NewsWrap for the 2 weeks ending January 3, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #823, distributed 1-5-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored this week by Cindy Friedman and Jon Beaupré Argentina's parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, has voted to amend the national Antidiscrimination Law to make "sexual orientation" and "gender identity or its expression" protected categories. The law defines as discriminatory "acts and omissions motivated by" these and 18 other reasons. The national gay and lesbian civil rights group called CHA, Communidad Homosexual Argentina, led almost two decades of lobbying to win the early December vote, which it called "an historic step in the recognition of the rights of gay/lesbian/transgender/transsexual/bisexual people in the entire nation." Sexual orientation-based discrimination is now prohibited in employment by the executive branch of the U.S. state of Michigan, under an executive order Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm issued on Christmas Eve. About 55,000 state civil service jobs are covered by the order. The national group Human Rights Campaign says that only 10 other U.S. states have adopted similar employment policies. In South Korea, the Seoul High Court has issued a ruling against the nation's first gay Web site, X-Zone -- yet the decision itself is supportive of gays' and lesbians' constitutional rights to free expression and the pursuit of happiness. The government's Information and Communications Ethics Committee, which censors the Internet in South Korea, had designated X-Zone as "harmful to minors," and X-Zone was asking the court to override that ruling. The judge apparently did not really have that choice, since there was no higher court precedent on enforcing the anti-gay clause of the so-called Youth Protection Law governing Internet censorship. But while finding against X-Zone, the judge suggested that the law may violate the constitutional rights of gays and l esbians, and expressed doubts as to its listing of homosexuality among "acts of perversion". The government's own sex education guidelines for teachers already recognize homosexuality as "a human lifestyle and ... a form of affection." Indonesia's first film clearly showing a gay kiss has not only escaped government censorship, it's become a box office hit -- and it may even be opening some viewers' minds in the Muslim-dominated nation. The film is called "Arisan!" -- meaning a popular Indonesian tradition of friends and family meeting on a regular basis to gamble and socialize -- and it satirizes Jakarta's super-rich elite. The three lead characters are two married women struggling with infidelity and their gay friend Sakti, who is struggling with his orientation. As well as his passionate smooch with a new partner, the film includes an aerial shot of gay oral sex in a public bathroom. Australia's first registered partnerships were contracted on the first business day of 2004 in Tasmania. Tasmanian partnerships are open not only to same-gender couples, but to a broad range of state residents in relationships the new law calls "significant and caring". Registry carries essentially all the state-level legal rights and responsibilities of marriage, as the term "partner" has now replaced "husband," "wife" and "de facto" in numerous Tasmanian laws. The biggest exception is the ability to adopt an unrelated child as a couple, although partners can co-adopt each other's children. The first to register were Michael Carnes and Bob Lavis of Bruny Island, who've been together for 17 years. The first lesbians were Lee Hyland and Bec Wealands of Launceston, a couple of 5 years' standing who plan to have children by artificial insemination. Hobart couple of 2 years Jason Kemp and Mark White, along with Hyland and Wealands and veteran activist Rodney Croome, together ceremonially cut a cake decorated with a rainbow and the word "Equal". Church weddings for gays and lesbians will be held by the 3 largest Protestant denominations in the Netherlands, which was the first nation in the world to open legal marriage to same-gender couples. The synods of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Calvinist Reformist Church and the Lutheran Church have voted to merge those denominations into the Protestant Church of the Netherlands effective in May. The united body will permit same-gender weddings, although no individual church will be required to perform them. Roman Catholics outnumber Protestants by about 2-to-1 in the Netherlands. Pope John Paul II continued the Vatican's global campaign against legal recognition of same-gender couples on the first Sunday of 2004, attributing that growing movement to what he called "a misunderstood sense of rights". He reaffirmed that heterosexual marriage is sacred, calling it a "human and divine" gift, and said, "It is necessary that at every level, the efforts of those who believe in the importance of the family based on matrimony unite." But more than a score of Roman Catholic priests in the Chicago area took issue with their church's homophobia in a joint "Open Letter to the Hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church". They declared themselves "increasingly disturbed" with "the increase