NewsWrap for the week ending March 20, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #834, distributed 3-22-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored this week by Rick Watts and Cindy Friedman Quebec has become the third Canadian province where same-gender couples can legally marry, thanks to a ruling this week by its top provincial court. The Quebec Court of Appeal unanimously upheld a 2002 trial court decision that denying marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples violates Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It also cancelled the remaining 5-1/2 months of a suspension of that decision taking effect, so applications for licenses can now be accepted. The provincial high court dismissed a challenge to the trial court ruling by the Catholic Civil Rights League and the Evangelical Christian Fellowship, saying those groups lack the legal standing to appeal since the federal government had already withdrawn its own appeal. Clergy by law cannot be required to perform marriages in violation of their beliefs. The Court of Appeal found the groups' challenge moot and even questioned its own jurisdiction to take up their appeal, since the challengers have intervenor status in pending proceedings of the Supreme Court of Canada. That court will be reviewing questions the Canadian Government has submitted in preparing to develop a federal bill for marriage equality. Although Quebec is only the third province to open legal marriage to same-gender couples -- following Ontario and British Columbia -- those provinces are home to more than 70% of the Canadian population. The plaintiffs in the original Quebec ruling are activist couple Michael Hendricks and Rene Lebouef. They were prepared to hold their legal wedding even back in January when the Court of Appeal heard the case, in event of an immediate ruling in their favor. They filed their application for a marriage license immediately after this week's ruling was handed down. Yet after 30 years together and more than 5 years of legal proceedings leading up to this week's decision, they still must wait another 20 days to marry, as they were not granted an exemption from Quebec's standard waiting period. They've promised their April 6th ceremony will be "open to everyone." Marriage equality could be coming soon to Norway, which was the second nation in the world to establish registered partnerships for gays and lesbians with legal standing essentially equal to marriage. The SV or Socialist Left Party has proposed that the Parliament replace those partnerships with marriage. The Labor Party's position is seen as the deciding factor in the debate, and at least some of the party's leadership has already come out in favor of the move. The surprise general elections upset this week of the ruling Partido Popular in Spain -- widely attributed to the terrorist attacks there -- is apt to lead to legal recognition of same-gender couples. While there's been multi-party support for the move in the Spanish Parliament, the PP blocked numerous bills during its two terms of government. Socialist Party Prime Minister-to-be Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero this week told a television audience, "We are going to present a bill to set gay unions on the same footing as marriage. From a semantic point of view marriage may be a concept that does not cover this type of union, but it will have the same legal effects." Zapatero said legal standing for gay and lesbian couples is a mark of "a modern and tolerant society." Although the move was part of the Socialist Party's campaign platform, Zapatero was not ready to say when a bill might be introduced. Opposition from the Vatican has posed a barrier to legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples in heavily Catholic Spain. The nation's ranking Catholic, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, was joined by outgoing P.M. Jose Maria Aznar in expressing outrage at Zapatero's plan and calling on Catholics to actively oppose it. This week the Vatican supported the Islamic bloc at the United Nations in challenging UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's extension of spousal benefits to the UN's gay and lesbian employees. Those benefits are offered only to employees whose same-gender relationships are recognized at home, and awarded only after specific approval by their nations' UN delegations. Although only a handful of applications have been received since Annan announced the new policy less than two months ago, the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference raised a series of objections at a budget committee. They accused Annan of exceeding his authority by redefining family. Ironically, many of those Islamic nations recognize polygamous marriages, and UN employees from those nations are free to split their spousal benefits among multiple wives. The European Union, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were among the defenders of benefits for gay and lesbian partners, while the U.S. representative was not prepared to comment. The Islamic bloc indicated it would bring the issue to the UN Commission on Human Rights, which opened a session in Geneva this week. China this