Having become the first country in South America to allow gay couples to marry, Argentina has passed a bill giving transgender citizens the right to have their gender recognised in law.
In a bill that is the first of its kind, California looks set to partially ban so-called 'conversion' or 'reparative' therapy that claims to 'wean people off' their homosexuality.
Barack Obama, the president of the United States, has announced in an interview with ABC News that he thinks gay couples should have the same legal right to marry as heterosexual couples.
With equal marriage laws absent from the Westminster government's legislative agenda for the coming year, Scottish campaigners say Holyrood is in a position to become a 'beacon' of equality by introducing the laws first.