NewsWrap for the week ending February 4, 2006 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #932, distributed 2-6-06) [Written this week by Greg Gordon, with thanks toGraham Underhill, Rex Wockner, and Steve Pride] Reported this week by Sheri Lunn and Jon Beaupré   The fight for marriage equality came to Portugal this week, as a lesbian couple very publicly applied for a license to wed.  There were dozens of cameras rolling at the Lisbon registry office when Helena Paixao and Teresa Pires submitted their application.  While it wasn't immediately rejected, as the couple had expected, it was the next day.  It's on the basis of constitutional bans on sexual orientation and sex discrimination that the women will challenge the denial of their marriage license.  A senior government official in Lisbon said civil law, which doesn't recognize same gender marriages, takes precedence.  But the couples' lawyer, Luis Rodrigues, said he will take their case to the highest Portuguese courts, and if necessary to the European Court of Human Rights. Portugal did enact legislation in 2001 that gives same gender couples certain legal, tax and property rights.  The ruling Socialist government has said changes to the law are not on its agenda.  Recent opinion polls indicate that a majority in Portugal don't want their country to follow the lead of also predominantly-Roman Catholic neighbor Spain, which enacted marriage equality legislation last year.   Last month Britain became the latest country to recognize same gender unions in the form of civil partnerships, which grant marriage equality -- in all but name -- to gay and lesbian couples.  Sonya Gould and Vanessa Haydock, both privates in the Royal Logistics Corps, this week became the first queer couple in the British army to exchange vows.  Two Royal Air Force women became the first same gender couple in the British military to civilly unite in December.  "As an equal opportunities employer," said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence this week, "... We are pleased that serving personnel who are registered in a same-sex relationship now have equal rights to those enjoyed by married couples."  It was only in February 2000 that the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the British military was lifted.   In Sydney this week, Barbara Yapp and Laraine Jones became the first same gender pair in Australia to register their British civil union.  Britain's new civil partnership law enables any queer couple in Australia to wed as long as one of the pair is a British national, as is Jones.  A British High Commission spokesperson said qualifying same gender couples in Australia could apply through their nearest consular agency.  The British Home Office has even introduced a "civil partnership visa" for gay and lesbian couples who are traveling to Britain specifically to marry.  Britain will also recognize queer couples in Tasmania who have registered their relationships under that state's limited civil unions law.  While civil partnerships are not recognized in Australia, which recently banned legal recognition of same gender unions, they will be in force in England if a couple wishes to move there.   The upper chamber of the Czech parliament voted late last month to grant some legal rights to same gender couples, but there were reports this week that the measure would be rejected by President Vaclav Klaus. The legislation would allow couples who register their partnerships to have inheritance and health care rights similar to those granted to heterosexual married couples. Representatives of 10 Christian churches in the Czech Republic called on the president to veto the legislation, warning that it would "weaken family life and cause chaos in values, mainly in the young generation."   But queer couples have won victories in two U.S. states.  Last week California's Third Appellate District Court upheld the state's domestic partnership laws that grant many of the rights of marriage to gay and lesbian couples.  Several right-wing groups have challenged those laws up the judicial ladder, but this appears to be the final ruling.  Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights were among the advocacy groups defending the domestic partnership laws.  Lambda Legal Senior Counsel J ennifer Pizer said that "[This] decision brings to an end years of wasted court resources brought about by a fringe group of people opposed to even the most basic protections for thousands of California families headed by same-sex couples."   And Maryland's Democratically controlled House of Delegates this rejected a state constitutional amendment to ban recognition of same gender marriages.  Republican Don Dwyer proposed the amendment after a Baltimore circuit court judge struck down Maryland's anti-queer marriage law last month.  His colleagues say they aren't giving up on enacting a marriage-banning amendment, and Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich has already said he plans to appeal the Baltimore judge's ruling to the state's high court.   Religious conservative darling Samuel Alito was confirmed this week to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.  Alito, who as a young lawyer opposed a woman's right to choose and queer rights, now says he will approach the issues with an "open mind."  The vote was mostly along party lines in the Republican-controlled Senate.   Alito replaces retiring moderate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who had often been the Court's swing vote on significant social issues.  "With the Supreme Court confirmation of Judge Alito," warned the Human Rights Campaign's Joe Solmonese, "Americans are threatened with an unprecedented erosion of our rights."  The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Matt Foreman called the confirmation "a devastating blow to individual rights, civil liberties and equal justice under law in America."  