"Everyone's belief has to be respected," Lastman told the crowd at Nathan Phillips Square. "I'm not asking you to believe what others believe, but I'm saying they have the right to feel the way they do and they have the right to do what they want. There's nothing wrong with what they're doing to each other. [pause] I always do that -- I always mess up!

"Human rights are important and that's what's behind all of this," Lastman continued. "It's the right thing to do. We all have to have pride in ourselves -- if you don't like yourself, how can anyone else like you? And what do you tell kids who are gay? Not to like themselves? It's wrong."

Gay City Councillor Kyle Rae called the event "a great day to be queer."

The April decision came in a case where Canada's largest union had been prevented from paying pensions to same-sex couples due to Revenue Canada's heterosexist definition of "spouse." Pension plans must be registered with Revenue Canada to be tax-free.

The decision not to appeal likely will result in other federal laws that define "spouse" being rewritten as well.

Tim Bedford, a high-school teacher in Oulu, filed suit after he was roughed up and kicked out of a predominantly gay bar for kissing his boyfriend on the dance floor.

The court fined the doorman who assaulted Bedford and ordered him to pay court costs.

"This shows that the law exists and that laws are worth more than the paper they're written on,' said Rainer Hiltunen, head of the national Finnish gay-rights group SETA.

Rex Wockner's weekly international news reports dating back to May 1994 can be searched at http://www.wockner.com. The reports in their original form are archived at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/wockner.html, which also archives Wockner's Quote Unquote column and some of his longer gay-press articles.