NewsWrap
for the week ending July 23, 2005
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #904, distributed 7-25-05)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and 
Greg Gordon]


Reported this week by Cindy Friedman and Rick Watts


  Two years after a court ruling first opened civil marriage to same-gender 
couples in the province of Ontario, Canada's national legislators have followed 
suit.  This week after a vigorous debate, the Canadian Senate gave 70% 
approval to the Government's bill C-38, which the Parliament had already passed last 
month.  Despite pleas from opponents for Queen Elizabeth to block the 
measure, royal assent was quickly granted.  With the Governor-General out on medical 
leave, it was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Beverly McLachlin 
who actually signed the measure into law on behalf of the Crown.
That made Canada the fourth nation in the world -- and the first outside of 
Europe -- to grant marriage equality to same-gender couples.  The first three 
were the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.
Most of Canada's provinces and one territory had already been marrying gay 
and lesbian couples.  The holdout with the largest population is Alberta, where 
the first gay male couple applied for a marriage license within an hour of the 
federal bill becoming law.  Four other same-gender couples applied for 
licenses in Alberta on the first day they could.  Those licenses identify them as 
"Partner 1" and "Partner 2" instead of "bride" and "groom".


  Canada's national Opposition Conservative Party remains determined to make 
marriage equality a campaign issue and to attempt to repeal C-38 in the 
future.  But they've been losing ground to the ruling Liberal Party in recent polls. 
 
A new poll released this week found 55% support for letting C-38 stand, 
compared to 39% who want it repealed.  Some see this as an indication that 
Canadians have had enough of this debate and want to move on to other issues.
The many lesbigay activists who worked long and hard for this week's victory 
were elated and proud.  Perhaps the most telling celebration was the 
dismantling of the lobby group Canadians for Equal Marriage.  Spokesperson Laurie Arron 
told the "Washington Blade" newspaper, "Our goal has been accomplished.  We 
will close down."


  But a legislative win doesn't necessarily end the struggle, as same-gender 
couples are discovering in Spain.  The marriage equality law there went into 
effect earlier this month.  But while the new law amends the civil code, this 
week a judge blocked a lesbian couple's union on constitutional grounds.  Judge 
Laura Alabau in the town of Denia in the southeastern state of Alicante filed 
a challenge to the new law because the national Constitution describes 
marriage only as between "a man and a woman."  The chief justice of Spain's top 
court Francisco José Hernando told Agence France Presse that the judge was acting 
"within his rights" if he believes the new law "contains unconstitutional 
aspects". Whether or not that particular case heads to the national Constitutional 
Court, the Opposition Partido Popular is considering moving for a 
constitutional challenge, confident it can muster the 50 votes needed from national 
legislators.  To the national lesbigay and trans group COLEGAS, Alabau's action is 
"a form of conscientious objection" that constitutes "flagrant legal rebellion 
and disobedience of the law."
Meanwhile what's being reported as Spain's first legal wedding of a lesbian 
couple was performed this week in a town near Barcelona.  To the dismay of the 
couple, who would not make their last names public and asked that their faces 
not be photographed, reporters outnumbered their friends and family at the 
ceremony by about three-to-one.


  Belgium's Interior Ministry this week reported some official statistics on 
marriages of gay and lesbian couples there.  A total of 2,442 same gender 
couples have married since it became legal in September 2003.  They currently make 
up 3% of marriages being performed in Belgium.


  The Greek Orthodox Church is denouncing an opposition party's support for 
marriage equality.  Last week the leader of the Greek left-wing Synaspismos 
Coalition declared that position to a group of lesbigay activists.  Bishop 
Anthimos of Thessaloniki has labeled that stance as one of "impudence and shame," 
adding that, "Gay people warp human nature with unspeakable, unnatural acts."  
Coalition leader Alekos Alavanos took the salvo in stride, saying he'd expected 
that reaction from the church.


  This week an Italian opposition leader came forward to call for legal 
recognition of same-gender couples there, according to ANSA.  Romano Prodi leads 
the Union coalition, described as center-left, which has not taken such a stand 
before.  While acknowledging some differences on details, he declared that 
"the entire coalition" supports creation of registered partnerships similar to 
France's Pacts of Civil Solidarity, adding that, "[W]e share a common line on 
solidarity and recognition for the civil rights of gays."  Union is currently 
leading the polls to take power following next year's national elections.  The 
party's been under some pressure from the largest Opposition party, the 
Democratic Left, to make partnerships part of its campaign platform.  No less than 
six partnership bills have been in progress in the Italian Parliament for more 
than a year, but the ruling Forza Italia party has stalled them.


