English and Northern Irish bishops have snubbed an invitation to be present at the ordination of the next Bishop of Stockholm, Eva Brunne, due to her openly gay status. Read the full story

Finland’s Catholic Bishop, Teemu Sippo, has warned of an impending rift between the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church and Finland’s Catholic Church over the issue of gay marriage. Read the full story

The eleventh annual Reykjavik Gay Pride parade and outdoor concert with Pall Oskar (probably Iceland’s biggest pop star) attracted about 80,000 people to the middle of Reykjavik on Saturday. Read the full story

Reykjavik Gay Pride is one of the biggest such celebrations in the world (per capita), despite its cosy size. It is often affectionately labelled ‘the biggest little Pride in the world’, and Saturday’s parade will attract as many as one-in-three of Iceland’s entire population to show support for LGBT rights. Read the full story

Finland’s parliament has voted to give people in same-sex couples who are registered in an official partnership the legal right to adopt the naturally-born child of their partner. The new law enables children to be eligible for alimony and gives them the right to inherit a surviving parent even if they’re not their true biological parent. Read the full story

Sweden is edging closer towards officially approving gay marriage now that three of the four parties in the ruling government coalition have joined forces and tabled a motion to legalise the controversial unions by 1 May. Of the four parties in the Alliance government, only the Christian Democrats are holding out. The Local newspaper reports that they are opposed to using the term “marriage” when referring to gay unions. Read the full story

If a new law that’s currently on the table gets passed by Sweden’s government, homosexuals will be allowed to legally get married in the Church of Sweden beginning as early as May 2009. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt confirmed to Swedish Radio that: “Sweden could have a gender neutral marriage law by May 1, 2009.” Read the full story

In the first known gay marriage at India’s legendary tribute to love, the Taj Mahal, two young Swedish women tied the knot following traditional Hindu rituals conducted by a priest at the Mahadeva Shiva temple in Agra. The two women, aged 18 and 19, were initially refused by the priest, Dharm Das. But after promising to be lifelong disciples of the priest and giving offerings to the temple, he changed his mind. Read the full story

The Alma Media newspaper group made its own news last week when it fired one of its recently-hired chief editors after learning she was a lesbian. Johanna Korhonen’s dismissal as editor-in-chief of the newspaper Lapin Kansa sparked demonstrations outside the Tampere headquarters of the Read the full story