NewsWrap for the week ending April 16, 2005 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #890, distributed 4-18-05) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Reported this week by Cindy Friedman and Rick Watts Canada's Parliament this week rejected a major challenge to the Government's bill to open legal marriage to same-gender couples. A motion by Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper to deny the marriage bill its second reading was defeated by a 55% majority. While the smaller Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic parties overwhelmingly rejected the Tory motion along with just four Conservative Memebers of Parliament, about a quarter of Liberal Party MPs split from their own Government to support it. The Canadian Bar Association had advised MPs that the motion was a "constitutional lemon". Legal experts generally agree that gay and lesbian couples can only be denied marriage by invoking for the first time ever the so-called "notwithstanding clause" to override the national Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Harper claims otherwise. A number of demonstrations were held this week both for and against marriage equality. The largest saw somewhere between 8 and 15,000 march in Ottawa to protest marriage for same-gender couples, led by Harper and organized primarily by the religious right. There were also about 100 counter-demonstrators. Several interfaith rallies supporting marriage equality were also staged around Canada, the largest drawing some 300 people in Toronto. The Parliamentary vote confirms expectations that the Government's marriage bill will ultimately be enacted despite Tory plans to slow the process. But Harper has hinted he may seek to topple the minority Liberal Government before this legislative session is over, a move that would kill all bills still under consideration. A current corruption scandal has made the long-ruling Liberals vulnerable, with recent polling giving Harper's Tories more than a third of the votes compared to a quarter for the Liberals should an early election be called. Australian Greens are seeking to open marriage to same-gender couples with legislation at the state level and introduced the first of those bills this week in Tasmania, home of Australia's first civil unions. Although the Australian Government enacted a definition of marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman, that law made no explicit mention of the states, and ironically it's that law itself that now makes it possible for states to enact same-gender marriages, according to University of Sydney Professor George Williams. While state marriage laws have been constitutionally overridden by Australian laws to date, he reasons that the exclusive national definition has effectively removed the nation from any power over non-heterosexual marriages its states may wish to create. The Greens have seized on this concept and are reportedly drafting bills for New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory. Green Party Justice spokesperson Nick McKim brought the Same Sex Marriage Bill to Tasmania's House of Assembly saying his party's "overriding aim is to initiate a mature and respectful public debate" by means of an inquiry by a joint legislative committee. Tasmania's Attorney-General Judy Jackson supported holding that inquiry if the bill indeed passed constitutional muster, and a second constitutional law expert affirmed Williams' view. But apparently Jackson did not speak for her Australian Labor Party Government, even though a resolution supporting marriage equality passed at the last state conference of Tasmania's ALP. Their House leader Deputy Premier David Llewellyn had his caucus support a Liberal Party motion to reject same-gender marriage "in principle", ensuring the motion's success. However, that motion did not explicitly rule out the possibility of a parliamentary inquiry. The bill in Tasmania sparked some calls for action in New South Wales, including one from Sydney Mayor Clover Moore. But state Attorney-General Bob Debus is rejecting the Greens' legal theory, maintaining that "marriage is an exclusive power of the commonwealth." Australia's amended Marriage Act may not stop its states from marrying same-gender couples, but the U.S. state of Oregon's voter-passed state constitutional amendment definitely stops its counties from doing so. That's the judgment of the Oregon Supreme Court, which this week invalidated some 3,000 marriages of gay and lesbian couples licensed in Multnomah County a year ago. While leaning heavily on the new constitutional restriction of marriage to heterosexual couples that was adopted only after the Multnomah marriages, the state high court also affirmed that marriage is the exclusive province of the state -- so Multnomah County officials should not have unilaterally violated the older statutory definition of marriage as heterosexual despite their doubts as to its constitutionality. Oregon's court was considering a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Libe rties Union and Basic Rights Oregon on behalf of a number of same-gender couples. Lead plaintiff Mary Li spoke to reporters after the court ruled: Mary Li: "What is true is that our families may look different from