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NEW DELHI (AP) — India's Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a petition by a Hindu astrologer who is seeking to annul a landmark ruling by a lower court to decriminalize homosexuality.In his petition, Sushil Kumar Kaushal said "even animals don't indulge in such activities," adding that allowing gay sex would help spread HIV/AIDS.The latest development indicated that despite a recent Delhi High Court ruling, gays in India still face a long battle to gain acceptance — social and legal — in this deeply conservative country where even heterosexual sex is talked about in hushed tones."If ...

BOSTON — Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, sued the U.S. government Wednesday over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.The federal Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in San Francisco said Thursday he wants to conduct a full trial on a lawsuit seeking to overturn California’s same-sex marriage ban because he expects the case eventually to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.During his first hearing on the suit, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said it was his job as a trial judge to settle any factual disputes surrounding the voter-approved ban and its effect on the civil rights of gays and lesbians before the case goes to a higher court.The judge, who was named to the bench by President George H.W. Bush, has ...