NewsWrap for the week ending August 7, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #854, distributed 8-9-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Reported this week by Dean Elzinga and Cindy Friedman As of this month, equal treatment is guaranteed to lesbigays by Portugal's Constitution. With an amendment officially published in late July and effective in August, Article 13 -- which ensures that "all citizens... are equal before the law" -- now declares that, "No one shall be privileged or favored, or discriminated against, or deprived of any right or exempted from any duty, by reason of his or her... sexual orientation" or ten other characteristics. Only a handful of nations in the world explicitly protect lesbigays from discrimination in their constitutions, and Portugal is the first in Europe to do so. The European Union's executive office is taking action against several member states for failing to enact national anti-discrimination laws before a deadline a year ago. The EU Directives adopted in 2000 require national legislation against employment discrimination based on a half-dozen characteristics including "sexual orientation," and broader protections from racial discrimination. The European Commission is taking five countries to the European Court of Justice: Luxembourg and Germany for failing to report changes to their laws, and Austria, Finland and Greece for incomplete changes. The Commission also sent a warning to Belgium. The countries will submit their responses in September. But a court's ruling for equality was no guarantee of safety for the group Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, GALZ. They won a High Court judgment last year to allow them to display their literature at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair -- but when they actually did that this week, they were driven from their stall by a screaming mob. At least 3 GALZ members staffing the booth were physically assaulted before they fled. It must've felt like deja vu -- when G ALZ first exhibited at the Book Fair in 1995, a mob tore their stand apart. In the years since then, the group saw a significant decrease in official repression and growth in public understanding -- despite President Robert Mugabe's continuing vocal homophobia. As this year's Book Fair opened, GALZ' presence was publicly condemned by minister Obadiah Musindo, head of the Destiny of Africa Network, as both immoral and an attack on Mugabe. The man most responsible for Canada's new hate crimes protections for lesbigays -- the nation's first openly gay Member of Parliament Svend Robinson -- this week pleaded guilty to theft. Under his conditional sentence, if he continues psychiatric counseling, performs 100 hours of community service, and passes a year's probation, he will not have a criminal record. He had already written a letter of apology to the auction company which displayed the C$65,000 ring he pocketed in April. He soon turned himself and the ring in to police. In a public statement at the time, he blamed stress for his "irrational" action, and ended his 25-year career in national politics by taking medical leave and withdrawing his candidacy for reelection. Throughout his career he was a vocal advocate for equality, the environment and peace -- and a left-wing voice for conscience. This week he told the court, "This has been a shattering experience for me. I feel remorse and shame for a totally unthinkable action." The judge accepted that the hard-working MP "ran himself ragged" and suffered enough in "the avalanche of public ignominy". When Robinson committed the theft, he'd been shopping for a ring for his partner Max Riveron. Also in Canada, New Brunswick's provincial government announced this week that it will be paying pension benefits to all the surviving unmarried partners of its deceased civil servants, including same-gender partners. New Brunswick's Human Resources Minister Rose-May Poirier said that the provincial government is fixing a loophole that had excluded those survivors from several pension plans established by legislation, including survivors of teachers and judges among others. Non-legislative pension plans in the province already covered its workers' unmarried partners. But the Italian Government this week announced that it's taking legal action against Tuscany's new domestic partners statute, which extends many legal benefits of marriage to the region's cohabiting couples regardless of gender. A Cabinet spokesperson said the legal recognition of "different forms of cohabitation" is unconstitutional. Some right-wing politicians applauded the Government action as a move against immorality, but some on the left said the national leaders' action is inconsistent with their campaign promises to devolve power to regional councils like Tuscany's. Ironically the coalition Government's move comes just as a committee of the national parliament is about to review five different bills to create legal registered partnerships -- and that's five selected from thirteen such proposals submitted. The continuing U.S. struggle over marriage equality for same-gender couples moved to the state level this week, with a legal victory in Washington and an electoral defeat in Missouri. In Seattle, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing ruled that Washington's state law restricting legal marriage to heterosexual couples violates the state constitution's guarantee of equal legal treatment. The case was brought by Lambda Legal and the Northwest Women's Law Center on behalf of eight same-gender couples desiring marriage licenses. Downing's decision described the plaintiffs as "law-abiding, taxpaying model citizens" and declared that, "The characteristics embodied by these plaintiffs are ones that our society needs more of, not less. ... There is no worthwhile institution that they would dishonor, much less destroy." But while Downing's ruling was entirely favorable to same-gender marriage -- even stronger than a similar recent decision in Oregon -- it's just the first round. His order to issue marriage licenses to same-gender couples is stayed pending a ruling by the state's top court. Given there's been so much criticism of "unelected activist judges," it's worth mention that Downing's judicial post *is* an elected one -- and he's up for reelection this year. But ostensibly it's because of court rulings like his, which place so-called Defense of Marriage laws like Washington's on shaky ground, that conservatives are seeking to amend the U.S. constitution and the constitutions of its individual states to restrict legal marriage to one man and one woman. The federal version failed a procedural vote on the U.S. Senate floor, but this week Missouri was the first of what could be more than a dozen states this year to put a similar state constitutional amendment before its citizens. The result was conclusive: the measure passed in every single county, with a landslide 70% majority overall in unofficial results. Missouri becomes the fifth state to constitutionally deny marriage to same-gender couples. More individuals voted on the proposed amendment than any other issue or office on the ballot, and the voter turnout of nearly 43% was the state's highest for a primary election in at least a quarter-century and far above average. That's significant because Democrats have accused Republicans of pushing the issue solely to motivate their religious right base to go to the polls, with the expectation that once there, they'd support the reelection of Republican President George W. Bush. So many pundits are reading the Missouri turnout as a hopeful sign for the President -- yet it's also been noted that the bulk of those voters were Democrats. Louisiana is expected to vote on a similar state constitutional amendment in mid-September, unless a legal challenge stops it. At least eight and possibly eleven or more states will consider their own constitutional amendments in the November plebiscite. Australian Prime Minister John Howard this week declared an entirely different strategy -- he wants to see his Government's proposals against gay and lesbian couples enacted before he calls the next federal election. He told the religious right National Marriage Coalition's national forum in Canberra, "I think it would be a great pity if this issue were left hanging in an election campaign. If people who criticize me say, 'Oh well, it's just a political diversion,' well, I would say to them... remove the diversion by putting the law through before the election starts... everyone can say it's a united expression of the national parliament and therefore the will of the Australian people." What Howard's Government has tried twice already this year to ram through the Parliament is a move to deny legal recognition to both marriages and adoptions by same-gender couples, particularly those performed outside the country. One version has been referred to a Senate committee for an inquiry process including a legal review and an opportunity for public comment. But this time Howard is splitting off the adoptions element, and the largest Opposition party, the Australian Labor Party, is throwing its support behind his marriage ban. The ALP's spokesperson on legal issues Nicola Roxon followed Howard to the podium, noted the party supports hetero-exclusive marriage, and told the crowd they could look forward to a vote within two weeks. In a later press release, she promised that if her party takes the reins after the election, they will thoroughly review and revise federal legislation to remove discrimination against gay and lesbian couples, with the Marriage Act being the sole exception. To the outrage of other opposition parties and lesbigay activists, it now appears that Howard's marriage ban will be reintroduced -- and passed -- by the House in the coming week, circumventing the Senate inquiry process. And finally... since its inception, reality television has brought celebrity to a number of gays and lesbians. But the winner this week of Britain's fifth edition of "Big Brother" and its 63,500-pounds prize was a transwoman, Nadia Almada. Competitors were unaware of Almada's past life as Jorge, but the audience knew -- and of the nearly six-and-a-half-million viewers who voted, three out of four chose her over the runner-up, a male nude model. Among the other contestants was an open lesbian who also identifies as anarchist -- so it's hardly surprising that she was eliminated... for breaking rules.