NewsWrap for the week ending September 11, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #859, distributed 9-13-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Reported this week by Cindy Friedman and Rick Watts After 15 years of rejection, three gay and lesbian groups have won official recognition from the government of Honduras. With their new legal identity, the Kukulcan Group, the Sampedrana Gay Community and the Violet Collective now have standing to act officially with government agencies and courts. Honduras still criminalizes homosexual acts, but Deputy Justice Minister Fernando Suazo emphasized that all Honduran citizens have the right to association. He labeled the long delay in recognizing the groups discrimination, and expressed hope that the government's action will help overcome anti-gay prejudice. But Honduran Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders were quick to denounce the government's action as implying that homosexuality is acceptable. They called it sinful and deviant and said gays and lesbians should not be tolerated. To counter that criticism, about 50 gays and lesbians demonstrated outside the Congress this week to urge Honduran President Ricardo Maduro not to revoke their long-awaited legal status. There was also religious criticism of gay association of another kind this week, as Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II denounced legal marriage of same-gender couples in his first meeting with Canada's new ambassador to the Vatican, Donald Smith. Four Canadian provinces are already marrying gay and lesbian couples because of court rulings, and national legislation is expected in the coming year. The pontiff declared that, "Any attempts to change the meaning of the word 'spouse' contradict right reason; legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, cannot be applied to unions between persons of the same sex without creating a false understanding of the nature of marriage." Smith advised the Pope that the Canadian Parliament would determine the issue. More than 40% of Canadians identify as Roman Catholics, including Prime Minister Paul Martin. The definition of "spouse" was also at issue this week in Germany, where a court refused to recognize a gay male couple's marriage in the Netherlands, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported. The Netherlands was the first nation in the world to extend full marriage equality to same-gender couples. A Taiwanese man had applied for a residence permit to join his Netherlander spouse in Germany, as European Union immigration rules allow. But the Karlsruhe Administrative Court rejected his claim, saying that each EU member nation has the authority to define "spouse" in its own way. Although Germany offers registered partnerships for gay and lesbian couples that carry some marriage-like benefits, the nation issues marriage licenses only to heterosexual couples. A California court this week affirmed that domestic partnership is not the same as marriage, but in this case that finding was helpful to same-gender couples. Two religious right groups had filed a lawsuit to block an expansion of the benefits and responsibilities attendant on the U.S. state's registered partnerships that will go into effect in the new year. They said that the upgrade will make those partnerships marriage in all but name, and claimed that would violate the terms of Proposition 22 -- a ballot initiative affirmed by a large majority of voters in 2000 that said the state would recognize only marriages between one man and one woman. But Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster rejected that challenge by the Campaign for California Families and the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund, writing that, "Simply because the Legislature deemed it to be in the best interest of the state of California to give domestic partner rights that are substantially the same as those enjoyed by persons who are married does not change the definition of marriage." The plaintiffs plan to appeal, and one even said the judge should be recalled. Defending the expansion of partnership benefits under AB 205 was the job of California Attorney-General Bill Lockyer. He welcomed the ruling, telling reporters that, "As we argued in court, if proponents of Proposition 22 wanted voters to deny certain benefits to couples who register as domestic partners, they should have said so." In fact the campaign for Proposition 22 had actually featured some assurances that it was intended only to preserve marriage and not to interfere with recognition of domestic partnerships. A court in the U.S. state of Washington has found that state's law restricting marriage exclusively to heterosexual couples violates the state constitution. Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks wrote that, "one part of the community cannot be given a privilege that is not given to other members of the community unless the government can demonstrate how that discrimination furthers the benefit of the entire community." Hicks found the law did not meet a strict scrutiny standard, emphasizing that, "For the government this is not a moral issue. It is a legal issue." Hicks ruled in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of 11 gay and lesbian couples. Last month King County Superior Court Judge William Downing reached a similar decision in a case brought by Lambda Legal on behalf of six same-gender couples. The Washington state Supreme Court is expected to consider the two lawsuits together. U.S. President George W. Bush's vocal support for amending the federal constitution to restrict marriage exclusively to heterosexual couples has lost him the endorsement of the national gay and lesbian Log Cabin Republicans. It's the first time since Log Cabin opened its national headquarters in 1993 that the group has withheld its endorsement from the party's presidential nominee. That's the strongest action the 12,000-member group can take, since its own constitution prohibits it from endorsing another party's candidate. Log Cabin's Board of Directors rejected Bush this week by an overwhelming vote of 22-to-2. Chair William Brownson said the Board decided to "shift our financial and political resources to defeating the radical right and supporting inclusive Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives." Another U.S. national organization has shut down -- LLEGO, the National Latino Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Organization. Although there has not yet been an official public announcement, all LLEGO employees have been laid off. A recent audit found a half-million-dollar deficit that continues to increase. Two years ago, LLEGO's total budget was nearly three million dollars. Much of that came from government grants through the Centers for Disease Control for HIV/AIDS programs. LLEGO, more than a decade old, has been the only national voice in the U.S. for the Latino lesbigay and transgender community. Jamaican dancehall reggae music artists whose lyrics have called for the murder of gay men have begun to pay a price for that homophobia. The British direct action group OutRage! has been protesting on this issue for a decade, but in recent weeks the world has begun to pay more attention. That may be due in part to the June murder of Jamaica's best-known gay activist Brian Williamson, as well as to OutRage! coordinating its protest efforts with other groups in Europe, Jamaica and the U.S. as well as in the U.K. A month ago, British police and prosecutors began to seriously review the possibility of bringing criminal charges against the artists for incitement to violence. Britain's annual nationally-broadcast Music of Black Origin awards -- MOBO -- have long been a center of this controversy, but this year changed their tune. Saying they didn't wish to "publicly promote" anti-gay lyricists, MOBO organizers excluded from consideration two of the most notorious offenders, Beenie Man and Buju Banton. However the finalists they selected included Elephant Man and Vybz Kartel, some of whose past works are just as vicious. Under pressure, MOBO asked those artists to apologize in writing for their earlier anti-gay lyrics. Neither complied, and MOBO went on to withdraw their nominations. A number of British venues have also been canceling these artists' concert dates. Beenie Man, a past Grammy winner, has also faced numerous cancellations and pickets in both the U.S. and Canada on his current North American tour. Most damagingly, MTV dropped him from a concert in Florida associated with its MTV Video Music Awards, partly in response to the threat of a demonstration by local gay groups. Buju Banton suffered similar indignities in Europe. He was warned by sportswear giant Puma not to perform any anti-gay material at a concert they sponsored in association with the Olympic Games. He also suffered cancellations of at least three performances in Germany, including the Reggae Jam Festival in Saarbruecken. The German gay and lesbian civil rights group LSVD sought advice about possible incitement charges against the singer, a move also supported by German Member of Parliament and Human Rights Commissioner Claudia Roth. Buju Banton was also threatened with incitement charges in advance of appearances in the Netherlands in August. Other artists targeted by protestors for their "kill gays" songs include Bounty Killer and Capleton. And finally... openly lesbian French tennis pro Amelie Mauresmo will be number one in the world when the new Women's Tennis Association rankings are published in the coming week. Those rankings are based solely on a mathematical formula, so there's no doubt of this outcome. She may well be the first gay or lesbian athlete to reach the top of any sport after publicly coming out. And while 25-year-old Mauresmo had set the number one ranking as a personal goal, she's also reached that pinnacle in a rather queer way. She's won 13 tournaments in her career including three this year -- but she's only the second woman to reach the top rank without winning any of the four Grand Slam tournaments.