In a thoughtful review of LGBT gains in 2011, San Diego Gay and Lesbian News picks out three especially notable features: the final end of DADT in the US, the emergence of LGBT activists in Africa - and further notable movement towards marriage equality.

I’ll leave comment on DADT to the Americans, but I am trying to work towards a post on LGBT progress in Africa (and the most appropriate role for Western countries and activists to contribute).

I have frequently written about progress to marriage equality - but this is a useful summary. (Note particularly the reference to a “little - noticed” decision in favour of traditional same - sex marriage by a Kenyan court. I for one, was not previously aware of this. Note, too that this is court recognition of traditional same-sex marriage. It is homophobia, not respect for homoerotic relationships, that is a Western import. Here’s a link to the story).

Same-sex marriage (or “marriage equality” or “gay marriage”) was a leading international concern — whether in the West or raised as a chimeric threat, particularly in Africa. This year it was legalized in the second-most-populous U.S. state, home to the UN and intentional media – New York state. American polls also, for the first time, showed clear majority support for marriage equality.

The immigration problems of bi-national, same-sex couples due to the Bill Clinton-era federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) drew national attention in America, but the Obama administration was criticized for being slow to act to use its powers to stop deportations of husbands and wives.

In the UK the Conservative-led government committed itself to marriage equality, there is to be a consultation next year, with Tory Prime Minister David Cameron famously saying he supported it because he was a conservative. The Scottish Nationalist government in Scotland appears likely to legalize same-sex marriage too, although there has been a strong, Catholic Church-led backlash.

In France, although marriage equality failed in the French parliament it is rumored that President Nicholas Sarkozy will announce his support in elections next year, supposedly inspired by Cameron’s comments. But in Spain, lesbians and gays fear that a new conservative government may go backwards and convert gay marriages into gay civil unions.

It’s been proposed by the Luxembourg government and by the Finnish government, and the Danish government permitted gay marriage in churches. The German parliament is going to vote on marriage equality next year. Civil partnerships are being mooted in Poland and Estonia — a first in a post-Soviet Union state.

Last month the governing Australian Labor Party supported same-sex marriage, though its leader does not and it is likely to fail when it reaches the parliament next year.

In July the Constitutional Court of Colombia ordered the Colombian government to legislate on same-sex relationship recognition — and that if they fail to, same-sex couples will be granted all marriage rights in two years.

Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples are legally entitled to civil unions, and same-sex marriage will be included in the new Nepalese constitution.

In October, in a little noticed but extremely interesting case, a Kenyan court recognized “traditional” same-sex marriage.

In July, a court in Delhi, India, effectively recognized the marriage of a lesbian couple, whilst ordering that the state must protect them.

via San Diego Gay and Lesbian News.

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