NewsWrap for the week ending October 30, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #866, distributed 11-1-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Reported this week by Jon Beaupré and Cindy Friedman Within an hour of the European Parliament's scheduled confirmation vote for the European Commission this week, the incoming Commission President withdrew his slate from consideration, rather than see it rejected for proposing an anti-gay nominee to head human rights enforcement. Up until then, incoming EC President José Barroso had staunchly defended his Justice assignment for Italy's nominee to the Commission Rocco Buttiglione. But ultimately Barroso had to accept that the Parliament would in fact take the unprecedented step of rejecting the entire 25-member slate for the EU's executive branch. The Parliament does not have the option to act on individual Commission nominees. Members cheered and applauded Barroso's surrender, though it came in the form of a blandly-worded statement that he needed more time. Barroso's delay forces an unprecedented violation of the European Union's strict November 1st start date for new Commissioners' five-year terms, and leaves the current Commission and its President Roman Prodi to extend their services for at least another month. The earliest possible date for another EP vote is November 15th. The historic power struggle cast a pall over what should have been a great celebration for Europe this week -- the signing of a new constitutional treaty that begins its 2-year process of ratification. It became an occasion for Barroso to hold urgent private talks with the heads of EU member nations, who each nominate one prospective Commission member. The signing ceremony was held in Rome, putting even more of a spotlight on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his choice of Buttiglione. The following day, Buttiglione announced, "I am ready to step aside to favor the path of the Barroso Commission, which I wish every success." He's expected to continue in his current role as Italy's Minister for European Affairs, while Berlusconi has indicated he'll select another member of the Italian Cabinet to serve on the EC. But remarks at the signing by other EU member nations' heads of state suggest that simply replacing Buttiglione may not be enough to satisfy the EP, with perhaps as many as four other Commission nominees needing to be reassigned or replaced as well. For now, the European chapter of ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, welcomed the EP's tough stand against a key human rights role for a man who believes homosexual acts are sinful and sought to remove "sexual orientation" as a category protected from discrimination in EU law. ILGA-Europe applauded the EP for "restat[ing] its commitment to human rights as a core value" and "confirm[ing] that the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are an integral part of human rights in the EU." Buttiglione became the first EC nominee ever to fail a vetting by an EP committee in part because of his narrow views of the nature of marriage, an issue that continues to make headlines around the world. This week, the Honduras Congress unanimously approved a proposed amendment to the national constitution to deny both marriage and adoptions to same-gender couples. The proposed amendment still requires a second Congressional ratification after the next election, a vote which can't come sooner than the new year. The amendment proposed by the ruling National Party states that, "only matrimony between a man and a woman is valid." One Opposition Congressmember said passage was spurred by Honduras' recent legal recognition of three lesbigay organizations. But also this week, Germany's parliament -- the Bundestag -- approved a Government bill to expand the legal status of gay and lesbian registered partnerships. The upgrade for the three-year-old "life partnerships" includes provisions for more secure pension rights; for division of property and support payments following dissolution; for co-adoption by one partner of the other's biological children; and for couples planning to contract partnerships to first become formally engaged, a status which includes such privileges as immunity from testifying against a partner in court. While Germany's upper house, the Bundesrat, could act to stall the bill's enactment, it can't actually stop it, and it's expected to become effective January 1st. Conservative parties, which have more power in the upper house than the lower, are most vocally opposed to the adoption provision. Australia could soon be banning adoptions by gay and lesbian couples, even those established legally in other countries. As the counting of votes from the early October national elections continues, it became official this week that the current Coalition Government has won a majority of seats in the Senate as well as in the House. Earlier this year the Government was able to enact its law restricting marriage to "one man and one woman" only after winning the support of the Opposition Australian Labor Party by dropping an adoptions ban. But once the new legislature is seated in July the Government will be able to proceed unchecked, and a spokesperson confirmed this week that the adoptions ban is among some ten proposals previously blocked in the Senate that's slated for reintroduction. It's also now final that openly gay Australian Democrat Brian Greig has lost his seat as Senator from West Australia. While his fierce voice for equality has been eliminated from the Senate, Labor has given a megaphone to openly lesbian Senator from South Australia Penny Wong. The ALP announced its "shadow Cabinet" this week with Wong as its senior spokesperson on employment issues. This makes Wong the first open lesbian or gay ever to serve on a party's frontbench in the national legislature. In the U.S. national elections campaign this week, President George W. Bush publicly disagreed with his Republican Party's platform on legal recognition of same-gender couples. This year's platform goes farther than any of its predecessors in opposing not only equal marriage rights but all forms of legal recognition, such as civil unions and domestic partnerships. But Bush said on a national TV talk show, "I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's what a state chooses to do." He distinguished between marriage -- which he still wishes to reserve for heterosexual couples by means of a national constitutional amendment -- and what he called, "legal arrangements that enable people to have rights." He declared that, "[S]tates ought to be able to have the right to pass laws that enable people to have rights like others." This essentially puts him in the same position as his Vice President Dick Cheney, whose similar statements had previously been viewed as a public split from the President's position. Bush even indicated that he might support some federal benefits for same-gender couples, all of which are currently prohibited by the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Bush's remarks are widely viewed as an effort to attract undecided voters who may have viewed as bigotry his advocacy against marriage equality. They certa inly did not impress lesbigay advocacy groups, which saw them as cynical. And they drew vocal objections from some of Bush's leading conservative supporters. Both religious right groups and the Republican National Committee have been using marriage equality as a scare tactic in campaigning for the President and some other candidates in a number of states. And finally... the first television channel in France to target the lesbigay audience made its debut this week. It's believed to be the world's third such channel, following Canada's PrideVision and Italy's Gay TV, while the long-awaited U.S. Logo channel is expected to launch in March. France's Pink TV is a subscription cable and satellite channel supported by the nation's three main commercial networks. Pink TV has received generous print media coverage but has not yet attracted a major corporate sponsor, though advertising is planned to meet one fifth of its expenses in two years. The programming covers a broad range of material including documentaries, a daily cultural report, sports reporting by a transwoman, four erotic films late-night on weekends, and English-language shows with French subtitles from "Queer As Folk" to daily episodes of the campy 1970s U.S. series "Wonder Woman". Pink TV's first words took off from Neil Armstrong's as he first set foot on the moon: "A giant leap for television -- a small step in high heels."