parties have a task to undertake: to communicate better with the Australian community and to understand that the pressure coming from sectional groups, minority groups, to sanction marriage for all couples regardless has great public support”,‚ Brown‚ said.

A poll taken by Australasia’s largest online lesbian dating and community site Pink Sofa supported Senator Brown’s sentiments with 88 per cent of the more than 4000 respondents wanting same sex marriages legalized. Website‚ member Jenny Ball was thrilled with the outcome but also wanted more.

“This really is a milestone for the Australian Gay and Lesbian Community and is something that has been long-awaited and now brings us in line with a number of other forward-thinking countries,”‚ Ball‚ said. ‚ ”The next key step is for the government to ratify the laws that currently prevent same-sex marriage, thereby removing the final piece of discrimination and marginalization against the community”.

Marriage for same-sex couples remains on the horizon however with the Labour Government as well as the opposition parties refusing to be swayed by public opinion.