NewsWrap for the week ending June 25, 2005 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #900, distributed 6-27-05) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Reported this week by Cindy Friedman and Rick Watts Slovenia's parliament this week gave its final approval to a bill creating registered partnerships for same-gender couples that carry some of the benefits of marriage. The vote was 47-to-3, but that's misleading -- there are actually 90 deputies in the chamber, but most of the Opposition parties stormed out after an angry debate. And it's not just conservatives who are displeased by the new law -- three civil rights groups plan to challenge it in Constitutional Court because its benefits are so limited. One of them, the national Society for the Integration of Homosexuals, is calling on lesbigays to protest by not registering their partnerships. They say the conservative Government's bill introduces "sexual apartheid instead of equal rights and protections." What those partnerships will offer when the law becomes effective a year from now is legal recognition in areas including property, housing, and responsibility for mutual support. Partnerships also carry some rights to inheritance and standing in medical situations that is less than next-of-kin. But they do not include such social security rights as health insurance or pensions, and the Government rejected activists' demands for parental rights including adoption and artificial insemination. Despite its limited nature, the new law is still a remarkable achievement for an Eastern European nation that's predominantly Roman Catholic. Also in Eastern Europe this week, the Czech parliament gave a 90% favorable vote on first reading of a registered partnerships bill including rights to inheritance, medical information and mutual support, but excluding adoption. Previous partnership bills have failed in the Czech Parliament. Despite disagreement within the coalition Government, Social Democratic Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has been personally lobbying for the bill at the behest of lesbigay groups, who believe it may have a better chance of passage before 2006 elections. Germany's registered partnerships have been strengthened by a court ruling this week. The Berlin Administrative Court ruled that references to a "spouse" in pension benefit plans should be understood to include registered partners. That means the Berlin Medical Association will have to pay death benefits to the male partner a deceased male physician had named as his "spouse", despite the pension fund's claim that only a marital partner could receive them. In predominantly Roman Catholic Spain, religious opposition defeated the Socialist Government's bill for marriage equality in the Senate. That doesn't kill the bill, which is still expected to be enacted by the parliament in the coming week. But the Senate defeat was unexpected, and it came when Catalan Christian Democrats joined the conservative Partido Popular in opposing the bill to give the "nays" a five per cent edge. However, the Partido Popular, which blocked many moves to recognize same-gender couples during its long rule, did apologize for the offensiveness of a guest speaker it had brought into the Senate, a psychiatrist from a Catholic university who described homosexuality as a "pathology" resulting from a "violent, hostile, distant or alcoholic father" or "a cold, over-protective mother" and as often associated with depression and drug addiction. The Socialists called that speech "grotesque and Paleolithic". Spanish politicians couldn't help but notice more than 200,000 people -- perhaps as many as half-a-million -- who marched through Madrid this week to protest marriage equality. That march was led by the nation's top Catholic clergy in what's believed to be their first participation in a demonstration opposing a government initiative since Spain became a democracy. The organizers of the march, the lay Catholic group Forum for the Family, have promised more such demonstrations if gay-supportive Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero doesn't meet with them. Group travel was arranged for participants from even the outer reaches of Spain, and some sixty other nations were also represented. The Federation of Lesbians, Gays and Transsexuals had not officially planned to stage a counter-demonstration, citing respect for their opponents' right to demonstrate, although several hundred supporters of marriage equality did gather near the march route. But many more took the opportunity of a huge concert nearby to express their support. Also marching against equal treatment of lesbigays this week were about 800 members and allies of Poland's far-right groups in what was billed as the "Normal Parade" through Warsaw. That was intended to contrast with last week's equality parade that saw some 2500 lesbigays and allies march despite the objections of Warsaw's Mayor Lech Kaczynski. The mayor had complained about police protecting the lesbigays from skinheads who tried to assault their march, and he arranged the permit for the "Normal Parade". Banners included "Yes to fa mily, no to abnormality" and according to the Polish lesbigay group KPH there