NewsWrap for the week ending December 13, 2003 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #820, distributed 12-15-03) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored this week by Cindy Friedman and Christopher Gaal In what's believed to be the world's first decision by a nation's highest court on refugees from anti-gay persecution, Australia's High Court ruled this week not only that gays and lesbians constitute a "particular social group" who can qualify for asylum, but that a Bangladeshi couple could not be expected to remain closeted at home. Previously Australia's Refugee Review Tribunal had recognized that gays in Bangladesh could face ostracism, police abuse and criminal prosecution, yet the panel rejected the couple's application on the grounds that they could avoid harm by being "discreet" about their sexual orientation. Amnesty International assisted in the men's appeal to Australia's top court, which ruled 4-to-3 that the Bangladeshis' application for asylum should be reconsidered. In affirming that the men had a right to live openly, the majority wrote that, "The [1951] Convention [on Refugees] would give no protection from persecution for reasons of religion or political opinion if it was a condition of protection that the person affected must take steps -- reasonable or otherwise -- to avoid offending the wishes of the persecutors." The men's attorney Bruce Levet illustrated that principle by saying, "Had Anne Frank sought asylum in Australia, she could have been told, 'Go back to your attic, hide your Jewishness and you'll be safe." The names of the asylum seekers have been withheld for legal reasons, and it is not yet known when their application for asylum will be reconsidered. The men have lived together since 1994 and fled to Australia in 1999. Their claims of persecution in Bangladesh included rejection by their families, job loss, stoning, receiving 300 lashes, and being targeted for death in a fatwah issued by their local Islamic council. The High Court ruling could affect 40 to 50 gay and lesbian applicants per month in Australia alone, but it's expected to have much broader impact, not only for other grounds for asylum there, but to influence other nations' decisions as well. Italian gays and lesbians will be denied access to fertility treatments under a bill passed by 60% of the Senate this week. The strictly limited treatments that will be allowed will only be available to cohabiting heterosexual couples of child-bearing age. Sperm and egg donations by 3rd parties will be entirely banned and their use will be punishable by fines equivalent to as much as US$726,000. Italy's Chamber of Deputies already passed the bill last year but will take it up again for minor adjustments before it is signed into law. Opponents have already begun gathering signatures to petition for a repeal referendum. But last month the Canadian province of Manitoba began to offer alternative birth certificates that offer two lines labeled simply "name of parent" where the old forms listed "father" and "mother". The provincial Government views this as a natural extension of the law Manitoba enacted more than a year ago which extended adoption rights to same-gender couples. Certificates of name changes have also been modified for domestic partners who wish to share a surname. Legal same-gender marriages in Canada continue to roil the political waters, but for the first time an openly gay man will be part of the Cabinet discussing them. Member of Parliament from Nova Scotia Scott Brison was named Parliamentary Secretary for the Prime Minister this week as Paul Martin officially replaced the retiring Jean Chretien as PM. Brison had been a candidate for leadership of the Progressive Conservatives, but when that party merged with the right-wing Canadian Alliance to form a new Conservative Party of Canada last week, Brison defected to the ruling Liberal Party. Announcing his defection, he said, "All Progressive Conservatives now face a choice as to which political party in this new political landscape best reflects their personal values and beliefs. I've made my choice." Rumors have been rife that new PM Martin is not as ready as his predecessor to open full equal marriage rights to same-gender couples, particularly since recent polling has found only about 30% support for that move while another 30% would support a separate legal category for same-gender couples. When questioned at the time of his swearing-in, Martin said the Cabinet would discuss the matter. But his choice for Justice Minister, MP for Montreal Irwin Cotler, told reporters he thinks the Government should add the possibility of civil unions for gays and lesbians to the questions that were already sent to the Supreme Court of Canada for review by the Chretien administration. Relations with the U.S. are part of Brison's new responsibilities, and border-crossing gay and lesbian spouses have already begun to create issues. But while sexual orientation clearly hasn't hampered