NewsWrap for the week ending November 13, 2004 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #868, distributed 11-15-04) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Reported this week by Christopher Gaal and Cindy Friedman The first legal same-gender marriage in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan was celebrated in Saskatoon this week. The first day after a judge changed the province's definition of marriage, Erin Scriven and Lisa Stumborg were wed at Saint Thomas Wesley United Church before about 70 people. Those guests were so enthusiastic that they called out "We do!" even before Reverend Margaret McKechney had asked the couple the ritual question. McKechney had already blessed a covenant between the couple in a ceremony a month earlier, but this time it was legal. One lesbian couple who married in Canada are suing for recognition in their home country, Ireland. This week a High Court judge in Dublin agreed to allow their legal action to proceed, saying the case is "of profound importance for same-sex couples and society as a whole." Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan are citing both the Irish Constitution and the European Convention in claiming discrimination by Ireland's taxation authorities. The case probably won't be heard for several months, but the ultimate ruling is likely to have broad ramifications. But there won't be a hearing in an Austrian court for a binational German-American couple seeking recognition of their Netherlands marriage for immigration purposes. The U.S. partner Lon Williams was denied legal residence and a work permit in Austria, where his German partner had been offered a job. But Austria's Constitutional Court dismissed his complaint against immigration authorities, referring to a heterosexual definition of marriage and refusing to recognize European Union law providing for the free movement of spouses. The case has been referred to an Austrian administrative court, but the couple have chosen to remain together in the Netherlands. The Austrian gay and lesbian civil rights group Hosi Wien is "appalled" by the Constitutional Court's dismissal, and believes the case should be heard by the European Court of Justice. But a Constitutional Court in Colombia has issued a landmark decision granting permanent residency to the foreign same-gender partners of gay and lesbian Colombian citizens, the newspaper "Caracol" reported. A gay couple's initial request for a residency permit was refused on the grounds that only a man and woman who were legally married could qualify. But a court in Bogata declared the couple had a constitutional right to maintain a stable relationship, citing a constitutional provision for individuals' freedom to develop their own personality as well as due process requirements. This week a Scottish court dismissed a lesbian's lawsuit seeking damages from the drunk driver convicted of killing her partner. In denying Catriona Robertson's claim, the judge said the law applying in 1999 when Jill Telfer was killed did not recognize them as "relatives". However, the ruling noted the decision might have been different under more recent U.K. legislation, which incorporates European legal protections for gay and lesbian equality. British gays and lesbians are a step closer to legal recognition of their relationships, as the Government's Civil Partnership Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons this week by a whopping nine-to-one margin. While the Opposition Conservative Party leader supports the measure, some of his party's Members of Parliament introduced the same kind of amendment considered to have "wrecked" the bill in the House of Lords -- a move to expand civil partnerships beyond same-gender couples to include cohabiting family members and caregivers. The biggest problem with that is that the family members have relationships already defined in law. But unlike the House of Lords, the House of Commons voted down the expansion amendment by about six-to-one. The bill to grant same-gender couples status equal to married spouses in areas including pensions, taxation, and property, will now return to the House of Lords. Should Britain enact the partnership law, Scotland's Government has indicated it will quickly adopt it. Marriage equality was a key demand of more than 2,000 lesbigay and transgender marchers in this week's Taiwan Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade. Taiwan's Government did introduce a bill to that effect last year, but it's languishing in the parliament. Some marchers also protested the January police raid on a gay bar that resulted not only in repeated network television broadcasts showing 92 patrons in their underwear, but also in the public revelation that thirty percent of them were HIV-positive. But the march through Taipei was primarily a colorful street party, even though the capital city's government did not extend the financial support it has in past years. Peru's constitutional court has struck down a ban on homosexual acts by military servicemembers. The military had proscribed all such activity even by off-duty servicemembers off-site, punishing it with expulsion or