  There's an international furor over the execution of two Iranian teenagers 
this week.  They're identified only as "M.A." and "A.M.", one 18 years old and 
the other less than 18.  According to the Iranian Students News Agency and 
the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran -- which considers itself 
the nation's government in exile, the two young men were convicted of having 
sex with each other, confessing to that but saying they didn't know it was a 
capital crime.  Some activists believe even that confession resulted from 
torture.  It's agreed that the young men were incarcerated for 14 months and were 
lashed well over 200 times before their public hanging.  But some other sources 
have reported the conviction was actually for raping at knifepoint a boy of 
13, which is below the age of consent.  The U.S. lesbigay advocacy group Human 
Rights Campaign called on the Secretary of State to condemn the executions; the 
Swedish lesbigay group RFSL has called on its government to stop deportations 
of Iranian gays; and the British direct action group OutRage! called for an 
end to diplomatic and trade ties with Iran.


  The Islamic Sharia law that prescribes execution for homosexual acts in 
Iran is also effective in Nigeria.  Earlier this month United Nations Commission 
on Human Rights special rapporteur Philip Alston called for a review of 
Nigeria's entire process in convicting a man of sodomy and sentencing him to death 
by stoning, calling the punishment "wholly disproportionate" with respect to 
international law.  Although a court had acquitted the man of an alleged 
homosexual act with someone much younger, the judge asked him if there had been other 
times he had sex with men.  When he said yes, he was convicted of sodomy, and 
now awaits execution.
Then last week two other men were brought to trial after allegedly having sex 
in a toilet.  When the prosecution failed to present any witnesses against 
them, the judge continued the case to give prosecutors more time to develop 
evidence.  They also could face a death sentence.


  Meanwhile, the suspect in the brutal murder of Sierra Leone's leading 
lesbian activist Fannyann Eddy reportedly escaped from custody this week.


  And in Uganda, national police this week raided the home of the leader of 
Sexual Minorities Uganda, the nation's only lesbigay activist group.  A report 
on the African lesbigay Web site Behind The Mask says that police confiscated 
everything that appeared to have homosexual content.  Victor Juliet Mukasa 
wasn't in her home at the time, but police detained instead a visiting Kenyan 
activist who was there.


  Lesbigays in Latvia are marching for pride for the first time ever in Riga, 
thanks to a legal ruling that trumped opposition including the Prime 
Minister.  P.M. Aigars Kalvitis this week publicly declared it was "not acceptable" 
for "a parade of sexual minorities" to pass the Dom cathedral in the nation's 
capital.  He insisted that, "Latvia is a state based on Christian values.  We 
cannot promote things that are unacceptable to a large part of society."  The 
Riga city council took up his position and canceled the permit for the march, 
with a city spokesperson warning that, "The majority of society was against it, 
and it could result in unrest."  The spokesperson said the city had received 
masses of letters and e-mails against the march, including some from extremist 
groups who threatened to disrupt it.  Two major churches and several Members 
of Parliament had been actively campaigning against the march.
Riga pride organizers responded with a lawsuit claiming a violation of their 
constitutional rights.  The regional administrative court agreed and ordered 
the city to reissue the permit, saying officials had failed to demonstrate 
adequate grounds for its withdrawal.  The city said there wasn't time to 
physically issue a new permit but conceded it would allow the march to proceed legally. 
 Pride organizers had been prepared to march regardless, and they'd also 
organized their own international letter-writing campaign of protest. 


  Earlier this month in Turkey, more than 150 people marched for pride in 
Istanbul's 12th annual celebration.


  And finally... photographic equipment manufacturer Eastman Kodak has taken 
an unusual step for a major corporation. One section of the company Web site 
is now entitled "Pride at Kodak" to specifically highlight Kodak's commitment 
to lesbigay and trans people in their roles as its workers, customers and 
suppliers.  It's the corporate response to the company's own Lambda Network of 
lesbigay and trans employees.  You can check it out at www.kodak.com/go/pride... 
and have a proud "Kodak moment".