Brison's political career, that's not always the case elsewhere. This week Peru's President Alejandro Toledo demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Doctor Beatriz Merino and all her Cabinet in the wake of rumors including lesbian-baiting. Merino, a political independent and attorney who was appointed Peru's first-ever female PM just 6 months ago, is 56, unmarried, and shares a home with another woman and with her own aunt. She declares she is heterosexual. Reporters said it was Merino herself who told them off the record that Peru's Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani had warned her that a political rival she believed to be former PM Luis Solari had told him Merino's cohabitant was her partner in a lesbian relationship he labeled immoral. However, both the Cardinal and the former PM have denied any such conversations ever occurred. Still, Merino's latest public approval rating was more than 60%, while Toledo's is well below 20%, and there's continuing speculation as to her own possible Presidential candidacy. The two-year-old coalition Government of the German state of Hamburg, rocked in August by one party leader's "outing" threat that gay Mayor Ole von Beust viewed as attempted political extortion, fell apart this week. Christian Democrat von Beust fired right-winger Ronald Schill from public office in August, but the upstart political party Schill founded remained a coalition partner. This past week, the national chair of the Schill Party, Mario Mettbach, announced that Schill was no longer the Hamburg state party chair, and Schill responded by declaring a ban on Mettbach as national chair. Mettbach is also currently Hamburg's construction minister, and the hoopla was viewed as Ronald Schill's threat to have his followers abandon the coalition Government. Von Beust called this Schill Party infighting "an undignified Punch-and-Judy show with psychopathic traits," said he would not stand for this "political blackmail" any more than he had for August's personal threat, and called for new elections i n February. In Chile, a prominent judge was suspended this week in the wake of revelations that he had visited a gay bathhouse. Judge Daniel Calvo, married to a woman and father of five children, had been assigned by Chile's Supreme Court to lead the investigation into a suspected pedophile ring and child prostitution. During that investigation, TV reporters with a hidden camera taped a conversation at the bathhouse between its former owner and Calvo that revealed the judge's prior patronage there. Learning of the tape before its early November broadcast, Calvo issued a statement in early October affirming that he'd been to the bathhouse but denying that he's gay. He also claimed that the former bathhouse owner was hoping to use the tape to get him off the pedophile case. Calvo did leave that investigation in November, although reports differ as to whether he recused himself or the Supreme Court removed him. This week the Supreme Court suspended Calvo for 4 months while it investigates him, an invest igation which could well result in his expulsion from the judiciary. The whole affair is widely considered a serious setback in Chile's progress towards equality for gays and lesbians. But also this week, the former bathhouse owner and the 5 members of the Chilevision TV news team that made the tape were indicted for taping Calvo without his consent. If they're convicted, sentences could run to 1-1/2-years plus fines. And finally... as the notorious "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on U.S. military service by gays and lesbians passed its 10th anniversary on November 30th, 3 retired career servicemembers of unprecedented high rank came out as gay men to protest it. Army Brigadier General Keith Kerr, Army Brigadier General Virgil Richard, and Coast Guard Rear Admiral Alan Steinman all made their first public disclosures of their sexual orientation to the "New York Times". Previously the highest-ranking servicemember to come out was openly lesbian Washington State National Guard Colonel Greta Cammermeyer. The 3 men had joined a dozen other former officers organized by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to call for an end to the policy and for gays and lesbians to be allowed to serve openly. They said the policy is ineffective and actually serves as a ban -- in fact it's led to discharge for some 10,000 servicemembers. They maintain that it's the policy, and not the presence of gays and lesbians, that's been damaging to recruitment, retention and military readiness. And they were heartfelt in declaring that it also undermines core military values of truth, honor, dignity, respect, and integrity. Admiral Steinman, who didn't even tell his family he was gay until after his retirement, said, "I was denied the opportunity to share my life with a loved one, to have a family, to do all the things that heterosexual Americans take for granted. That's the sacrifice I made to serve my country."