in the use of violent and abusive language" in Church documents relating to homosexuality, language they labeled not only "pastorally destructive" but "vile and toxic". They called not only for an immediate end to such language, but asked "that all those in official positions of teaching authority in the Church refrain from any more statements directed at the gay and lesbian members of the Body of Christ, and instead begin an earnest dialogue with those same members..." Pledging themselves to extend respect and dignity to all, they wrote, "We join the countless men and women, heterosexual and homosexual, who seek justice, mercy and compassion in and through the Catholic Church." China's first transman this week became the nation's first transsexual to legally marry there. According to government sources, the transman known as "A-gang" married a woman known as "Xiaoli" in the city of Chengdu. The couple had been living together for 3 years, but they could not officially marry until after A-gang underwent sex reassignment surgery in May and received a revised identity card. A-gang told the "Chengdu Commercial Daily," "All these years, I've yearned for love but never imagined I would taste it. And when I finally met Xiaoli, I didn't dare to think about marriage. I'm lost for words now that I've finally fulfilled both my wishes." And finally... the changing of the year is the season of awards, and lesbigays have been among the honorees. South African veteran gay activist Zackie Achmat and a group he chairs, Treatment Action Campaign, were both formally nominated for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize by the U.S.-based American Friends Service Committee, for what it called "a significant contribution to the global struggle against AIDS." Nigeria's first lesbigay and trans- group, Alliance Rights Nigeria, was honored by the national group Journalists Against AIDS with a Breaker of Silence Award at its late December Red Ribbon Awards ceremony. The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers awarded its annual Golden Pen of Freedom to openly gay Uzbek journalist Ruslan Sharipov, who remains in prison on a sodomy conviction widely believed to have been designed to silence his criticism of the government. Calling for his release, the group said, "The award... recognizes Mr. Sharipov's outstanding defense and promotion of press freedom in the face of constant physical danger, prison and censorship. His refusal to censor himself, even in the face of intimidation, prison and torture, is a courageous act that is an inspiration to journalists and human rights everywhere." The U.S. Religion Newswriters Association named as its Religion Newsmaker of the Year Gene Robinson, the first openly partnered gay to be consecrated as a bishop by the Episcopal Church USA and a source of controversy throughout the global Anglican Communion. "TIME Magazine"'s 2003 Canadian Newsmaker of the Year was actually a gay male couple, Michael Leshner and Michael Stark of Toronto, who capped their years of activism for equal marriage rights by becoming the first same-gender couple in the nation to receive a legal marriage license, following an historic ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal. There were 3 entries of interest on Queen Elizabeth's New Year's Honours List for the UK. Openly gay Police Inspector Paul Cahill, chair of the UK-wide Gay Police Association, becomes a Member of the British Empire for "services to diversity within the police and to the wider gay community in London." Bisexual film and stage director Stephen Daldry, whose work includes "Billy Elliot" and "The Hours", already had his MBE but is now elevated to Commander of the British Empire. One of Scotland's newest MBE's is Anna Patrizio, the mother of a gay son who was honored for her work with Parent's Enquiry Scotland, a helpline for parents of lesbigay children. Also on the New Year's Honours List, the newest Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit are openly lesbian entertainers The Topp Twins, Lynda and Jools. Along with becoming successful on television and about 25 years of activism for gay and lesbian equality, they've also worked against apartheid and nuclear weapons and for Maori land rights. And with Italy's New Year's honors list, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi conferred one of the nation's highest honors on a hero who had been considered one of its lowest citizens. The Medaglia d'Oro al Merito Civile goes to a homeless gay cross-dresser, who turned 57 on Christmas Eve -- a birthdate that gave him the first name "Natale," an Italian equivalent of "Noel". In mid-December, Natale Morea intervened to stop two young men who were attacking and robbing a group of young women. Others heard their screams and saw what was happening, but took no action. Morea remains in a coma from the beating the men gave him, but his sacrifice gave the women the chance to escape. They notified police, leading to the arrest of the men, who'll be charged with attempted murder for their attack on Morea. There's hope that Morea will regain consciousness, and when he does, he'll no longer have to sleep in the streets of Rome: Mayor Walter Veltroni left by his hospital bed the keys to a city-owned flat.