In January two lesbians became the first same-sex couple to register a “civil solidarity union” in Coahuila, the first Mexican state to legalise such partnerships.
In June 2008 the Supreme Court of California overturned a gay-marriage ban, making it the second state (Massachusetts was first) to legalise such unions.
That is mostly thanks to Habib Bourguiba, the founding father of the modern Tunisian state, who outlawed polygamy, granted women equal divorce rights and legalised abortion.
He also runs a dispensary for medical marijuana and sponsored a 2010 ballot measure in California to legalise marijuana completely in small amounts, whether medicinal or recreational.