"NewsWrap"
for the week ending September 23, 2006
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #965, distributed 9-25-06)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley, and 
Graham Underhill]


Reported this week by Don Lupo and Tanya Kane-Parry


  The global Anglican Communion appears to be formally coming apart after 
years of internal friction over the place of gays and lesbians in Church life.  A 
coalition of conservative Anglican prelates announced this week that it's 
drafting an official ban on the ordination of gay people and against other 
liberal trends they say are dividing the worldwide Church alliance.  Nigerian 
Archbishop Peter Akinola, the most vocal anti-queer voice among Anglican clergy, 
chairs the Global South wing, which represents more than two thirds of the 
Communion's 77 million members worldwide.  He said the statement follows Scriptural 
demands, and was being drafted at a gathering in Rwanda of 25 bishops, 
primarily from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.  A formal document from Global South 
would solidify its leaders' already-stated rejection of gay clergy and 
opposition to the blessing of same-gender couples.
Liberal and conservative factions within the Communion have been in a 
steadily escalating conflict over homosexuality for years.  It reached the "crisis" 
stage in 2003 when the U.S. Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay 
bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.  Conservatives were also distressed 
by this year's election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada as the 
first woman to lead the Episcopal Church.  She supported Robinson's elevation 
to bishop and supports ordaining partnered openly-lesbigay clergy.  In addition 
to their opposition to queer inclusiveness, some Anglican dioceses in the 
Global South ban female clergy outright.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the titular Anglican leader, has 
mediated several meetings trying to prevent a schism, but he has no real power 
under the Communion's organizational structure.


  And late this week, leaders of the Global South wing also took the first 
steps in formally proposing a separate Church for 8 conservative U.S. Episcopal 
dioceses that had opposed Robinson's elevation to bishop.  According to a 
report in the "London Times," the two Churches would not be in communion with each 
other, but both would remain in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury 
as one of the Anglican "instruments of unity."
"In a globalized world with new communications," someone close to the Global 
South leadership told the "Times," "the medieval notion of one Church, one 
bishop, one territory is totally outdated."


  Meanwhile, an Episcopal priest has become the first of his denomination in 
the state of Arkansas to bless a gay couple's relationship.  In a service 
before about 200 parishioners this week The Reverend Ed Willis of St. Michael's in 
West Little Rock said he wanted to bless the union of Ted Holder and Joe van 
den Heuvel, who've been together for 15 years, because they have "discovered 
God's presence in a redeeming, life-giving way."
The Right Reverend Larry Maze, bishop of the 55 congregations in the 
Episcopal diocese of Arkansas, authorized blessings for same-gender couples earlier 
this year.


  But a Pennsylvania Presbyterian minister is in hot water for officiating at 
the wedding of a lesbian couple.  Janet Edwards of Pittsburgh's Community of 
Reconciliation Church, who's been a minister for 28 years, has been charged 
with violating Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) policy that marriage is the unique 
union of one man and one woman.  Ministers are allowed to bless same-gender 
couples, but not marry them.
"For me, Scripture teaches that the message of marriage is the covenant -- 
the love and commitment between the partners," Edwards said.  She officiated at 
the marriage of longtime couple Nancy McConn and Brenda Cole in June.  If 
found guilty, Edwards faces penalties that range from a rebuke to removal from the 
ministry.
And in northern California, The Reverend Jane Spahr of San Rafael still faces 
the same punishment.  In March, the longtime Presbyterian minister was the 
first in the denomination to be tried for officiating at a same-gender marriage. 
 She was acquitted by a Church tribunal, but the Presbytery of the Redwoods, 
which has jurisdiction over the case, has appealed.


  Lawmakers in Latvia have finally passed a bill to ban workplace bias 
against gays and lesbians, reversing a vote in June that brought sharp criticism in 
the region and from international human rights groups.  Forty-six of the 84 
lawmakers present in the 100-seat parliament voted during this week's session in 
favor of the measure, 35 were against, and three abstained.  President Vaira 
Vike-Freiberga supported the anti-discrimination amendment and had vetoed the 
June vote.
The burgeoning Latvia First Party led opposition to the measure.  One of 
their MPs, Janis Smits, said that including a ban on discrimination on the basis 
of sexual orientation would "open the floodgates to pederasty, lesbianism, 
pedophilia," and would "legalize other pathologies."
Latvia was the only member state of the European Union that had failed to 
comply with provisions of the 2000 E.U. Employment Equality Directive, which 
requires member states to protect employees from workplace discrimination based on 
their sexual orientation.