week approved its second legal marriage of a transwoman to a biological male. Zhang Lin received at the same time both a marriage certificate and a new identity card recognizing her post-surgical gender in Peng in Sichuan province. Zhang will wed Yang Qicheng before 500 guests in May. But a transwoman who applied for a marriage license in the U.S. state of Kansas was arrested and faces charges for falsifying an official document. Transwoman Sandy Clarissa Gast had previously legally changed her name and obtained a driver's license identifying her as female. But Leavenworth County prosecutors are following a Kansas state Supreme Court ruling in a high-profile inheritance case, that even sex reassignment surgery cannot change gender from how it was identified at birth. Also facing charges this week are the two Unitarian Universalist ministers who performed weddings for 13 gay and lesbian couples in New Paltz, New York. After New Paltz Mayor Jason West was stopped by both misdemeanor charges and civil court actions from continuing his "solemnizing" of same-gender marriages, ministers Kay Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey picked up where he left off. Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams proved just as willing to charge them as he was to charge West, even though its believed to be the first such prosecution of clergy in the U.S. There will be no lack of evidence, as numerous uniformed police officers were witnessing and recording the ceremonies. But many other questions are raised. For one, the ministers, unlike the mayor, are not sworn to uphold the law. For another, religious freedom is protected by the constitution -- and in fact, the 200,000-member Unitarian Universalist Church has formally blessed same-gender couples across the country for 35 years. Greenleaf and Sangrey plan to plead not guilty and fight the charges. A half-dozen of their colleagues have vowed to continue the New Paltz weddings -- but they've had to change the venue. The planned site had been a club called The Wave, but the New York State Liquor Authority warned its owner that such "illegal activity" might "reflect on" his liquor license. The ceremonies have been moved to the Lefevre House Bed & Breakfast. Irate clergy responded to the New Paltz action with a demonstration on the steps of New York City Hall. Although a rabbi and an Episcopalian minister performed 3 weddings of gay and lesbian couples while 30 other assorted clergy stood by, Manhattan's District Attorney had no interest in bringing charges against them. D.A. Robert Morgenthau believes civil lawsuits rather than criminal proceedings are appropriate for resolving the legal questions. At the moment, Oregon is the one U.S. state where a same-gender couple can obtain a marriage license. Although the state is refusing to register those marriages, this week Multnomah County officials announced they'll continue to issue licenses for them -- and the Benton County Board of Commissioners voted to begin doing so next week. Although the Governor and state Attorney-General have asked counties not to license same-gender couples until the Oregon Supreme Court has offered a decision, they may not have much real authority under state law to force counties to comply. So far the state has not initiated any actual legal action on the issue, although private parties have filed lawsuits to stop the licensing in both counties. While the state Supreme Court has taken a first small step, its opinion may or may not come any time soon. Many U.S. state legislatures continue to debate many bills against same-gender marriages. This week the New Hampshire state Senate approved by more than 2-to-1 a measure closely modeled on the federal so-called Defense of Marriage Act, to deny legal recognition of same-gender marriages performed outside the state. Also the Mississippi state Senate was unanimous in approving a proposed amendment to the state Constitution to restrict legal recognition exclusively to marriages of "one man and one woman". Both those measures move next to their respective state Houses. And finally... the U.S. media descended in force this week on Rhea County, Tennessee. The Associated Press reported that county commissioners had voted unanimously not only to ask state legislators to make it possible for them to bring criminal charges for so-called "crimes against nature," but also to have the county attorney look into how best to legally bar gays and lesbians from residing in the county -- because, one commissioner was quoted as saying, "We need to keep them out of here." With the eyes of the nation upon them, however, officials insisted that the only thing the commission was doing was trying to express their support for Tennessee's restriction of marriage to "one man and one woman" -- although admittedly they'd been angered by recent gay and lesbian marriage actions around the country. It may never be known for sure exactly what really was said or intended. But Rhea County rarely achieves visibility, perhaps only for its annual celebration of its 1925 legal victory against the teaching of evolution. Of course that Scopes "Monkey Trial" victory was later overturned, but the story lives on in the film "Inherit the Wind".