The United Nations has decided to recognise the gay marriages of all its staffers, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon announced on Monday. Previously, the United Nations only recognised the unions of employees who came from countries where gay marriage is legal, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. "This is a step forward that many of the staffers at the United Nations had been seeking for some time," Haq said. The new policy became effective on 26 June, and applies to the UN's approximately 43,000 employees worldwide. Employees of separate UN agencies, such as the children's agency Unicef and the UN cultural agency Unseco, are not affected by the change in policy, Haq said. According to the Pew Research Center, gay marriage is legal in 18 countries, plus parts of the United States and Mexico. But prejudice remains deep in many countries. An extreme case is Uganda, which in February passed a law making gay sex punishable by a life sentence. Source