"NewsWrap" for the week ending October 14, 2006 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #968, distributed 10-16-06) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Sheri Lunn and Don Lupo A vote in favor of the concept by South Africa's ruling African National Congress all but assures that a civil union bill for same gender couples will become law this year. That's despite less-than-enthusiastic public support, according to a report in the "Sunday Independent." There have been several recent marches around the country to protest the pending legislation, led by conservative Christian groups. The ANC has a two-thirds majority in parliament, but has been deeply divided on the issue. It accepted the idea of legal same-gender unions during a national executive committee meeting this week, but only after heated debate and resistance from some of its leaders. According to the "Independent," participants were reminded that the ANC has always fought for human rights and equality for all people. The civil union bill has been proposed in response to South Africa's Constitutional Court ruling last December that the country, whose 1994 Constitution forbids sexual orientation discrimination, must grant same gender couples all the rights of marriage by December 1st of this year. It remains to be seen if the civil union legislation, approved by President Thabo Mbeki's Cabinet in August, will satisfy the Constitutional Court ruling. Danish lesbians and single women will have the same access to publicly funded fertility treatment as heterosexually-married women effective on January 1st. Activists fought a nine-year battle to change the assisted-conception laws. More than 3,000 same-gender couples have united under Denmark's groundbreaking 1989 registered-partnership law. They have all the rights of marriage except access to adoption. By a vote of 105-to-83, Finland's Parliament this week joined Denmark in approving a government bill to allow single women and lesbian couples access to fertility treatment. It's also been a contentious issue in Finland for several years, and Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee had endorsed a more restrictive version, limiting treatment to heterosexual couples. Police barricades separated demonstrators both for and against the bill in front of the House of Parliament. Those representing conservative Christian groups prayed and defended a child's "right to have a father". The other side, bedecked with rainbow-colored banners, emphasized human rights and the importance of love in a child's life. The bill still requires the approval of the Finnish Parliament's Grand Committee, which is considered likely to come soon. But Sweden is preparing to deport a gay Iranian who had sought asylum. Citing a report from the Foreign Ministry, a Swedish immigration court ruled in late September that most Iranian gays are not persecuted if they live "discreet and withdrawn" lives. The man claimed he had been assaulted in Iran and jailed because of his sexual orientation, and that he was also raped at a police station. Sören Andersson, head of the Swedish national queer advocacy group RFSL, told "The Local," a Stockholm English-language publication, that he fears the man may be executed after he's forced back to Iran. Some human rights activists believe they have enough evidence to assert that Iran enforces its death penalty for male anal sex, but Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission have expressed skepticism. The Iranian exile gay group Homan claims that 4,000 homosexuals have been executed since the 1979 Islamic revolution there. According to Peter Tatchell of the British group OutRage! Homan based the figure "on Iranian media reports of LGBT executions, and personal reports from people who had gay friends executed, or arrested at private parties who were never seen again and [were] presumed executed... So the idea of 4,000 [executions] does not seem wildly off the mark." All sides in the activist debate agree that Iran tortures, harasses and mistreats its LGBT population. Amnesty International has appealed to Philippines lawmakers to pass pending legislation that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Michael Heflin, director of Amnesty International USA's OUTfront program, said that, "Adoption of this law is very significant for the entire region because only one other Asian country -- Fiji -- currently prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation." The legislation would ban anti-LGBT bias in public services, public accommodations, the military, employment, education and health care. But while Fiji's 1998 Constitution forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation, conservative religious groups have been agitating for repeal of the protections. Political support for the LGBT community may not be solid. Some legislators have said recently that they were surprised to learn the Constitution protects gays and lesbians, and that they would not knowingly have supported such safeguards. A decision by the Indonesian government to allow semi-autonomous regional power has led to the persecution and victimization of LGBT people by local authorities, according to a report in the "Jakarta Post." Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, and local governments have been granted the right to use Islamic law, or Sharia. Several have passed laws making homosexuality illegal. One regional law outlawing prostitution includes homosexuality in the definition of that offense. Indonesian LGBT rights group Arus Pelangi has appealed to the federal Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to force the regions to comply with national law, which bans sexual orientation discrimination. But a federal government spokesperson said that where Sharia is invoked it has little control, and prefers not to be seen as interfering in local governance for fear of appearing to subvert the new local autonomy. However, Northern Cyprus is set to decriminalize homosexuality, bringing it in line with European Union laws and human rights in the rest of the country, according to a report this week in the British-based "Pink News." Current laws in the Turkish Cypriot controlled part of the country, remaining from the era of British colonial rule, punish homosexuality with up to 14 years in prison as "a crime against nature." But nationally known psychologist Mehment Cakici told the "Cyprus Mail" that "We need this change in order to transform ourselves into a modern society. The right of a person to express his or her sexuality is a fundamental human right." The proposal comes as Turkey seeks membership in the European Union. However, Northern Cyprus isn't covered by E.U. law because of disputes over who owns it. It's generally known as the Turkish Republic of Cyprus. A United Nations group has criticized the West African country of Cameroon for jailing 11 men on the basis of their presumed sexual orientation. The men were arrested at a bar frequented by gays and lesbians in the capital of Yaoundé in June 2005 and sentenced to 10 months imprisonment after being found guilty of sodomy. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared those actions to be contrary to the country's obligations to protect people from discrimination under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The ruling came in response to a complaint on behalf of the men brought by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the International Commission of Jurists. The men were detained for more than a year based on anti-homosexuality offenses in Cameroon’s Penal Code. One of them died of AIDS-related complications shortly after his conviction, exacerbated by the harsh conditions of detention. It marks only the second time that this particular U.N. human rights body has publicly issued an opinion denouncing detentions based on laws against homosexuality. It's being hailed by Alternatives-Cameroun, another group that's been working internationally and locally on behalf of the men since their arrest. Spokesperson Joel Gustave Nana expressed the hope that, "Perhaps the Working Group’s decision will help stop other people from being arrested and possibly dying simply because of their sexual orientation." There are other cases in Cameroon that the groups would like to have overturned. According to media reports, at least 4 other men are still behind bars at Kondengui Central Prison because of their homosexuality, some without formal charge or trial. And four women were convicted of sodomy in June of this year and sentenced to 3 years probation, but threatened with 6 months in prison "if they continue their lesbianism." But finally, an LGBT advocacy group in the Southern African nation of Mozambique appears to be in the birthing stages. According to a local press report, that was one of the outcomes of the first ever seminar on LGBT rights held in the country this week, organized by the Human Rights League -- or LDH. The proposed LGBT rights group as yet has no name. Some activists want to affirm their lesbigay identity with a name such as the "Mozambican Gay and Lesbian Movement," but others prefer the more cautious "Organization Against Sexual Discrimination". Among other recommendations coming out of the two-day seminar were a call to include information on sexuality in the school syllabus, and to have books on the subject available in bookshops and libraries. The seminar also criticized censorship of lesbigay issues in the media -- although it was generally agreed that local television coverage of the first day of the seminar had been positive. However, an attempt to debate gay and lesbian rights during a phone-in program on Radio Mozambique was squelched by station management. All civil society associations in Mozambique must register with the Ministry of Justice. Closing the meeting, the chairperson of the LDH, Alice Mabota, admitted that it had been difficult for her to take up the issue, but that "The role of the League is to promote human rights." She promised to assist in the registration if necessary. Mabota addressed the notion that homosexuality is "against African culture," noting that "When we raised the question of domestic violence, we were told to drop the issue because it was part of African culture... We were told that men display their love for their wives by beating them. Now," she says, "everybody rejects domestic violence. So in some years we will overcome discrimination against homosexuals, too". - - - Gerry Studds obit - - - In late breaking news, the first openly gay person elected to the U.S. Congress, former Massachusetts Representative Gerry Studds, died October 14th at the age of 69. His staunchly Republican Cape Cod area district sent the Democrat Studds to Washington in 1973. His 24-year career was distinguished by his work to protect the coastal environment, and his role in uncovering the Reagan Administration's clandestine support of the right-wing Nicaraguan Contras. Studds was forced out of the closet in 1983, when a former congressional page revealed the consensual relationship they had had ten years earlier. Despite a House censure, Studds remained unapologetic. Re-elected to five subsequent terms, Studds became a champion of AIDS funding, lesbian and gay military servicemembers, and same-gender marriage. Washington seemed to have mostly forgotten Studds since his retirement in 1997... until just two weeks before his death. Anxious to deflect some of the negative attention from the scandal involving former Representative Mark Foley's online sexual advances to congressional pages, several House Republicans have resurrected the 23-year-old Studds story as an indication of the Democrats' hypocrisy. Studds is survived by his husband, Dean Hara -- whom he married in 2004 in Massachusetts -- a brother, sister and sister-in-law, four nephews, and an English springer spaniel.