some of your families. It's also true that our families want and need and deserve and have the right to the same kinds of protections, rights [and] privileges that your families have, and we'll stop at nothing to get that." What the Oregon Supreme Court did not speak to was whether same-gender couples are entitled to the privileges and responsibilities of marriage as a matter of constitutional equality, saying that separate question had not been raised by the gay and lesbian plaintiffs at trial. But Oregon's Democratic Governor Theodore Kulongoski is committed to equal treatment for those couples, and he's working with state Senators of both parties on a bill introduced this week to create civil unions for them. Connecticut moved a step closer to creating civil unions this week with approval by more than 60% of the state House. But the House added a rider to the bill to explicitly define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman, so the bill next returns to the Senate. A similar rider was previously rejected by the Connecticut Senate, which passed the civil unions bill last week by a three-to-one margin. Republican Governor Jodi Rell has not been vocal about the bill, having said only at various times that she supports the "concept" of civil unions and opposes marriage for same-gender couples. Meanwhile, only one member of the South Carolina Senate voted against a proposed amendment to that state's constitution to deny marriage to same-gender couples, although there were some abstentions. The dissenter was Charleston Democrat Robert Ford, who believes the current statutory ban on those marriages is adequate and that the amendment amounts to bullying. The South Carolina House had already approved a similar proposed amendment, but will now have to consider a Senate language change. Hoping to avoid unintended interference with private contracts and corporate health benefits, the Senate version says, "marriage between one man and one woman is the only lawful domestic union that shall be valid or recognized in this state." Two U.S. politicians publicly identified themselves as gay men for the first time this week. One was first-term Minnesota state Senator Paul Koering, who was the only Republican to join the Democrats in blocking a move last week to force a Senate floor vote on a constitutional amendment against same-gender marriage. That action had sparked many to question his sexual orientation although it was actually not the proposal but the procedure involved that he found objectionable. He's believed to be Minnesota's first openly gay Republican elected official, although the state's had gay and lesbian Democrats in office for 30 years. And in Kansas, City Commissioner Mike Rundle chose the completion of his mayoral term to declare that he had probably been Lawrence's first gay mayor. He cited that state's enactment this month of a constitutional amendment against same-gender marriage as well as rumors that have circulated throughout his 18 years in politics. He said that previously he'd feared his orientation might get in the way of his goals for good governance, but that was "less of a concern" now. Open gay Nichi Vendola has been elected to the presidency of the Italian state of Puglia. After more than a decade in Parliament, Communist Vendola last week squeaked past incumbent president Raffaele Fitto of the conservative Forza Italia by less than one percent of the vote. In Spain, the parliament of the state of Catalonia opened legal adoptions to same-gender couples at the end of March, becoming the fourth Spanish state to do so. And following up on last week's sodomy convictions and sentencing in Fiji of an Australian tourist and his local sex partner, both men were released on bail this week after appealing to the Lautoka High Court. The Australian Government filed a formal complaint to Fiji that Australian Thomas McCosker was denied the assistance of his consulate, which was not advised of his case until he was convicted. Local and international criticism of Fiji's sodomy laws by human rights groups continued to grow, but Fiji's Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase remained unimpressed. He objected to foreign interference in Fiji affairs and declared that homosexuality is a sin. Britain has added a warning about Fiji's sex laws to its government tourism advisory. And finally... April 13th marked the ninth annual Day of Silence in support of sexual minorities. It's believed that some 450,000 students at about 4,000 U.S. schools took the vow not to speak, using cards to explain they were "protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies." Created and originally organized by students, the organizing was taken over more recently by GLSEN, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, which this year used the occasion to launch a new "Teach Respect" media campaign against bullying and harrassment. But this year the rightwing Christian legal group Alliance Defense Fund attempted to respond on the following day with its own so-called Day of Truth, giving students T-shirts reading "The Truth Cannot Be Silenced" and cards declaring their opposition to homosexuality as "detrimental personal and social behavior." The Fund reported that 1150 students participated.