But according to Lambda Legal's Kevin Cathcart, "Though there is much to be concerned about, our Supreme Court victories remain good law and we will continue to win in state and federal courts."  It's worth noting that a majority of the current Justices issued lesbigay-favorable decisions in two recent landmark Supreme Court cases, 1995's Romer v. Evans ruling an anti-queer state amendment in Colorado to be unconstitutional, and the decriminalization of sodomy in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.   Aside from getting his Alito appointment confirmed, it's been a pretty tough second term so far for U.S. President George W. Bush.  His Republican Party is reeling from a growing corruption scandal, the Iraq War is not going well, and his popularity remains low in most recent polls.  In his annual State of the Union address, along with bizarrely asking Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the creation of human-animal hybrids, the President equated same gender marriage with crooked politicians, and promised to appoint judges who will presumably stop both.  "Many Americans, especially parents, still have deep concerns about the direction of our culture and the health of our most basic institutions," he said.  "They’re concerned about unethical conduct by public officials, and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage." All of the major U.S. queer advocacy groups condemned the President's remarks, but right wing conservative groups loved them.  Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said he was "encouraged by the progress the president has made in appointing judges who are servants of the law and who refuse to legislate from the bench."  Perkins also said that marriage is a concern that cannot be left to the courts.  He'll therefore applaud Raw Story's report this week that the Senate's Republican leadership will take another stab at passing a Constitutional ban on same gender marriage, the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment, sometime this year.  As for their precise political timing, cynics may point to U.S. federal elections being held this November.   The brutal attack at a New Bedford, Massachusetts gay bar this week underscored queer advocates' push for Congressional passage of languishing GLBT federal hate crimes legislation.  After confirming that Puzzles Lounge was a gay bar, an axe-wielding, gun-toting teenager badly sliced one customer's head and face and shot him, and then shot two others in the back and chest, police said. All 3 victims remain hospitalized, with at least one in critical condition.  Authorities describe 18-year-old suspect Jacob Robida, in whose bedroom they found Nazi and anti-Semitic posters and literature, as violent, armed and dangerous.  He was wanted on suspicion of 3 counts of attempted murder and violating the state's hate crimes law. A candlelight vigil outside the bar the following night drew more than 150 people, including Mayor Scott Lang, who described the attacks as "a crime against everyone in this city."  A city councilor read a statement from openly gay U.S. Congressmember Barney Frank, whose district includes New Bedford, saying he was "heartbroken" and "outraged."   And finally, outrage of another sort is being expressed by some religious conservatives over the casting of an openly-gay man in an evangelical production company's new movie.  Christian ministers were reportedly enthusiastic following sneak previews of "End of the Spear," made by Every Tribe Entertainment.  But an uproar over their casting of openly gay actor and activist Chad Allen in the lead role seems to have all but eclipsed the movie itself.  It chronicles the true story of 5 American missionaries who were killed in 1956 by an indigenous tribe in Ecuador.  The missionaries' families eventually converted the tribe to Christianity and forgave the killers.  Allen plays one of the slain missionaries, and later his grown son.  Every Tribe Entertainment expected a supportive reception from evangelicals, who have long been inspired by the story's message of hope and redemption.  But an assistant pastor at a Baptist Church in Denver, Colorado joined a chorus of online protests charging that the casting of Allen "would be like Madonna playing the Virgin Mary," and that "we must realize that the Christian message and the messenger are intricately related."  For his part, however, Allen told the CNN Headline News program's "Showbiz Tonight"... [Chad Allen:] I said, "I want to go in and talk with the directors and the producers, make sure that they understand who I am, I understand who they are.  I wanted to know where the money was coming from and where it was going so that I could make sure it wasn`t ever going to be used to hurt someone like me, and it was the most incredible experience.  The director looked at me.  He said, "Look, we know."  And he said, "There may be people on your side of this that aren`t too happy with you wanting to work with us, and there definitely may be people on our side that aren`t too happy that we want to work with you, but isn`t that all the more reason why we should do it?"  He said, "Let`s walk together hand-in-hand and show that we can respect each other`s differences, and we can love each other, and we can create together, and that`s what we`ve done… Itt`s an incredible movie.  I`m very proud of it. -----------------            Tagged over "NewsWrap" outro music: Updating that Massachusetts gay bar bashing story, 18-year-old-suspect Jacob Robida is dead.  After 3 days on the run, he was cornered and shot by Arkansas police soon after he'd killed an officer during a routine traffic stop.  Robida's 33-year-old woman passenger from West Virginia, who police said met the teenager online, was also killed during the shoot-out.