prison terms. But the constitutional court has found those rules to be "completely discriminatory" and struck them down, Agence France Presse reports. German military officials recently agreed to apply the same rules to their servicemembers' homosexual acts as to heterosexual ones, which allow for sex on military bases between off-duty servicemembers. Spanish men jailed under the sodomy laws of dictator Francisco Franco may soon receive compensation from their government. The Association of Ex-Social Prisoners of Franco won pledges of support for the move from all the political parties in the Spanish parliament. Spain's new Socialist Government has already established a commission to investigate the Franco regime's abuses towards compensating their victims. It's believed that thousands of gay men were jailed during the 36 years Franco ruled and the four years following his death before sodomy repeal in 1979. Bermuda's 1994 sodomy repeal was hotly contested, but now its Government is prepared to take the next step. Community Affairs Minister Dale Butler announced last week that it will be introducing legislation in the coming year to protect the housing and employment rights of gays and lesbians. That amendment to make "sexual orientation" a category protected under Bermuda's Human Rights Act was not a part of the legislative agenda put forth in the formal Throne Speech just a few days before, but Butler claimed that omission was accidental. The United States' first openly gay governor gave his farewell address this week. Driven by the threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit, New Jersey Democrat James McGreevey announced in mid-August both his orientation and his resignation effective November 15th. The wife who stood by him on that occasion was notably absent on this one. In his fifteen-minute speech, he said that since his coming-out he had been "simply overwhelmed by the extraordinary manifestations of unconditional love, compassion and concern" from his constituents. He apologized for what he called "mistakes in my judgment that made this day necessary," and for the pain, upheaval and breech of trust he brought to those close to him and to the state. But he continued, "To be clear, I am not apologizing for being a gay American, but rather, for having let personal feelings impact my decision-making and for not having had the courage to be open about whom {sic} I was." He reviewed some of his accomplishments in office, including the statement, "We helped to bring more decency and equality to our state, flying in the face of national trends, with our new law to honor committed domestic partnerships with respect, rights and benefits." Later he returned to the personal, saying, "I begin my own new journey as an American who just happens to be gay and proud. I don't look back with bitterness, anger or sorrow. I look forward to seeking knowledge, a journey of self-discovery and finding ways to contribute my gifts to those to whom they could be helpful." Some lesbigay civil rights groups have already contacted McGreevey in the hope that he'll become a spokesperson for equality. And finally... there's a serious challenge to the key piece of evidence for the many who claim that marriage equality activism led to U.S. President George W. Bush's reelection. It's an exit poll in which more than one fifth of voters said the most important element in their choice was "moral values". That made "moral values" the most popular response, and among those "moral values" voters, some four fifths supported Bush. But a post-election survey by Pew Research Center suggests their responses had a lot to do with how the question was asked. "Moral values" was one of seven options in a multiple choice format in the exit polling conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. But when Pew posed voters an open-ended question, "moral values" responses fell to less than ten percent. Instead of leading, "moral values" fell to a third-place tie with terrorism, as three times as many voters cited the war in Iraq and about half-again as many cited the economy. Even among Pew's "moral values" respondents, only about forty percent said those values included such social issues as marriage for same-gender couples and abortion -- to many it represented personal qualities of the candidates, charity and religion. As Pew's director Andrew Kohut told the Associated Press, "We did not see any indication that social conservative issues like abortion, gay rights and stem cell research were anywhere near as important as the economy and Iraq. 'Moral values' is a phrase that's very attractive to people." Or as "Washington Post" columnist Howard Kurtzman put it, "[H]ow many are willing to tell pollsters that moral values *aren't* important?" Although the exit poll queried more than ten times as many people as the 1200 Pew surveyed, some leading poll analysts agree that far too much has been made of the exit poll's "moral values" finding. And "U.S. News & World Report's" Roger Simon made the rarely-mentioned point that the whole "moral values" hoopla has been based on the same exit poll that made it appear that Senator John Kerry would win.