NewsWrap for the week ending March 8, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #780, distributed 3-10-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Martin Rice, Lucia Chappelle & Greg Gordon] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon Australia's national Senate this week approved a resolution calling for equal benefits for the same-gender partners of gay and lesbian servicemembers. The resolution was introduced by openly gay Australian Democratic Party Senator from West Australia Brian Greig, who said that while it didn't change the law, it put pressure on the Government to do so. His party was joined in supporting it by the Australian Labor Party although the ruling Coalition opposed it. The resolution is part of a continuing national campaign for equal military partner benefits, including a number of actions as the nation celebrated Australia Day in January. The Australian Defence Force formally lifted its ban on military service by gays and lesbians more than a decade ago. But although gay and lesbian servicemembers can list their partners as "next of kin," those partners still do not qualify for spousal benefits including housing benefits, relocation expenses, grief counseling, death benefits compensation, or survivors' pensions. Sweden's Government this week announced plans to register its citizens' gay and lesbian partnerships at its embassies that perform heterosexual marriages. Foreign Minister Anna Lindh told Sweden's parliament, "It is very important for Sweden for civil servants who officiate at weddings to be authorized also to officiate at the registration of partnerships. Once we have established that a country accepts partnership registration, we will begin to authorize our civil servants at those embassies." 21 Swedish embassies now perform marriages, and arrangements will first be made with 8 of the nations that host them, likely including France, Portugal and Israel. But hopes for civil marriages are fading in Israel, where currently only Orthodox Jewish rabbis can marry even heterosexual couples. The Shinui Party has broken its campaign promises by dropping its support for the Labor Party's civil marriage bill, apparently as part of negotiations in forming a governing coalition with the conservative establishment. Gay and lesbian couples led a protest demonstration outside the Knesset last week, releasing hundreds of balloons to symbolize Shinui's airy promises blowing away. And a bill to reserve legal marriage exclusively for heterosexual couples has been introduced in the parliament of American Samoa. It's sponsored by Representative Su'a Carl Shuster. Scotland too is gearing up for a struggle over legal recognition of unmarried couples, including gay and lesbian couples. At their party convention this week, the Opposition Liberal Democrats overwhelmingly adopted registered partnerships as a plank in their campaign platform for Scottish Parliament elections in May. Partnered gay delegate Richard Coxon waved his supermarket membership card as he told the convention, "The state does not give me anything to prove we are a partnership, but Tesco does. This is a joint card. ... If I want to prove we are in a settled relationship, I have to get Tesco to do it. This is lunacy." The Christian group Evangelical Alliance immediately vowed to mount a major campaign against what it called "a false image of marriage," to make it a key issue in the elections. The proposed registry would carry legal status equal to marriage in areas including employment, pensions, property, taxation, immigration, inheritance, adoption and fostering. Denmark's Government has greenlighted fostering by gays and lesbians, but rejected a move to allow them to adopt children from other countries. Those are the positions of the Minister for Social Affairs as reported by the "Copenhagen Post". The head of Denmark's national gay and lesbian group LBL, Peter Andersen, responded that, "It seems rather odd that the minister feels homosexuals can be trusted with other people's children but [are] not good enough to look after their own." Although Denmark became the first nation in the world to legally recognize same-gender couples well over a decade ago, LBL says it now lags far behind other European Union member nations. As South Africa's Constitutional Court heard arguments last week in the unusual case of a lesbian couple who are both biological parents of their twins, the judges criticized the Government more generally for dragging its feet on legal recognition of same-gender couples. In the case before the court, the women known as "J" and "B" used sperm from an anonymous donor for in vitro fertilization of an egg one donated and the other carried to term. The Durban High Court in November affirmed that they should both be named as mothers on the twins' birth certificates and declared unconstitutional the current law preventing that. South Africa's constitution was the first in the world to explicitly protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. Last month the Government decided to drop its opposition to the women's claim, but last week Government attorneys formally asked