NewsWrap for the week ending May 1, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #840, distributed 5-3-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored this week by Rick Watts and Cindy Friedman Canada's Criminal Code will soon protect gays and lesbians from hate propaganda. The federal Senate approved the move by an almost 6-to-1 margin this week, leaving only the formality of royal assent for enactment. 56% of the House of Commons had voted for it in September, but organized opposition had significantly stalled the Senate vote. Canadian law already recognized physical attacks motivated by homophobia as hate crimes. The passage of C-250 is quite remarkable since it's a private member's bill from a small opposition party. That rare victory belongs to openly gay New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Svend Robinson, who's been working for the change for many years. Ironically, it comes when he's on medical leave and at least for now out of politics, after admitting to shoplifting a valuable ring. The incitement to hatred statute already criminalizes verbal attacks based on color, ethnicity, race, and religion. Some religious conservatives claimed the addition of sexual orientation could make sermons subject to criminal charges, and even that the Bible could be declared hate literature. But the law does allow for religion-based arguments made in good faith, and prosecution requires prior approval by the Attorney General. The religious exemption in Britain's law against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation won a limited legal victory this week. The challenge was brought by 7 trade unions, which claimed the exemption for faith-based organizations is flawed and incompatible with European law. London High Court Justice David Richards upheld the exemption in general, but did impose one significant limitation. He found that teachers in religious schools are "likely" to have full protection from sexual orientation discrimination. The judge gave the unions leave to take the case on to the Court of Appeal. Britain's Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Act only went into effect in December, as part of the Labour Government's move to comply with a European Union directive. Last week the European Parliament adopted a human rights resolution that reaffirmed its support for equal treatment of gays and lesbians. However, just three weeks earlier the EP rejected a report on civil rights in the EU that called for recognition of all unmarried couples across borders and full marriage and adoption rights for gay and lesbian couples. French law will not recognize same-gender marriages, the Justice Minister announced this week. The question was sparked by Green MP Noel Mamere's plan to marry a gay male couple in June in his capacity as mayor of a Bordeaux area town. But while Mamere claimed to have found no law explicitly prohibiting that action, Justice Minister Dominique Perben flatly called that a lie. Perben, of the ruling center-right UMP, cited a line from the civil code that the parties to a marriage declare "that they want to take each other as husband and wife." He said prosecutors will take action to block the marriage in advance or to annul it afterwards. Mamere had already said the marriage could serve as a test case in the European Court of Human Rights. But Perben says the treaty that court is designed to uphold -- the European Convention on Human Rights -- defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Since 2000, France has allowed same-gender couples to gain many of the benefits of marriage through Pacts of Civil Solidarity. Germany's two-year-old legal registered partnerships for same-gender couples gained new power this week with a ruling by the federal labor court. The court found that those so-called life partnerships -- Eingetragenelebensgemeinschaften -- confer family status, and that civil servants must be granted full spousal benefits for their registered partners. The case before the court was brought by a nurse who had been denied the full location allowance his married colleagues received. Ireland's influential Law Reform Commission this week issued a new report recommending legal recognition of unmarried domestic partners, including gay and lesbian couples. The Commission believes there should be a mechanism for those couples to obtain a number of rights which come automatically with marriage, in areas including healthcare, pensions, social welfare, and taxation. For those couples who have cohabited for at least three years -- or two if a child is involved -- there should also be recognition with respect to inheritance and property, and for support should the couple break up. The Commission noted that the number of cohabiting couples in Ireland had more than doubled from 1996 to 2002 to become about 8-1/2% of the population, although identified gay and lesbian couples are only a small fraction of that group. Maine will become the 5th U.S. state to register domestic partners beginning in 3 months. This week 56% of the state Senate voted for final approval of a bill 59% of the state House had already supported 2 weeks earlier, and Governor John Baldacci promptly signed it into law. The Maine registry will allow cohabitants of at least 12 months' standing -- regardless of gender -- to gain next-of-kin status, spousal inheritance rights in the absence of a will, and priority for serving as guardians or conservators for incapacitated partners. Domestic partner benefits will actually be on the way out among some larger employers in Massachusetts, as that state gears up to offer the United States' first legal marriages to gays and lesbians in mid-May. The state has neither a partnership registry of its own nor any legal requirement that employers extend spousal benefits to unmarried workers' cohabitants, but a number of companies there have offered the benefits to remain competitive. Now, though, some explain that the benefits were offered to gay and lesbian employees because they couldn't marry -- and if those workers want to keep receiving the benefits, they'll have to marry fairly promptly once they can. Massachusetts Republican Governor Mitt Romney has vigorously opposed the marriages ordered by the state's highest court. Now he has written to the governors and attorneys-general of all the other US states, saying Massachusetts will marry non-resident same-gender couples only if their home state promises to recognize the marriage. He told the "New York Times" that, "Massachusetts should not become the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage. We do not intend to export our marriage confusion to the entire nation." This week in neighboring New Hampshire, the House of Representatives approved a bill to explicitly deny recognition to same-gender marriages performed outside the state. The New Hampshire state Senate had previously approved a bill to the same effect, but it may not be easy for the chambers to compromise on a single measure -- the two versions differ with respect to other kinds of legal partnerships. Australian Prime Minister John Howard is considering legislation to deny legal recognition to same-gender marriages. Proposed amendments to the Marriage Act would both reject same-gender marriages performed in another country and block Australian courts from legalizing them. Howard said, "The proposal would be to simply insert a definition in the Marriage Act which gives formal expression to what most people regard to be the case -- and that is marriage, as we understand it in Australia, is between a man and woman. This is not directed at gay people. It's directed at reaffirming a bedrock understanding of our society. ... There are certain institutions that we understand to have a certain meaning and why not say so?" The gay-supportive Australian Democrats and Greens were quick to criticize the idea, including accusing the Liberal Party-led ruling coalition of playing U.S.-style "wedge issue" politics for upcoming elections. The world lost one of its most distinguished poets this week with the passing of Thom Gunn at the age of 74. Born and educated in England, Gunn moved to San Francisco in the 1950s to study. He remained there, serving on the U.C.-Berkeley faculty until retiring four years ago. His more than 30 published books won him numerous honors in both the U.S. and the U.K., including major poetry prizes and both Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships. He's survived by his partner of 52 years Mike Kitay. And finally... While France is debating same-gender marriage, prime time TV there has begun showing an ad featuring a gay male couple for the first time. Reportedly the only prior inclusive TV ad there showed one gay couple for one second in a collage with 19 heterosexual pairs. The latest entry comes from Procter & Gamble, which hasn't been quite so daring with its ads back where it's based in the US. The product is the laundry detergent Vizir, considered by two 30-something men comparing their white shirts. "You like the strength and the mildness, don't you?" asks one to the other's agreement. There's some debate among experts as to whether the ad pitches to the mainstream or the gay audience -- the dialogue includes certain innocent-sounding phrases which carry more sexual meanings in French gay slang. But it definitely has a happy ending, as one man tells the other, "This shirt looks good on you" and caresses him.