ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has ruled the government must pay 100,000 euros ($157,700) in damages to a man who was told to retake a driving test because he was homosexual.

When 26 year-old Danilo Giuffrida told doctors he was gay at his medical examination for military service, they passed the information to the transport ministry, who told him he must repeat his driving test or have his license withdrawn due to his “sexual identity disturbance.”

Giuffrida agreed to re-take his test, passed it for a second time, but the ministry renewed his license for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality.

The judge ruling on the case in Catania, on the southern island of Sicily, said the actions of the defense and transport ministries showed “evident sexual discrimination” against Giuffrida and ran counter to his constitutional rights.

The behavior of the ministries led Giuffrida to have “a grave sense of mistrust towards the state,” added the judge, who ordered them to pay him 100,000 euros of damages in his verdict issued on Saturday.

Giuffrida’s lawyer said the case marked the first time the state had been punished for sexual discrimination, and he hoped Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would “summon Giuffrida and apologize to him on behalf of the state and all Italians.”

Giuffrida said the sentence was “a step forwards for civil rights because from now on what happened to me can’t happen again.”

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s first gay weddings were held on Tuesday when two couples, abetted by a sympathetic local mayor, defied the threat of criminal charges and the wrath of the Orthodox church to tie the knot on a tiny Aegean island.

One gay and one lesbian couple took advantage of the failure of Greek civil law to specify gender in matrimony, to wed at the municipal offices of the southeast Aegean island of Tilos.

“We are very moved and happy that we found someone to make our dream come true,” said Evangelia Vlami, one of the newlyweds and spokeswoman for Greece’s Gay and Lesbian Community (OLKE). “I am proud to be the first Greek Lesbian to get married”.

A Greek Orthodox priest described their homosexuality as a curse and the mayor of a neighbouring island said the sight of same-sex couples would upset “good families” on their holidays.

Vlami told Reuters her wedding took place early in the morning and two gay men followed soon after. Details had been kept under wraps until all official documentation was signed for fear the ceremonies might have been disrupted.

The weddings were held only a few days after a senior Greek prosecutor said the mayor of Tilos would face criminal charges if he officiated; but the mayor, Tassos Aliferis, told Reuters he was determined to defend what he saw as basic human rights.

The Justice Ministry said the marriages were illegal and all involved would face charges.

“The law does not allow marriage between homosexuals,” a Justice Ministry official who requested anonymity told Reuters. “The case will go to court; the mayor of Tilos will face charges.”

CHURCH OPPOSITION

But OLKE said it hoped the weddings would help change attitudes towards homosexuals in Greece, which has long preferred to turn a blind eye to homosexuality rather than acknowledge gay rights.

“This is terrible,” the mayor of the neighboring island of Rhodes, Hatzis Hatziefthimiou, told Ant1 TV. “We have good families coming here for holidays, we can’t have them coming to our beaches and seeing these kind of couples.”

While many European Union countries have established legislation allowing gay marriage or “registered partnership” rights to same-sex couples, neither are allowed in Greece.

The Netherlands was the first EU country to offer full civil marriage rights to gay couples in 2001 and Belgium followed in 2003. Spain legalized gay marriage in 2005, despite fierce opposition from the Roman Catholic Church.

Tuesday’s weddings drew immediate fire from the Orthodox church, which strongly opposes homosexuality.

“Homosexuality is a curse, a deadly sin, it goes against psychological and biological normality,” Father Stylianos Karpathiou told state NET TV.

COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Homosexuals have been designated an area in a Copenhagen cemetery for those who want to be buried among people who shared their sexual orientation, one of the project initiators said on Tuesday.

“We founded an association called Regnbuen (Rainbow) and our goal is that gays and lesbians can be buried next to each other,” Ivan Larsen told AFP.

The association has rented spots that can hold up to a total of 45 urns at Assistens cemetery. Each space costs 2,500 kroner (335 euros, 526 dollars).

The cemetery already hosts figures as diverse as the Danish fairytale author Hans Christian Andersen and the philosopher Soeren Kierkegaard.

The area the group has booked is separated from the rest of the cemetery by a large triangle of pebbles on the ground, with a massive rock placed on one of the angles.

“The triangle is our old symbol, but it is also a sign of suffering,” Larsen said, recalling that the Nazis forced homosexuals to wear a pink triangle.

The rainbow flag, a universal symbol for homosexuals representing diversity, will be placed on the rock, he added.

“We don’t want to isolate ourselves but we also feel a need to be together. We see this as a family grave, one that will be taken care of by our family,” said Larsen.