A Syrian military court July 4 sentenced lawyer and activist Haitham Maleh to three years in prison for campaigning against the emergency rule under which Syria has been governed since 1963. Defense lawyers for Maleh said he was charged with "weakening national morale." The 78-year old former judge was put on trial in October 2009 sparking criticism from the US government and several human rights groups.

On June 30 Haitian president René Préval rejected changes US senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), the leading minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proposed for presidential and legislative elections that are now scheduled for Nov. 28. In a report earlier in the month, Lugar called for international "partners" to help restructure the eight-member Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and for candidates from the Lavalas Family (FL) party of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996 and 2001-2004) to be allowed to run. The legislative elections were scheduled for Feb. 28 but had to be postponed because of a massive earthquake on Jan. 12. The elections are expected to cost $29.6 million, with the Haitian government providing $7 million and international donors supplying the rest.

Dozens of demonstrators were injured at Puerto Rico's Capitol building June 30 when riot police used batons and tear gas to keep hundreds of students and their supporters from entering a session of the Legislature that was to vote on unpopular budget cuts and a measure to end student assemblies. Senate president Thomas Rivera Schatz had apparently closed the public galleries before the vote, and the next day a police agent reportedly testified that the police violence had been planned in advance.

On June 30 a five-member panel of Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) announced that it had decided by a four-to-one vote to release campesino activist Ignacio del Valle Medina and 11 other members of the Front of the Peoples in Defense of the Land (FPDT) who had been imprisoned since a confrontation in May 2006 between México state police and residents of San Salvador Atenco municipality northeast of Mexico City. The justices ruled that the state's charges against the activists—for kidnapping state officials—were based on "false and feeble premises" and used "impermissible evidence."

Hundreds of Puerto Ricans marched on June 6 in the island's 20th Pride event, held in San Juan's beachfront El Condado neighborhood. Olga Orraca, coordinator of the Rainbow Pride Coalition, which organized the march, said that that this year's event was intended not only to reaffirm the community's visibility but also to denounce hate crimes against LGBT people. Orraca and Human and Constitucional Rights Commission president Osvaldo Burgos criticized the inaction of the police in dealing with hate crimes eight years after a hate crimes law went into effect. (SentidoG, June 6 from El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico)

The 32nd annual Pride march in the Mexican capital, held on June 26, began with a moment of silence for journalist and activist Carlos Monsivais, who died on June 19 at the age of 72. Speakers noted Mexico's many famous LGBT writers and artists, including Salvador Novo and Frida Kahlo. "This march isn't about partying, it's about struggle and protest" was the slogan of the contingent that started the march from the Angel of Independence down the Paseo de la Reforma. Many marchers were calling for the right to same-sex marriage, established in Mexico City on Dec. 21, to be extended to the rest of the country. Contingents from outside Mexico City included The Two Mommies organization from the northeastern state of Nuevo León and Catholics for the Right to Decide, based in the states of Querétaro, Oaxaca and Guerrero, which calls for education to prevent discrimination. (Milenio, Mexico, June 27)

On June 27 about 200 Costa Ricans joined a Pride march along Paseo Colón to the central park in San José. "Being gay isn't a sickness, it's a sexual preference," said one of the participants in the march, which was initiated by a group of female impersonators who perform in local discotheques. Abelardo Araya, a spokesperson for the Diversity Movement, said his group didn't support the march, which he said "reaffirms myths and prejudices." The Diversity Movement is leading opposition to a referendum scheduled for Dec. 5 on the right to same-sex marriage; LGBT activists fear that conservative Catholics voters will defeat efforts for marriage equality.

LGBT organizations in Cochabamba, Bolivia, held their fourth annual Pride event on June 26, marching from Las Banderas plaza to Colón square. Two days later, on June 28, Bolivian LGBT activists celebrated the first official Day of People With Diverse Sexual Orientation, which the government of President Evo Morales created on July 1, 2009 with Supreme Decree 0189. "We want to give an acknowledgment to all those who have been supporting us continually in everything that's a process of making human rights issues visible," said Luis Ayllón Martínez, general director of the organization Equity. (Los Tiempos, Cochabamba, June 27; SentidoG, Buenos Aires, June 28)