But in some struggles, there's actually a little progress

Not that it's over by any means, but yes, there are signs of progress.

In June, Norway became the latest country to legislate in favour of allowing same-sex marriages,

says the Inter Press news service, adding that three EU countries - Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain - also provide for the right to same-sex marriage. (Although Norway cooperates closely with the EU, technically it is not a member.)

Theo Sandfort, a science professor at New York's Columbia University, said it is "reassuring to know that worldwide acceptance of homosexuality is increasing," judging by the results of various opinion polls that have been undertaken since the early 1980s.

These surveys indicate that the societies of the Netherlands, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark are the most tolerant towards homosexuality and that Bangladesh, Pakistan and Jordan the least tolerant.

Closer to home, a week ago the Massachusetts state Senate voted

to repeal a 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from marrying here. The law prohibits couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they could not legally wed in their home states.

After Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriages in 2004, then-Gov. Mitt Romney ordered town clerks to enforce the little-known law and deny licenses to out of state couples.

The House has yet to vote on the bill, with some "disgruntled" members pissed off at having to vote on a "hot-button" bill in an election year. One member who opposes equal marriage rights tut-tutted that

he isn’t sure the House will have time to take up the vote considering the heavy backlog of bills lawmakers will face in the next two weeks.

“We have so many things going on, I don’t know whether the Speaker is prepared to bring it up,” [Rep. Paul] Donato said, adding he hasn’t made a decision on how he will vote on the repeal.

Oh, yeah, we'd love to do this, but we're just so busy. Clearly, the decision he has made is to try to avoid having to take a stand at all - which itself is a sign of how things have changed: Not that long ago, someone like Donato would have bragged about his intention to vote against repeal.

Despite the grousing, the bill is expected to come up sometime in the next two weeks, perhaps sooner, and will very likely pass. Gov. Deval Patrick has already said he will sign it. According to an analysis by the state's Office of Housing and Economic Development, repeal will bring thousands of couples to Massachusetts,

boosting the economy by $111 million, creating 330 jobs and generating $5 million in taxes and fees over three years.

Plus the added benefit of making a number of right-wing heads explode.

Across the country, there is also some encouraging news: The California ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage looks to be in trouble. John Aravosis at Americablog says that a new Field poll has the measure trailing in public support by 51-48. Polls this far out don't mean a lot, of course, but Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo points out that ballot questions usually have their highest level of support at the beginning of a campaign and become less popular over time. "Over 90 percent of propositions that start out behind get taken down," he said.

Not all of the news is good, of course: The IPS also reported that in May,

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh issued homosexuals with a 24-ultimatum to leave the West African country, threatening to decapitate those who remained,

and that the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency recently said that 11 of the EU's 27 member nations "appear hostile" to the recognition of gay marriages. And yet - and yet almost all the motion is in the right direction. It was, again, not that long ago that it would have seemed surprising to find that 11 of 27 European nations were not hostile to same-sex marriage. The time of justice is not yet but it is coming.

Footnote, My Grandma Coulda Told 'Em That Div.: The IPS said that a 2007 article published by the Psychological Society of South Africa indicated that homophobia is closely linked to sexism. Duh.