NewsWrap for the week ending May 7, 2005 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #893, distributed 5-9-05) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Reported this week by Christopher Gaal and Cindy Friedman Elections in Britain this week gave a third term to Labour and Prime Minister Tony Blair but with a drastically reduced majority in the Parliament that will make it hard to advance legislation. While Labour has presided over a number of major advances toward equality for lesbigays, most of the seats it lost went to the even more gay-supportive Liberal Democrats and Greens, parties which officially endorse marriage equality. There was only a small gain for the Conservative Party, which remains a refuge for homophobes despite its efforts to become more inclusive. Overall, in the view of veteran activist Peter Tatchell of OutRage, "This is a good result for gay rights." For the first time ever, an openly gay non-incumbent Conservative candidate was elected to the Parliament, and by a landslide margin. He's Nick Herbert, the director of the conservative think tank Reform, and he'll be representing the "safe" Tory constituency of Arundel and South Downs. Tory MP Alan Duncan, who publicly identified himself as a gay man after he'd taken office, was returned to Parliament by his Rutland and Melton constituents. Seven other openly gay MPs and the Parliament's lone open lesbian Angela Eagle were reelected. But Minister of State for Education Stephen Twigg was ousted by Tory David Burrowes, who emphasized his Christian beliefs in his campaign. Twigg's 1997 upset victory as an openly gay first-time candidate over Tory powerhouse Michael Portillo had stood as the emblem of the so-called Labour Revolution that ended the Conservatives' long reign. With the very real possibility of a snap election looming in Canada as the Opposition Conservative Party promises a no-confidence vote for the scandal-ridden Liberal Party's minority Government, the future of that Government's bill for marriage equality is in doubt. But this week it passed its second reading in Parliament with a 54% majority. While most of the Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic Party MPs and four Conservatives joined the Government, 35 members of the ruling Liberal Party voted with Conservatives to oppose it. The bill is now in the hands of a special committee, and at its first meeting this week that group gave serious consideration to a condensed schedule that could return it to the floor in as little as two weeks. While some Conservatives want an extended hearing process, some observers believe that party is ready to drop its stalling tactics in order to use MPs' final votes on the bill in campaigning. But some dissenting Liberals are also calling for expanded deliberations, despite a commission having previously spent six months touring Canada for public consultation on the issue. But to survive the fall of the Government the bill would have to be completely enacted including royal assent, and although its prospects for a timely passage by the Parliament are looking a little brighter, the Government has not arranged for it to be expedited in the Senate as the budget bill will be. The Norwegian Conservative Party is currently struggling with its position on opening marriage to same-gender couples. Activists are lobbying party leaders for an official statement of support from the party's upcoming national convention. But this week the "Dagsavisen" newspaper reported that the Conservatives' leader on the Finnmark county council and former central steering committee member Birger Westlund fired back an e-mail declaring, "This idea about a sexually-neutral marriage law is some of the biggest nonsense anyone has come up with. We politicians can't use much time on some people who are disturbed in their heads and like people of the same sex. Go to a psychologist!" Westlund confirmed to the "Aftenposten" newspaper that he believes marriage equality is "a lot of rubbish". This is definitely out of line with the party's position, and reactions within the party have ranged from calls for Westlund to apologize to demands for his ouster from the party. Norway has long had registered partnerships for gay and lesbian couples with legal status very nearly equivalent to marriage. But even though former Conservative party head and current Norwegian Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss has registered his own gay partnership, he reportedly has some doubts about supporting marriage equality. New Zealand's Parliament will be taking up a private member's bill to deny marriage to gay and lesbian couples, even as some of those couples are contracting the nation's new civil unions. The Marriage (Gender Clarification) Amendment Bill proposed by Larry Baldock of the right-wing United Future Party was drawn for debate in the coming week. The ruling Labor Party and the National Party will be determining their stances in caucus sessions in the coming week, but the Greens readily denounced it as an "attempt to legislate for dis crimination and homophobia". This week also marked the first major public celebration of a civil union since the legislation became effective last week. Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast presided before more than 200 people in city council chambers decked with rainbow flags and balloons as vows were exchanged by Des Smith and John Jolliff. The couple of 19 years are known as the "poster boys" of civil unions for their advocacy and lobbying for the bills. With a piper in tights, a color guard of rainbow flags, and a brass band, the entire party paraded through the Civic Square, joined by at least fifty more along the way. The President of the Navajo Nation this week vetoed a ban on gay and lesbian marriages, overriding a unanimous vote by the Navajo Nation Council last month. Joe Shirley, Junior said, "Same-sex marriage is a non-issue on Navajoland, so why waste time and resources on it? We have more important issues to address." He added that the bill would "generate feelings of disharmony and disun ity among the Navajo people" and "veiled a discriminatory aspect in the guise of family values." He felt that the measure's stated goal of "family stability" would be better served by dealing with issues such as family violence. In the U.S. state of Georgia, Governor Sonny Perdue this week signed into law two Republican-sponsored bills designed to block gay-supportive policies of the city of Atlanta. One bars local governments from giving any consideration to employee wages and benefits offered by companies bidding for public contracts, the second round in the state's battle against Atlanta moves to favor bidders offering spousal benefits to domestic partners. The second law bars state and local governments from in any way penalizing an organization or person for a choice whether or not to extend to unmarried people the same treatment offered legally married couples. That was intended to stop the city from fining the Druid Hills Golf Club for violating its civil rights ordinance by refusing spousal membership benefits to gay and lesbian couples, a high-profile situation that generated a tangle of lawsuits and which may not actually be resolved by the language of the new law. The state of Colorado may become the 17th in the U.S. to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation with the legislature's final approval of a bill this week. The House voted 60% in favor of the bill and then the Senate voted to concur with House changes to the bill. Initial Senate approval had come by a one-vote margin. The big question mark is Governor Bill Owens, a Republican who has not yet taken a position on the bill despite his party's lawmakers' vigorous opposition to it. He is being actively lobbied by conservatives to veto it. His signature would also make Colorado the 6th U.S. state to prohibit employment discrimination based on gender identity. A civil rights law in Colorado would be particularly sweet for activists since it's the only state whose voters once approved a state constitutional amend ment prohibiting cities and counties from enacting any such protections for lesbigays. That notorious Amendment 2 was ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Also this week in Colorado a proposed constitutional amendment to deny marriage to gay and lesbian couples was killed by a House committee by a one-vote margin. And finally... the state of Washington's latest attempt to make sexual orientation a category protected under its civil rights law was defeated by a single vote as it reached the Senate floor for the first time late last month. Bitterly disappointed despite thirty years of similar defeats, many activists blamed the loss on software giant MicroSoft, which had backed off from its long-time support of the bill to a neutral position. There was a particular sense of betrayal because MicroSoft had been a pioneer in equal treatment policies for its own lesbigay employees. The corporate line was that the change was part of a general decision to restrict lobbying efforts to measures directly affecting its business, but a local anti-gay evangelist was quick to claim credit since the change followed his meeting with management at least chronologically. MicroSoft's lesbigay employee group GLEAM protested vigorously, and its secretary-treasurer Jeff Koertzen actually gave notice he was leaving his job. This week, in the face of continuing national reporting and protest, MicroSoft chief executive Steve Ballmer announced, "After looking at the question from all sides, I've concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda."