"NewsWrap" for the week ending August 12, 2006 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #959, distributed 8-14-06) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Bill Kelley, and Rex Wockner] Reported this week by Jon Beaupré and Tanya Kane-Parry   Two British lesbians who demanded legal recognition in the U.K. of their Canadian marriage were turned down in the London High Court Family Division. U.K. law automatically converts foreign same gender marriages into civil partnerships, which nonetheless provide all the same rights and obligations. Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger, who were legally married in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2003, denounced the court decision as "profoundly discriminatory [and] an affront to social justice and human rights." The ruling, in part, said that, "Parliament has not called partnerships between persons of the same sex marriage, not because they are considered inferior to the institution of marriage but because, as a matter of objective fact and common understanding ... they are indeed different." The couple said they may appeal the ruling, though they're very concerned that the government is now seeking 25,000 pounds from them -- about 47 thousand U.S. dollars -- for the costs of the High Court case.  They say that amount is roughly equivalent to their life savings.   A lesbian denied custody of her three children by Chilé's Supreme Court has taken her case to the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Chiléan court ruled in 2004 that Karen Atala's lesbian life created for her daughters "a situation of risk" whose "pernicious consequences" would "damage their psychic development" and make them "objects of social discrimination," according to a "New York Times" translation. Atala's lawyer, Macarena Sáez, told the "Times" that she will argue that "due process was not respected, [Atala's] right to privacy was violated when courts had her computers searched looking for evidence of strange behavior, and the right of her children to be heard, which is binding in Chilé, was completely set aside." If Atala wins, it will set precedent in several Latin American nations whose constitutions stipulate that rulings by the Inter-American system override those of their own courts. Chiléan activists believe the stage is set for progress on LGBT causes under new president Michelle Bachelet, a socialist, feminist, single mother and former health minister who oversaw the country's HIV/AIDS programs.   An ugly custody battle in two U.S. states between lesbian former partners over a four year old girl named Isabelle Miller-Jenkins moved a step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court with a ruling last week by Vermont's highest court. Isabelle was conceived through artificial insemination to Lisa Miller-Jenkins.  At the time Lisa was in a relationship with Janet Miller-Jenkins, which as residents of Vermont they formalized through a civil union. When the relationship between the two women soured and they split up, a judge in Vermont gave Janet Miller-Jenkins temporary visitation rights with the child. Lisa then renounced her homosexuality and fled with her daughter to Virginia, which has some of the worst anti-queer legislation in the country.  She went to court in that state seeking sole custody of the child.  A Virginia judge ruled that since the mother now resided in his state, Lisa was the sole parent and that Janet is nothing more than a friend to the child. A Family Court judge in Vermont then found Lisa in contempt for moving to Virginia and disobeying a court order involving the child's joint custody, and another Vermont judge ruled in November that under the state's civil unions law, Janet must be regarded as a co-parent. The August 4th Vermont high court ruling determined that the civil union between Lisa and Janet was valid and that the family court had jurisdiction to dissolve the union.  In a unanimous ruling the justices also said that Vermont's family court had exclusive jurisdiction to issue the temporary custody and visitation order under a series of state laws including the Parental Kidnapping Protection Act. Lisa Miller-Jenkins has not commented on the latest ruling, but she is expected to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.   A German court ruled this week that an Iranian lesbian can't be deported because she could face a death sentence in the Islamic nation. The 27-year-old woman, whose name was not released, traveled to Germany in September 2003 and applied for asylum.  She was originally turned down by immigration officials, but appealed that decision, saying she wanted to "live out her homosexuality openly without having to fear persecution." The Stuttgart administrative court ordered the government to grant her request for asylum, concluding that the chance of "disproportionate or discriminatory punishment of a homosexual relationship between women is very high in Iran... such a relationship is an absolute breaking of taboos, even worse than between men."  The court also said its ruling is binding precedent for similar cases. According to Iranian human rights advocates, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs came to power in 1979.   The gay and lesbian stall at Zimbabwe's International Book Fair in Harare has been trashed yet again. Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, or GALZ, was formed in 1990 and rose to prominence in 1995 when it challenged bans by the government on its participation at the annual Book Fair.  The GALZ stall has survived in the past few years, but it was vandalized again this week. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is unpopular for his economic policies, but his anti-queer rhetoric -- at one time calling gays and lesbians "worse than dogs and pigs" -- resonates with many of his countrymen.  Mugabe most recently accused "gay gangsters" of being among the saboteurs conspiring for "regime change".   Gays and lesbians in the U.S. military face continuing hostility on bases and ships where top brass fail to prohibit harassment -- this more than six years after the Pentagon specifically prohibited anti-queer abuse, according to the findings of an investigation by the "Reuters" news service published this week. On the Navy's USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, for example, anti-gay statements and jokes have been incorporated into a video about the F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft, recently shown to reporters on the carrier.  Pilots sported T-shirts that said, "I'm a Tomcat guy and you're a homo."  The commander of the fighter squadron himself wore the shirt. Aaron Belkin of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara told "Reuters" that "The line between that and threats and violence can be quite thin." In a 2000 memo to the armed services and commanders, the Pentagon said "mistreatment, harassment, and inappropriate comments or gestures" based on sexual orientation were not acceptable. In response to questions from "Reuters," Rear Admiral Denby Starling, commander of the Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, said in an email that "Steps have been taken to ensure that the offending messages have been removed.  Squadron and air wing leadership have been counseled regarding the inappropriate tone set by such messages and poor judgment demonstrated in allowing their display."   Two lesbigay 19 year olds brought a national "Right To Serve" campaign to Charlottesville, Virginia and were immediately rejected when they attempted to enlist in the U.S. military this week. Wyatt Fore and Rachel Miller walked into the Recruitment Center at a local shopping center under a media spotlight. "My sexual orientation doesn’t have anything to do with my ability to serve in the military," Fore told reporters, noting that he would liked to have joined the Navy because his father and grandfather had both been sailors.  "It’s very difficult for straight people to understand what life in the closet is about," he added. The "Right To Serve" campaign has been organized by Soulforce, a nondenominational LGBT advocacy group.  Earlier this month three openly-queer young people were turned away when they tried to enlist at an Army recruiting station in Philadelphia, and in May a gay man and a lesbian were rejected when they tried to join the Minnesota National Guard. For the past two years the U.S. military has been unable to meet its recruiting goals.  According to the Government Accountability Office, more than 800 service members discharged for being gay or lesbian were trained in skills deemed ‘mission-critical’ by the Defense Department. In June the Pentagon was forced to apologize when it was revealed that one of its documents listed homosexuality among various "disorders" decades after mental health experts abandoned that position. A bipartisan coalition in the Republican-controlled Congress now supports legislation to repeal "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," but the measure has thus far gone nowhere.   And finally, the vehemently anti-queer Focus on the Family has been benched at Turner Field, home to the Atlanta Braves, after it co-sponsored the first Major League Baseball "Faith Day" there on July 27th, a promotional event designed to pack the ballpark with evangelical Christians. Focus on the Family representatives distributed anti-queer pamphlets to parents, teens and clergy at the game, including a "Hot Topic" about how lesbigay activist groups are "targeting" public schools. In a column posted the next day on the Web site of "The Nation," sportswriter Dave Zirin wrote that the involvement of Focus on the Family represented "the ugliest edge of right-wing evangelism and its advancing influence." Braves spokesperson Beth Marshall then told reporters that "We do not feel it is an appropriate connection for Focus on the Family to be part of [such events] in the future."   But in an apparent first for U.S. major-league sports, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington performed the "Star Spangled Banner" before a Washington Nationals baseball game this week at DC's RFK Stadium. Their performance received a standing ovation.  However, because the national anthem was being performed, the crowd in the stadium was probably already standing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jerusalem WorldPride Multi-Faith Conference/Wrap-Up (news feature story) Considering the volatile situation in the Middle East, it had to have been nothing less than remarkable that the Jerusalem World Pride Festival came off without any major problems this week. A Health Fair, Women's Day, and LGBT Youth Day each drew several hundred participants.  A Multi-Faith religious conference may have been something of a first, as lay people and clergy gathered at Hebrew Union College on August 9th for several plenary sessions, speeches, and unique dialogue... (SK: "It was a huge success...") Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum is from New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. (SK: ...important to counter those who use religion as a weapon against us.) We asked Rabbi Kleinbaum, who is also the WorldPride North American Co-Chair, if there was any Palestinian participation: (SK: No, they couldn't leave their borders, WP held solidarity action at a checkpoint near Bethlehem.) Rabbi Ayelhe Cohen, also from Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, was among non-gay religious people at the Multi-Faith Conference: (AC: importance of non-gay involvement.) Rabbi Kleinbaum discussed the wide spectrum of religious belief represented at the Conference: (SK: details various Christian and Jewish denominations represented.) Irshad Manji is the controversial best-selling author of "The Trouble With Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith."  She's also a Visiting Fellow in the International Security Studies program at Yale University: (IM: I judge success of an event by the degree of young peoples' participation -- had wonderful discussions in the hallways with young seminarians and rabbinical students, things that go on outside of scheduled events are often the best aspects of a conference; young people also told me after my speech that they were considering "returning to the fold of Islam" because it was one of the few if any times they've heard how Islam and being gay could be reconciled... I'm optimistic about the future.) Noa Sattah of Jerusalem Open House, the major organizers of the week's events, talked about the impact of current events on attendance: (NS: Hundreds from several countries attended, Lebanon war caused many cancellations.) A much-ballyhooed visit by LGBT Youth to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, also came off without much of a hitch.  Again, Noa Sattah of Jerusalem Open House: (NS: About 100 LGBT teens met w/Knesset Child Welfare Committee and government ministries of health and education; despite threats of huge demo against it, there were a total of 7 protestors.) In the major culminating event of the 6-day WorldPride festival, a group of about 200 LGBT people and their supporters held a silent vigil in Jerusalem's Liberty Bell Park on the evening of August 10th to protest anti-queer religious rhetoric and abuse. According to a report in the "Jerusalem Post," however, the heavily guarded demonstration was interrupted by a group of anarchists who joined the gathering and began waving placards against the war in Lebanon and shouting slogans against the Israeli Defense Force.  Police detained one protester who unfurled a PLO flag. Because the vigil had no formal speakers and did not obstruct traffic it was an otherwise legal gathering under Israeli law.  The long-planned WorldPride parade scheduled for that day was canceled after police refused to issue a permit, and organizers acknowledged that it would not be wise to hold the march because of current conflicts in the region. A huge red banner at the vigil read "Jerusalem is for all," while rainbow-colored placards included such slogans as "The Path to God is not always straight." Reporting for This Way Out, I'm Greg Gordon.