  More than 100 influential figures of literature, movies, and academia in 
India, led by best-selling author Vikram Seth, signed an open letter this week 
urging repeal of what it called the nation's "brutal and archaic law" making 
homosexuality a crime.  The letter said the law had been used to "systematically 
persecute, blackmail, arrest and terrorize sexual minorities," and that "It 
has spawned public intolerance and abuse, forcing tens of millions of gay and 
bisexual men and women to live in fear and secrecy, at tragic cost to them and 
their families."
Other signatories included a former attorney-general, a former U.N. 
Under-Secretary General, well-known Bollywood actors and other filmmakers, a powerful 
Hindu priest, human rights lawyers, and leading journalists and academics.
Section 377 of India's penal code, established in 1861 during British 
colonial rule, bans "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, 
woman or animal," and carries a ten-year prison term.  A petition with the High 
Court in Delhi challenging the law is scheduled for a hearing in October.  The 
government has argued that public opinion is against a change.
Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen, in an additional letter of support, 
called the anti-gay law a "monstrosity."


  Hong Kong's government lost an appeal this week of a court ruling that 
overturned a law punishing men between 16 and 20 years of age for engaging in 
consensual gay sex.  Heterosexual couples and lesbians can legally have sex there 
at age 16.
A panel of 3 Court of Appeal judges upheld the original August 2005 ruling by 
High Court Judge Michael Hartmann that the laws against sodomy infringed on 
the rights of privacy and equality for gay men.  The government appealed that 
ruling after some Christian groups expressed outrage over the decision.
"I cannot see any justification for either the age limit of 21," wrote Court 
of Appeal Chief Judge Geoffrey Ma, "or, in particular, for the different 
treatment of male homosexuals compared with heterosexuals."
The law, a carry-over from Britain's centuries-old rule in Hong Kong, was 
first challenged by William Roy Leung, a gay man who was then 20 years old.
This week's ruling doesn't eliminate the unequal age of consent law just yet, 
however.  The legislature must officially remove it from the statute books, 
but according to Leung's lawyer, Michael Vidler, the court decision makes the 
law unenforceable.
And a Hong Kong Department of Justice spokesperson said her government was 
carefully studying the judgment, but she refused to say if a further appeal 
would be filed.


  Lawmakers in Miyakonojo, a city of 171,000 on Japan's southernmost main 
island of Kyushu, this week removed gender identity and sexual orientation from 
the municipality's human rights law.
The "Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society," passed by Japan's legislature in 
1999, required local governments to promote legal equality between men and 
women.  While the national law didn't mention sexual orientation, Miyakonojo's 
ordinance had stated: "In the gender-equal society, for all people irrespective 
of gender and sexual orientation, human rights should be fully respected."   
This week's action deletes gender and sexual orientation.  A city official 
insisted that the change would not affect city policy, claiming that it would 
simply make the law easier to understand.
Japan's first openly lesbian politician, Kanako Otsuji, a legislator in the 
western city of Osaka, expressed disappointment and anger.  "I really want to 
ask those who made this decision why they made it," she said.
Several conservative lawmakers, including the next likely Prime Minister, 
Shinzo Abe, have expressed concerns that so-called traditional family values are 
being eroded in modern Japanese society.


  But finally, queer activists in Jerusalem have at long last received 
permission to hold their annual Pride parade.
Police, city officials and Pride parade organizers from Jerusalem Open House 
this week reached agreement on the date of November 10th after three hours of 
often-contentious talks in the city's High Court.
Organizers had originally wanted to hold the parade in conjunction with 
WorldPride festivities in August.  They were denied a police permit because of 
hostilities at the time between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and did 
not fight that decision.  Open House then announced that the parade would be 
held on September 21st.  That date was also rejected by officials as 
inappropriate because it was the day before Rosh Hashona, the Jewish New Year.  Police 
authorities said they were stretched too thin to provide security for the parade 
until after the Jewish high holidays and the month-long Muslim fast of 
Ramadan.
LGBT Pride parades have been held in Jerusalem since 2002.  They were 
relatively trouble-free until last year, when an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man claiming 
inspiration from God stabbed three people, all of whom fortunately recovered.
"There will be a holy war against this event," a rightwing religious leader, 
Baruch Marzel, angrily told reporters as he left the High Court this week.  
"We will do everything we can to disrupt the parade."
Open House said in a statement that the November 10th march would be "a 
symbol of freedom of expression and our right to live in this city."