NewsWrap
for the week ending February 18, 2006
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #934, distributed 2-20-06)
[Written this week by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill and Rex 
Wockner]


Reported this week by Sheri Lunn and Rick Watts


Marriage was on the minds of government leaders in several countries this 
week.
A Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms has been under review in Jamaica 
since 1991, promoted as amending the Caribbean nation's Constitution to 
better protect human rights.  However, following a major press conference by 
numerous religious leaders this week expressing concerns that the new Charter's 
language could allow same gender marriage, government officials issued assurances 
to the contrary -- and went even further.  Justice Minister A.J. Nicholson 
issued a statement saying that there was "no intention whatsoever on the part of 
the Government or the Joint Select Committee of Parliament that any door 
should be opened by provisions in the proposed Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or 
otherwise, to decriminalize homosexuality, or to pave the way for same-sex 
marriages."  Nicholson said J-FLAG, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals 
and Gays, told him it would be content if the offence of buggery was removed 
from the statute books, but that the Committee's decision was, "Let the 
Parliament rule on that".


  Portuguese campaigners submitted a petition to their parliament this week 
with over 5,000 signatures, including those from celebrities and leftist 
politicians, urging passage of legal marriage equality.  Under Portuguese law, 
petitions with more than 4,000 valid signatures must be considered for a full 
debate in the parliament.
Pressure on the Portuguese government has been building in recent months to 
follow neighboring Spain, which established civil marriage equality last year.


  As expected, President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic this week vetoed 
a bill establishing limited legal recognition of registered gay and lesbian 
couples.  Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek supported the bill, along with 86 
deputies, and had called on Klaus to sign the measure into law.  The bill now returns 
to the lower house of parliament, where it takes 101 of the 200 deputies to 
override the veto.  In an October poll, only 30 percent of Czech citizens 
opposed the introduction of registered partnerships, while 62 percent supported it.


  Under the U.K. Civil Partnership Act, any British national living abroad 
can register a same-gender civil union in a British embassy or consulate, as 
long as local law allows it.  The British Consulate in Hong Kong says it has 
received several inquiries, but can't sanction the registrations until it receives 
a formal "no objection" from the Hong Kong government.   A Home Affairs 
Bureau Protocol Division spokesperson said this week that the government is "still 
considering the matter."  Similar requests have reportedly been approved at 
British embassies in Japan, Vietnam, Venezuela, Turkmenistan, Colombia and 
Belarus.


  Some members of Australia's Parliament have increasingly been voicing 
support for British-style civil-partnerships, and activists lobbying in Canberra 
this week say that support is building.  Prime Minister John Howard has vocally 
opposed same gender marriage and civil unions, last month calling the latter a 
"cop-out".  But one of the country's leading activists, Rodney Croome, said 
"the commitment of those MP's who question this stance has left us with a 
renewed sense of optimism."
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock recently required registered marriage 
celebrants at all weddings to announce the country's legal definition of marriage, 
amended in August 2004, to be exclusively "between a man and a woman".  
Australian Marriage Equality spokesperson Peter Furness said the Conservative 
government's continuing attacks on queer couples was "becoming obsessive."


  In marriage-obsessed U.S. state legislatures, New Hampshire and West 
Virginia this week rejected bills that would have added language to their respective 
constitutions banning legal recognition of same gender couples.  Virginia's 
Senate handed marriage equality activists a partial victory, while clearing the 
way for a ballot measure there, by unanimously approving language that will 
describe for voters all the restrictions a proposed constitutional amendment 
would create.  The amendment states in part that "this Commonwealth and its 
political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for 
relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, 
qualities, significance, or effects of marriage," nor shall they "create or recognize 
another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the 
rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage."
If the House of Delegates concurs, Virginia voters will see the entire text 
of the amendment when they to go the polls on November 7th.


  And the Idaho legislature finalized a proposed constitutional amendment 
this week that, if ratified by the state's voters in November, will deny 
same-gender couples any civil rights.  The amendment stipulates that "a marriage 
between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or 
recognized."  Some critics have charged that the measure is so vaguely worded 
that it could affect the legal rights of unmarried heterosexual couples.