were Nazi symbols and hate speech as well. At least one "normal" marcher told reporters that homosexuals couldn't be tolerated in Warsaw because it was the birthplace of the late Pope. In Israel, Jerusalem's city council advised lesbigay pride organizers that their upcoming march would be "a provocation and upset the sentiments of the wider public who live in or are visiting the city." Pride organizers Jerusalem Open House had already agreed to reschedule the WorldPride festivities in light of the Gaza pullout and weren't about to give up their local celebration; they immediately sought help from the courts. But then Israeli Interior Minister Ofir Pines stepped up to announce that he'd already approved Jerusalem's fourth pride march, trumping the city council, and he confirmed he'd make sure it took place. The Canadian Government's bill for marriage equality had an upturn this week in its roller-coaster progress and might even reach its final Parliamentary vote in the coming week. Through a combination of inter-party deals and procedural maneuvering, the Liberal Party's minority Government won passage of its 2006 federal budget in a late-night vote. Had the budget been voted down, the Government would've gone down with it. And as part of the wheeling and dealing and also late that same night, the Liberals won 64% approval for extending the Parliamentary session for the first time in 17 years, specifically to take up the marriage equality bill. Before approving that extension, the Bloc Quebecois demanded and received a written guarantee from the Liberals that the session will continue until that bill is voted on. It's expected to pass since it's supported by most Liberals and nearly all the Members of Parliament from the Bloc Quebecois and the left-wing New Democratic Party. Or as the outraged Opposition Conservative Party's Deputy Leader Peter MacKay put it, "The Liberal Party is now cutting deals with the Separatists, to appease the socialists, to prop up their corrupt Government." It now appears the Tories' plans to stall the bill and topple the Government have failed. Also this week in Canada, a court ruling added New Brunswick to the regional jurisdictions where same-gender couples can marry, although the provincial Government has not yet decided whether to appeal. In just a few sentences, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Judy Clendening found that New Brunswick's man-and-woman common-law definition of marriage discriminates in violation of the national Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and declared it to refer to "two persons" instead. She had only to follow an unbroken chain of similar legal decisions in seven other provinces and the Yukon Territory plus advice to the national Government from the Supreme Court of Canada. That means legal marriage for the four same-gender couples who brought the New Brunswick lawsuit. The only remaining regions where same-gender couples cannot legally marry in Canada are Prince Edward Island, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. But Canada's Anglicans and the U.S. Episcopalians this week had to defend their gay-supportive positions before the global Anglican Consultative Council, a major policy body in the world church. The Episcopal Church USA had consecrated openly partnered gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, while the Anglican Church of Canada includes the Vancouver-area New Westminster diocese which offers church blessings to same-gender couples. Both actions are generally viewed as contrary to Anglican belief, and have created a great rift in the global communion. The Episcopalians' defense included recognizing a "genuine holiness" in the lives of gays and lesbians, and that "Their holiness stands in stark contrast with many sinful patterns of sexuality in the world." The report called the notion of a single correct interpretation of Scripture "a rather modern idea" compared to the long history of debate, and noted that there was probably nothing comparable to modern same-gender couples in the lifetimes of the Bible's authors. This week's defense was another step in recommendations by a Church commission hoping to heal the growing schism. Others included apologies by the two national churches, their agreement to a moratorium on creating bishops with same-gender partners or blessing gay and lesbian couples, and their voluntary temporary withdrawal from active membership on the Consultative Council. This week the Council itself narrowly approved its own motion that the two nations voluntarily withdraw from meetings of its standing and finance committees for three years. The Council resisted anti-gay leader Archbishop of Nigeria Peter Akinola's move calling on the Canadians and Americans to withdraw from "all other official entities of the communion" for the same period. The Council endorsed a "listening process" for non-gay Anglicans to gain more understanding of lesbigays. And finally... this week's most unusual pride observance: in a "first" for the New York Stock Exchange, its lone openly gay member Walter Schubert on behalf of the (U.S.) National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce had the ceremonial honor of ringing the closing bell.