the Constitutional Court for a year's delay in implementing the legal change to allow the parliament to make the amendment. Judge Laurie Ackermann scoffed at the request, noting the government has failed to take action on the legal status of same-gender couples despite a series of legal judgments beginning in 1999. Other Constitutional Court judges supported Ackermann's contention that the issue urgently needs the Government's attention. The Court itself reserved judgment on both the Durban ruling and the Government request for a stay. U.S. courts and legislatures were also busy with gay and lesbian family issues this week. A federal appeals court heard a legal challenge to Florida's ban on adoptions by gays and lesbians, while Massachusetts' highest state court heard a lawsuit seeking to open legal marriage to same-gender couples. Neither ruling is expected for several months. In Florida a group is petitioning legislators to repeal the ban before the court issues its decision, while in Massachusetts Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas Finneran promised an amendment to the state constitution to prohibit gay and lesbian marriages should the court find in their favor. In Texas -- where same-gender marriages and their recognition are explicitly banned -- a trial court judge granted a divorce decree to a gay male couple who'd contracted a Vermont civil union. Those unions are generally not recognized by other states, and last year a Connecticut appeals court rejected one man's bid to dissolve his. Also in Texas, Houston's Klein Independent School District agreed to formation of a Gay Straight Alliance at Klein High School, settling a federal lawsuit brought by student Marla Dukler with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. While the agreement preserves the district's policy requiring written parental consent for participation, Dukler said that all 16 students wishing to join the club had obtained it. In California, a state appeals court reversed a trial court's dismissal to reinstate a San Diego lesbian's discrimination lawsuit. Guadalupe Benitez was denied artificial insemination services by doctors at the North Coast Women's Care Medical Group, she claims because of their religious objections. Benitez had to go elsewhere and pay for the service, which her health plan would have covered at that clinic. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is representing Benitez, said the ruling is the first of its kind in the US to say that health care providers cannot discriminate against patients based on sexual orientation. The California state agency overseeing adoptions and foster care has ordered a Santa Ana-based private agency to stop discriminating against gays and lesbians. The state's Community Care Licensing Division ordered Olive Crest Foster Family and Adoption Agency to develop a non-discriminatory recruitment policy. In doing so, the state upheld a claim by lesbian couple Dr. Shannon Rose and Jane Brooks that Olive Crest had deliberately stalled in processing their application to adopt. Rose and Brooks may also take their case to court. Last week a federal jury in Maryland rejected a San Francisco man's claim of discrimination against the Maryland Shock Trauma Center for denying him visitation with his now-deceased registered partner. Bill Flanigan had a power of attorney for health care for his late partner Robert Daniel, but was unable to obtain any information about his status from the center for four hours until Daniel's mother and sister arrived. Lambda Legal Defense is likely to appeal on his behalf. An Iowa bill to explicitly prohibit gay and lesbian couples from adopting or fostering children has died for this legislative session. Although a state Senate committee had considered the much-protested bill last month, it took no vote, and now Republican Senate Majority Leader Stewart Iverson has told reporters that it will neither advance to the floor nor be reintroduced. Also dead for the year is the gay-inclusive hate crimes bill that surprisingly passed the Utah state House last week, only to be immediately voted to be reconsidered. This week its sponsor, Democratic Representative from Salt Lake City David Litvack, chose to let it die quietly rather than see it be defeated after what he feared would be a "divisive and ugly" debate. Litvack promised to reintroduce the measure next year, although 2004 elections may make passage still more difficult. But the Hawai'i state Senate this week approved a bill to add "gender identity and expression" as a category protected under the state Hate Crime Law. All 20 Democrats supported the measure, joined by only 2 Republican Senators. The bill moves next to the Hawai'i House. And finally... Cricket's World Cup tournament included Zimbabwe despite some protests against human rights violations by its notoriously homophobic President Robert Mugabe. The event opened last month in Cape Town with a globally televised ceremony in which each of the 14 teams was led on to the field by a model. It emerged only last week that the beautiful Barbara Diop, who marched at the head of Zimbabwe's own team, is a transwoman.