NewsWrap
for the week ending October 8, 2005
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #915, distributed 10-10-05)
[Written this week by Rick Watts and Lucia Chappelle, with thanks to Cindy 
Friedman, Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon]


Reported this week by Rick Watts and Christopher Gaal


  In the South Pacific Island Nation of Fiji, the government is petitioning 
that country’s high court to retry the gay couple who had earlier this year 
been convicted of sodomy before the court overturned the law as inconsistent with 
Fiji’s constitution.  Australian visitor and retired professor Thomas 
McCoskar and Dhirendra Nadan, a Fijian native, had been sentenced to two years in 
prison under the law, with the trial judge describing gay sex as "something so 
disgusting that it would make and decent person vomit."
But now, the Director of Public Prosecutions is asking for a new trial, 
asserting that High Court Judge Gerald Winter had misinterpreted the Constitution 
and wrongly found that the penal code discriminated against gays and breached 
their right to privacy.  To date, there is no word on whether the government 
will seek McCosker’s extradition from Australia, where he returned following the 
earlier legal victory.  Nor was there word on whether the High Court will 
agree to the government’s petition to retry.


  In Australia, the Anti-Discrimination Commission in the state of Tasmania 
has ordered the Australian Red Cross to defend its ban on gay men donating 
blood.  The Commission is investigating a complaint by a gay man who was told that 
blood from men who have had male-to-male sex within the last 12 months would 
not be accepted, with the nurse serving him referring to gays as "you people." 
 His complaint alleges that the ban is both discriminatory and unnecessary.  
Early in the AIDS epidemic, the practice was common in many countries.  
However, with the advent of HIV viral testing and new knowledge of the means of 
transmission—coupled with the fact that, worldwide, most cases of HIIV are 
transmitted via unprotected heterosexual sex, many health authorities now acknowledge 
that the ban on donations from gay men per se is generally obsolete.


  And the upper chamber of the legislature in the Australian state of New 
South Wales has its first "out" lesbian.  Penny Sharpe has filled the seat 
formerly held by her boss, Carmel Tebbutt, when he decided to run for a seat in the 
Lower House.  Sharpe is open as a lesbian, and is in a long-term relationship. 
 Among her goals, she would like to see the Status of Children Act changed so 
that both partners in gay and lesbian families, not just the biological 
parent, be legally recognized as the parents.


  The man who likely will be Poland’s next Prime Minister called 
homosexuality "unnatural" and asserted that the state should intervene if homosexuals try 
to "infect" others with their behavior.  Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, of the Law 
and Justice party, told the Polish edition of "Newsweek" magazine that 
propagating homosexuality constituted an infringement on the freedom of other people.  
"It is unnatural.  Family is natural and the state should safeguard the 
family... If such a person tries to infect others with their homosexuality, then 
the state has to intervene in such an abuse of freedom."  He did not specify 
what measures he thinks the government should take.
Marcinkeiwicz’ party is now negotiating with the Civic Platform party to form 
a government, after the two won a combined majority in elections held on 
September 25th, soundly defeating the incumbent left-wing government led by former 
Communists.  In June, Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, who is Law and Justice’s 
candidate for President refused permission for a gay-rights parade, although 
more than people ignored the order and marched anyway.  Police detained 29 
people after anti-gay opponents threw eggs and stones at the protesters.


  In Rome, the Vatican may be backing off of its threatened all-out ban on 
gay priests—but the conditions may be impossible to meet.  The threaat arose when 
Pope Benedict began considering new regulations to that effect-especially 
once investigators for the church began probing America’s 229 seminaries to root 
out gays.  The proposal suggested that gays—even if celibate ”should not be 
considered for the priesthood.  Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper with 
close Vatican ties, reported that a total ban on gay priests might be relaxed 
to permit gays to take their vows—if they can prove they’ve  been celibate for 
a minimum of three years.  There was no word on how such proof might be made.


  Also from the Vatican, Catholic Bishops are meeting to discuss banning 
pro-gay-equality politicians from receiving the Sacraments.  This first synod led 
by the new Pope is considering refusing communion for Catholic politicians who 
support laws that violate Church doctrine -— including support for llegal 
recognition of same gender couples -- such as Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin 
or Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodrigues Zapatero, both of whom 
successfully pushed for ending their countries’ respective bans on equal marriage 
rights for same-gender couples.
In a related development, a recent poll indicates that more than sixty 
percent of Spanish citizens are now comfortable with same-gender marriage, 
notwithstanding strident opposition by the Catholic Church.  The poll also said that, 
by similar margins, Spaniards oppose efforts by the conservative Popular 
Party—ousted by Zapatero in the last elections—to campaign on on that issue to return 
to power.


  Singer Elton John has donated $25,000 to the Blue Diamond Society —- the 
only gay civil rights group in the Himalayan mountain kingdom of Nepal.  Much of 
the money will go for the organization’s work with people afflicted with 
HIV/AIDS.  The rest will be spent on political activities and education.


  In Pakistan, a gay couple who exchanged vows in a traditional ceremony has 
been told by village elders to leave the country or be killed.  The "Times of 
India" reports that the two wed in a remote village near the famed Khyber Pass 
after the 42-year-old Afghan refugee fell in love with a 16-year-old 
villager, and offered his family a dowry of 40,000 rupees -— about $$650US -- a sum the 
family readily accepted.  Although arranged marriages are common in Pakistan, 
this is the first known where another male was involved.  Upon learning that 
the ceremony -— which was held with the usual pomp and circumstance  -— 
involved two men, village elder Millat Khan left the party.  A tribal assembly or 
"jirga" then told the newlyweds to leave the area immediately or face death for 
"breaking all the religious and tribal values and ethics," said Khan.  Sodomy 
is punishable by death in Pakistan.


  And finally this week, an accidental switch of DVDs has conservative 
Mormons fuming.  Two Utah families discovered the problem after purchasing at the 
church-owned Deseret Bookstores "Sons of Provo," a chronicle of the life of a 
Mormon "boy-band" on its journey to stardom.  What the families got instead, 
they discovered, was "Adored: Diary of a Porn Star" -— an unrated inndependent 
film about the life of a gay porn star.  Although the film is not pornographic in 
the normal sense, it does contain sexual situations.  According to sources, 
the mix-up occurred at the Los Angeles-based packaging company used by both 
film companies.  The company is offering $100 to the owner of every "Sons of 
Provo" DVD that instead contains "Adored: Diary of a Porn Star," and is donating 
$100 per such copy to CP80 -— an anti-pornography group.