"NewsWrap" for the week ending June 3, 2006 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #949, distributed 6-5-06) [Written this week Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Steve Pride, and Rex Wockner] Reported this week by Charls Hall and Jon Beaupré   It was during the first week of June 1981 that a strange new illness among sexually active gay men was first described.  Initially labeled "GRID" -- "Gay-Related Immune Deficiency" -- HIV/AIDS has since infected some 65 million people of all sexual orientations and socio-economic classes around the world, killing 25 million of them. But after 25 grim years, some nations still can't bring themselves to even mention the highest-risk groups by name.  The United States joined predominantly Islamic and Roman Catholic countries at a high-level U.N. Conference on AIDS this week in New York City to oppose any final declaration about the disease that specified injection drug users, sex workers, or gay and bisexual men -- ignoring a call to do so by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan as he opened the 3-day conference on May 31st.  "We need to be realistic," Annan had told reporters.  "If we are here to try and end the epidemic and fight the epidemic, we will not succeed by putting our heads in the sand and pretending these people do not exist or do not need help." But opponents argued that drug use, prostitution, and homosexuality are illegal in many countries, and that specifically identifying these high-risk populations in the declaration might be construed as an endorsement.  Using language appearing in similar declarations over the past 5 years, the document again references them only as "vulnerable groups." Of the declaration, Aditi Sharma, HIV/AIDS Campaign and Policy Coordinator for India-based ActionAid International issued a statement saying, in part, "We are furious.  Vulnerable groups such as intravenous drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men have been made invisible in this document... It is incomprehensible how negotiators could come up with such a weak declaration." The stated goals of this week's conference were to review efforts to fight AIDS and prepare national plans to combat the virus over the next decade.  The gathering came on the heels of a report issued by the U.N. AIDS office saying that world leaders had failed to meet many of the goals established in 2001 to fight the pandemic.   Human Rights Watch was among several groups this week to call for a full investigation by Russian authorities into the violence at last week's first-ever Pride march in Moscow.  A mix of young nationalist skinheads and religious fundamentalists attacked the participants at two different locations, beating and kicking several, and chanting, "Russia free of faggots!  Death to sodomites!"  Many more LGBT activists than their attackers were eventually arrested. Documenting the melee in a briefing paper released this week, Scott Long of Human Rights Watch said, "Police at first seemed to allow the skinheads and others free rein to assault lesbians and gays.  When police finally intervened, they forced the two groups closer together, aggravating the violence," he said. "They failed totally to protect people peacefully trying to exercise their rights." Many of Moscow's religious leaders had vocally opposed the Pride march, some specifically threatening violence by their followers.  Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was equally adamant that no public demonstrations by "deviants" be held, denying an official city permit for the parade, even as organizers were vowing to march without it. Human Rights Watch reports that internal documents from the mayor’s office it has seen provide evidence that Luzhkov had conducted a sustained campaign against LGBT people.  In one memorandum, dated March 2006, Luzhkov reportedly advised subordinates that, "It is necessary to take concrete measures to prevent holding public and mass gay events in the capital," instructing them to "organize an active campaign in the mass media using appeals from citizens and religious and public organizations."   There's got to be concern about a similar scenario occurring at the next World Pride celebration, scheduled for August in Jerusalem.  Many of that city's Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders have spoken out against the event.  Local Pride organizer Jerusalem Open House won an injunction last year against ultra-Orthodox Mayor Uri Lupolianski, who, like Moscow's Luzhkov, had also sought to ban Pride events in his city.  He's reportedly expressed concerns about clashes at this year's World Pride event between Jerusalem's secular and religious factions. But District Court Judge Judith Tzur this week ordered city authorities to compensate Jerusalem Open House for failing to provide funding for local Pride events during the past 3 years there, as they do for other cultural events, ordering payment to organizers of 350,000 shekels, or about 77,000 U.S. dollars.  "Even if municipal officials have a hard time accepting the community and believe this is an unwanted phenomenon," she wrote, "the municipality... must treat this community equally, out of recognition of the supreme... values of tolerance and pluralism, which are at the core of democratic values." The Jerusalem World Pride festival was originally planned for last year but postponed because it would have taken place during the tense Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip.  Organizers of the Pride parade in Tel Aviv disappointed some by canceling this year's event and urging its residents to attend Jerusalem's global festival instead. The last World Pride event was held in Rome in 2000 despite vocal opposition by the Vatican, and attracted about half a million peaceful participants.  Local organizers expect tens of thousands to attend the six-day event in Jerusalem starting on August 6th, scheduled to include street parties, workshops and a film festival.   Denmark's parliament this week passed a law allowing artificial insemination for lesbians and single women in the country's public hospitals. The vote followed heated debate over the issue, which has divided political parties and Government officials between those who demand full equality for lesbians and gay men and those who advocate what they call "traditional family values". 86 MPs supported the measure, 61 voted against, while 21 abstained -- among them members of the Government. Same gender couples still don't have adoption rights in the country. Denmark was the first to legalize same gender "registered partnerships" in 1989.   But Costa Rica's Constitutional Court has ruled 5-to-2 that lesbigay couples do not have a right to marriage. At the same time, the Court urged legislators to grant those couples justice and legal security by creating a way to regulate stable, loyal same gender unions. Plaintiff Yashín Castrillo, a gay lawyer, sought to have the Costa Rica Family Code's heterosexual definition of marriage declared unconstitutional.  He said he will appeal the ruling to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.   Canadian equality activists are upset with Statistics Canada's 2006 national census form.  The document instructs legally married same gender couples to use the "other" category to record their relationship rather than ticking the "husband" or "wife" box.  Statistics Canada claims that it hasn't had time to change the form since same-gender marriages were legalized nationwide last July. They have been legal in Ontario since June 2003, in British Columbia since July 2003, and in Quebec since April 2004. Gemma Hickey, president of the national lobby group Egale, said the census treats gays and lesbians as "second-class citizens." Canada conducts a national census every five years.   For the second time in 2 years, Colorado's Republican Governor Bill Owens has vetoed a bill to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state's workplace anti-discrimination code, claiming that the bill "had the potential to be costly for Colorado businesses." Even though the state still has no basic employment bias protections, Coloradans will vote this November on a referendum that would offer domestic partnerships with many of the benefits of marriage to same gender couples.  The proposal by the Democrat-controlled legislature did not require the governor's approval. Up to 3 other initiatives could share the November ballot with the legislature's domestic partner plan.  One would specifically outlaw same gender marriage, another would ban civil unions, and a third, drafted by equality advocates, guarantees that the domestic partner plan would take effect if approved by voters regardless of the outcome of any of the other initiatives.  Proponents of each of the 3 initiatives are currently gathering signatures on petitions to qualify them for the ballot.   And finally, Batwoman will again be "coming out" of her Batcave -- literally -- as a lesbian. The original superhero first appeared in DC Comics in 1956 and was killed off in 1979. "This is not just about having a gay character," says Dan DiDio, vice president and executive editor at DC.  "We're trying for overall diversity in the DC universe.  We have strong African-American, Hispanic and Asian characters.  We're trying to get a better cross-section of our readership and the world." The 2006 version of Batwoman, just as with her earlier incarnation the secret identity of Kathy Kane, is scheduled to appear this July in "52", a year-long DC Comics publication that recently made its debut.  She's a rich Gotham City socialite who has a romantic history with another "52" character, former police detective Renee Montoya.  The new series is set in a world where superheroes like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are no longer a presence. The new Batwoman will have flowing red hair, knee-high red boots with spiked heels, and a form-fitting black outfit. Opinions about the new Batwoman on Web sites devoted to DC Comics have ranged from outrage to approval.  Some have taken a more light-hearted approach.  Asked one poster, "Wouldn't ugly people as heroes be more groundbreaking?"