NewsWrap for the week ending May 13, 2006 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #946, distributed 5-15-06) [Written this week Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill and Rex Wockner] Reported this week by Jon Beaupré and Greg Gordon The Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory -- or A.C.T. -- which encompasses the country's capital city of Canberra, approved civil unions legislation for same gender couples this week. The Australian federal government doesn't recognize gay and lesbian unions legally contracted in its states, territories, or in other countries -- in fact, a revision last year to the nation's Marriage Act pushed by Prime Minister John Howard's administration specifically prohibits that. A spokesperson for Australia Attorney General Phillip Ruddock, who had vowed to overturn the A.C.T. measure if it conflicted with federal law, told the Associated Foreign Press that his government was "happy" with amendments to the legislation as originally proposed. The main issue was not requiring registered federal marriage celebrants to officiate at civil union ceremonies, although the spokesperson said Ruddock would still be checking all aspects of the law. A civil unions law passed in Tasmania in 2003 also allows a range of non married-like or "caring" relationships to be registered, but the A.C.T. legislation is only available to same gender couples. It also obligates them to have an official ceremony, while the Tasmanian law doesn't require one. The legislation in both Tasmania and now the A.C.T. allows a gay or lesbian couple to officially register their relationship, thereby gaining virtually all the rights under local laws given to heterosexually-married couples, such as access to wills, powers of attorney and medical consultation. A.C.T. leader John Stanhope, who spearheaded the legislation, said the law as amended will still "deliver recognition, without conflicting with or changing the meaning of marriage." Peter Furness of the advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality called the move "a very significant step forward in our push towards full legal equality under Australian law." The incoming center-left Italian government of Romano Prodi will likely be proposing some form of legal recognition for same gender couples there. But Pope Benedict XVI continues to condemn gays and lesbians, renewing his relentless attacks this week at a conference on marriage and the family. He's quoted as saying "Only the rock of total and irrevocable love between a man and a woman is capable of being the foundation of building a society that becomes a home for all mankind... There is a special urgency today to avoid confusion with other types of unions based on a weak love." Franco Grillini, a newly elected openly-gay leftist M.P., charged the Pope with trying to meddle in secular politics and of "ignoring the rights of million of Italians who live together". Vladimir Luxuria, a member of Prodi's coalition who was elected to Parliament as Europe's first transsexual lawmaker, condemned the Pope for suggesting that homosexual love was "weaker" than heterosexual love, saying it was the duty of the state to "recognize and regulate" same gender unions. In his remarks the Pope also re-asserted the Roman Catholic Church's position against any form of birth control. However, retired Milan Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a onetime papal contender, made headlines in late April with comments published in the Italian newsweekly L'Espresso saying that condoms were the "lesser evil" in combating the spread of AIDS. A few days later, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who's in charge of the Vatican's health care ministry, told the Rome daily La Republica that "Soon the Vatican will issue a document about the use of condoms by persons who have grave diseases, starting with AIDS." In U.S. couples news, a New Hampshire Superior Court judge ruled last week that the state must offer domestic partnership benefits to lesbian and gay government workers. The ruling was the result of two separate complaints filed with the state’s Human Rights Commission in 2002 by Patricia Bedford and Anne Breen. They both work for the state’s technical college and each is raising a child with a lesbian partner. Merrimack County judge Kathleen McGuire dismissed the state's argument that denying them partnership benefits was not discriminatory because those benefits are also denied to unmarried heterosexuals. Noting that in New Hampshire only heterosexuals can marry, McGuire wrote, "The state's attempt to couch the issue as one wherein all unmarried individuals are impacted equally avoids reality." New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte plans an appeal to the state Supreme Court. Governor John Lynch says he supports giving benefits to gay and lesbian families but that he won't interfere with the appeal. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has issued an executive order extending domestic partnership benefits to state employees. Illinois becomes the nation's 13th state - and the third largest - to offer domestic partnership benefits to many of its state workers. Some state employees had already gained access to domestic partnership benefits under recently-negotiated union contracts. A U.S. federal appeals court has decided that it's at the state level that lawmakers and judges must grapple with the issue of marriage equality for gays and lesbians. A 3-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week told a Southern California couple who'd challenged both state and federal laws limiting marriage to heterosexual couples that they'll have to await the outcome of state litigation already in progress. Those cases could reach the California Supreme Court by year's end. It is difficult, Judge Ferdinand Fernandez wrote, "to imagine an area more fraught with sensitive social policy considerations in which federal courts should not involve themselves if there is an alternative." Colorado voters could find many "alternatives" on their ballot in November. A proposal to create a statewide domestic partner registry with many of the rights of marriage, conceived by the state Legislature as a public referendum, cleared its last hurdle this week in the Colorado House of Representatives. But the measure could have a lot of company on the ballot: it's prompted 2 anti-queer groups to collect signatures for ballot initiatives, one to add an amendment to the state Constitution defining marriage as hetero-only, and another that would bar legal recognition of any union deemed "similar to marriage." Lesbigay rights advocates then filed their own last-minute initiative to counter the latter proposal, one that would specifically define "domestic partnership" as "not similar to marriage." There's a low threshold in Colorado for the number of signatures required to qualify ballot initiatives, so in theory all 4 proposals could be on the ballot, and all 4 could win voter approval. It's likely that Colorado courts would eventually have to interpret the results. Sean Duffy of the queer advocacy group Coloradans for Fairness and Equality called the current situation "clear as mud." In Canada, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission this week awarded Halifax West High School physical education teacher Lindsay Willow 27,000 dollars in damages almost 6 years after 2 of her colleagues accused her of inappropriate sexual behavior with a 17-year-old female student. Even though the student said nothing of the sort had happened, the school principal nevertheless felt compelled to call in the police. Their investigation determined that there had been no wrongdoing. Willow's complaint with the human rights board charged that she was accused of inappropriate behavior because she was believed to be a lesbian, and that the allegations ruined her health, tarnished her reputation, and damaged her career prospects. The board of inquiry found that the Halifax Regional School Board, a former teacher, and the then-principal discriminated against Willow because of her perceived sexual orientation. In addition to the 27,000 dollars awarded to Willow, the board also awarded damages of 2,500 dollars to the student involved in the allegations. The California Senate approved a bill this week requiring inclusion in public school social-science curricula of the contributions of LGBT people. If it clears the Assembly and is approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- far from assured -- the measure could have a significant national impact because California is one of the country's largest customers of school textbooks. Openly lesbian Democratic state Senator Sheila Kuehl authored the bill, which requires the teaching of age-appropriate information about the historical contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Republican Senator Bill Morrow, however, called the measure dangerous, shockingly claiming to the Sacramento Bee newspaper that "There is not one scintilla of credible scientific evidence to suggest that homosexuality is biological in origin." But Democratic Senator Richard Alarcon said the revised curriculum would allow the state to teach tolerance. As he told the Bee, "Let's give the next generation a chance to do better than we did." And finally, a lesson in perseverance -- and what bad publicity can do -- concluded this week for some young queer activists in the Northern California city of Los Altos, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News. The issue was a Pride parade scheduled for June 4th by the city's teens. The Council has even dithered over whether to support requests by the Los Altos High School Gay-Straight Alliance for Gay Pride Day resolutions. This year it even approved an ostrich-like motion to ban further discussion of any resolutions involving sexual orientation. The proposed teen Pride parade downtown, featuring floats, bands, and other local LGBT youth groups, has been strenuously opposed by the Council for the past 2 years. The ongoing controversy has ignited months of publicity -- mostly negative, and reaching far beyond the city limits. In an apparent about-face, the Los Altos City Council this week unanimously approved a permit for the teen Pride parade.