NewsWrap for the week ending April 8, 2006 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #941, distributed 4-10-06) [Written this week Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill and Rex Wockner] Reported this week by Christopher Gaal and Lucia Chappelle Government officials in several countries have been discussing legal recognition of same gender couples. Opening new offices in Dublin this week of Ireland's Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern pledged to pass civil partnership legislation for gay and lesbian couples similar to the laws that came into effect in the U.K. in December. "Our sexual orientation is not an incidental attribute. It is an essential part of who and what we are," Ahern told the opening-day audience. "Sexual orientation cannot, and must not, be the basis of a second-class citizenship," he said. But Ahern acknowledged that it might be more difficult to legalize same gender unions in Ireland than it was in the United Kingdom, which includes neighboring Northern Ireland. Unlike the U.K., the predominantly Roman Catholic Republic of Ireland's constitution has a clause requiring "protection of the institution of marriage." Ahern said that a government-appointed group of experts would recommend several possible options in a report expected near the end of the year. Also speaking out in support of same gender couples is President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia, although in a somewhat limited way. During a meeting with college students in late March, Uribe was asked about his government's views on gay and lesbian couples' rights. According to a report in El Tiempo, he responded: "I will be completely sincere. First topic, marriage: No. Second topic, adoption: No. Inheritance rights: Yes. Social Security: Yes." Uribe's administration then introduced a measure in parliament that would grant spousal rights to same gender couples in the areas of inheritance, division of property, health care and pensions. The legislation could face an uphill battle, however. A recent Gallup Poll found that 77 percent of Colombians oppose legal recognition of same gender unions. Taiwan's Interior Minister Lee Yi-yang has announced that gays and lesbians should be able to seek protections under the island's Domestic Violence Prevention Law, the Taipei Times reported. Lee said that gay and lesbian couples who live together should be included under the category "family members," although the current law doesn't explicitly say that. The determination was made public as legislators reviewed the law in a Judiciary Committee meeting in late March. Legislator Kuo Lin-Yung said gays and lesbians "have been derided, persecuted and constrained in the past, but now they have begun to speak out [and] must now be equally protected by the law." Lawmaker Huang Sue-ying noted that the concept of "family" traditionally referred to heterosexual couples, and called the decision made at the review session "a breakthrough for gay rights." Canada's new Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this week that he'll keep his campaign promise to hold a free vote in Parliament on whether to reopen the issue of legal same gender marriage. But government sources say that won't happen before the House of Commons breaks for summer vacation. Marriage equality advocates condemned the apparent foot-dragging. "We don't want this issue hanging over our heads," complained Laurie Arron of Canadians for Equal Marriage. "Parliament has better things to do than roll back the clock on equality," he said. The Netherlands is marking the fifth anniversary of the modern world's first legal marriages for same gender couples -- which began a few minutes after midnight on April 1st, 2001: {on-scene coverage/ca 1:15} That was correspondent Mindy Ran reporting for This Way Out five years ago. About 2,400 same gender couples married in the Netherlands during that first year. Those numbers have reportedly stabilized at around 1,200 each year since. But Swaziland's minister of justice and constitutional affairs, Prince David Dlamini, has ruled out same gender marriages in his country. "The constitution reflects the custom, culture as well as the religious tendencies of our people," he said. In a nod to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and some others on the continent, he added, "Swaziland is not about to endorse human sexuality at a time when a number of African countries are making specific legal provisions banning such a practice." Another newspaper publisher has been jailed in Cameroon for printing lists of public figures and celebrities alleged to be gay. Nouvelle Afrique publisher Biloa Ayissi was sent to prison for a year for trying to "out" a prominent doctor and the government minister for parliamentary affairs. Ayissi also was fined 4 million CFA francs, or about 7,300 U.S. dollars. He plans to appeal the defamation conviction. The editor of L'Anecdote was jailed for 4 months and fined the equivalent of about 1,800 U.S. dollars in early March for publishing the same government minister's name on a long list of alleged homosexuals. Brokeback Mountain continues to make news around the world. The new DVD release of the groundbreaking Oscar-winner is selling briskly, but the film was banned this week from movie screens in the Bahamas. "You have a group of people who are telling grown men and women what they can and cannot watch," island theater owner Philip Burrows told the Associated Press. "I cannot understand denying people the right to make their own choices," he said. Theaters in the capital city of Nassau had already begun to advertise the movie when the government's Plays and Films Control Board announced its ban at the urging of the Bahamas Christian Council. But global retail giant Wal-Mart has been selling the newly released DVD of the film despite vocal protests by some U.S. religious right groups. In a statement on its Web site, the Mississippi-based American Family Association urged "concerned Christians" to visit their local Wal-Mart locations and share their displeasure "over the chain's decision to promote and carry the pro-homosexual movie." But Wal-Mart spokesperson Gail Lavielle told the Reuters news agency, "We're a retailer. We want to sell things our customers will buy." According to Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Brokeback Mountain sold more than 1.4 million DVD copies on its first day of release earlier this month. And finally, citing policies against "controversial issues" or religious advertising, U.S. TV networks CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox have each decided not to broadcast an ad for the United Church of Christ that promotes inclusivity. It shows an African-American single mother, a gay couple, an Arab-American and others being ejected from their pews by a giant supernatural hand pressing a big red button. Text on the screen then reads, "God doesn’t reject people. Neither do we," as an announcer says, "The United Church of Christ - no matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome here." This is the second time a U.C.C. TV spot has been nixed by the major networks. The first, rejected in December 2004, depicted bouncers preventing lesbigay couples, people from ethnic minorities and others from entering a church, with the same tag line. It was named the year's most outstanding electronic advertisement by GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The new "Ejector" ad is running this month on at least 17 broadcast and cable networks, including A&E, AMC, BET, CNN, CNN en Español, Headline News, The Hallmark and History channels, TBS, TNT, E!, Lifetime, Si-TV, Azteca America... and, you'd think, on LOGO, the Viacom/MTV Networks-owned U.S. cable channel specifically targeting GLBT viewers, right? Guess again. When asked for an official reason why the country's first fulltime queer cable outlet won't show the spot, an MTV Networks spokesperson responded, "Our guidelines state we will not accept religious advertisements that may be deemed as disparaging to another religion." On the contrary, says Ron Buford, director of the U.C.C.'s Stillspeaking Initiative. He says the campaign was created by the 1.3-million-member denomination to encourage church attendance and counter the alienation some people feel from organized religion. Ironically, Buford was honored in November by the LOGO Network and OUT Magazine as one of the "Top 100 Most Interesting, Influential and Newsworthy LGBT Individuals." "I guess the idea of gay TV doesn't really mean it's your community's network," Buford told United Church News. "It's just something that's targeted at you to sell product."