Nicaragua's government gave its gays a pleasant surprise: legal consensual sex. The Latin American nation's new civil code goes into effect in March of 2008 and represents a decisive break with once-dominant catholic ideology. Blabbeando reports:

The president of the Nicaraguan Parliament's Commission of Justice and Legal Issues, José Pallais, explained that legislators had sought to "modernize" the civil code by not using it to regulate behavior based on the State's moral codes but by strictly addressing legal violations.

"We are not creating a Code of the Catholic Church here," he said, "we are creating a democratic Code under modern principles and principles of legality."

Not all of the Church's morals were abandoned, however: anti-abortion laws will stay in place. Shame…