  New Jersey's Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in the lawsuit 
brought by 7 gay and lesbian couples, who charge that the state's marriage laws 
are a discriminatory violation of the New Jersey constitution.  The case began 
working its way through lower courts in 2002, and is the oldest such state 
lawsuit now playing out across the country.  No one would speculate on when the 
justices will rule, but the Court has often handed down opinions in August.


  New York marriage equality advocates this week suffered two judicial losses 
but celebrated a legislative victory last week.  Republican Governor George 
Pataki signed a bill allowing same-gender domestic partners to determine the 
disposition of a partner’s remains.  Alan Van Capelle of the Empire State Pride 
Agenda said it was "the first time in New York state law [that] same-sex 
relationships have been given priority over a blood relative," and called the bill 
"a victory for our families."


  But the midlevel New York Appellate Court has ruled unanimously against 
same-gender couples seeking marriage licenses.
In a unanimous decision the 5-judge panel said "the Legislature is where the 
changes to marriage" should be addressed.  Everyone expects the issue to 
eventually be decided by the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals.


  And that Court issued a sharply divided 4-to-3 opinion this week that New 
York City's Equal Benefits Ordinance was unenforceable.  The measure had 
required large city contractors to offer the same employee benefits to lesbigays as 
to its hetero workers.  Similar ordinances have long been in place in San 
Francisco and several other cities.
The New York City Council overrode Mayor Michael Bloomberg's veto of their 
ordinance in 2004, but Bloomberg refused to enforce it.  The Council then went 
to court, using a procedure designed to compel public officials to follow a 
duly enacted law.  The three dissenters on the court sided with the Council, 
arguing that an executive does not have the authority to ignore a law based on his 
or her personal opinions.  The headline of the New York Times story about the 
decision announced, "Mayor Need Not Enforce Certain Laws, Court Rules."


  Homosexuality itself is illegal in the United Arab Emirates and neighboring 
Muslim Gulf countries.  In November, UAE authorities raided what was 
described as a "gay wedding" in the desert resort city of Ghantout, arresting 26 men.  
A government official announced this week that "Eleven men have confessed to 
practicing homosexuality [and] were sentenced to five years in prison [for 
that offense] and one year for obscenity.  Another man was sentenced to one year 
in prison for obscenity, but was acquitted of homosexuality charges... while 
14 others have been released after being found not guilty."  He said the 
verdicts could be appealed.
In November, the UAE’s Interior Ministry said it would be giving the men 
hormone treatments to "cure" them of their homosexuality, but when pressed this 
week by a U.S. government official, a Ministry spokesperson repudiated that.


  More than 40,000 people were on hand for the 11th gay pride parade in 
Melbourne, Australia earlier this month.  Ninety-three contingents traveled down 
Fitzroy Street to Cantani Gardens, where a concert was held.  The city fire 
department marched for the first time, joining a group of about 40 state and local 
police officers.


  More than 1,000 revelers, reportedly from some 40 nations, also turned out 
for the annual gay pride parade in Phuket, Thailand.  The celebration was 
aimed in part at helping revive gay tourism on Phuket's Patong Beach, which 
suffered a sharp drop-off in visitors following the December 2004 tsunami.


  But finally, organizers planning a first-ever pride parade in Moscow in May 
have run into stiff opposition.  A spokesperson for Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said 
that such events "caused outrage in society, particularly among religious 
leaders."  The bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church compared homosexuality to 
leprosy, Russia's chief rabbi told MosNews that if the parade is held it "would be 
a blow for morality," and a leading Muslim cleric made headlines this week by 
threatening violent protests against anyone participating, saying, "they 
should be flogged."  Chief mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin claimed that "Any normal person 
would do that — Muslims and Orthodox Christians alike."  He added thhat the 
protests "might be even more intense than protests abroad against those 
controversial cartoons" depicting the prophet Mohammed.
Parade organizers responded with threats of their own, however, saying that 
if Moscow officials deny their formal application they might file a complaint 
with the European Court of Human Rights.