"NewsWrap"
for the week ending November 4, 2006
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #971, distributed 11-6-06)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner 
with Bill Kelley]


Reported this week by Don Lupo and Charls Hall


  Colombia's Senate has approved a civil-union bill.  The measure, which 
passed 48-to-40, still faces action in the House.  And if it passes there, it 
would need President Álvaro Uribe's signature.
The bill, known as Project 130, sets up a registration system to grant rights 
equivalent to marriage to same-gender couples in social security, health 
benefits, pensions and joint ownership of property.
As New York City activist and blogger Andrés Duque, a native of the South 
American nation, wrote, "Although there is still a long legislative road ahead 
for the bill to become law, Colombian LGBT advocates are elated and celebrating 
the fact that this is the first time ever that a Colombian congressional 
branch has voted to recognize the rights of gays and lesbians."


  Conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard has pledged to work to 
grant lesbigay couples some legal rights, even though he's consistently opposed 
same-gender marriage, and civil-union laws that too closely resemble marriage.
According to reports, the areas Howard would consider include taxation, 
Medicare, pharmaceutical benefits, pensions, elder care, immigration, and 
subsidized military housing.
The "Weekend Australian" newspaper said Howard's apparent change of heart on 
some form of same-gender couples recognition follows a quiet lobbying campaign 
by Liberal Party members of Parliament.


  Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski has called a special session of the 
legislature to determine how the state should establish court-ordered benefits for 
the same-gender domestic partners of state employees and retirees.
The debate began in 1999, when nine same-gender couples, represented by the 
American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit challenging the lack of partner 
benefits for gays and lesbians employed by the state, and in the city of 
Anchorage.
The Alaska Supreme Court late last year ruled that because the state 
constitution restricts marriage to a man and a woman, denying benefits to partnered 
gay and lesbian government workers violates the same document's equal protection 
guarantees.  And the high court gave the state until January 1st to implement 
those benefits.  The legislature failed to address the issue during its 
regular session.
Last month, a Superior Court judge found that the regulations developed by 
the state were too restrictive and "excessively burdensome".  For example, it 
required same-gender couples to attest to being in a committed relationship for 
at least 12 months, and to document each year they remain together.
The 30-day special session of the Alaska legislature is scheduled to begin on 
November 13th. 


  Sixty-four percent of Ireland's population support granting same-gender 
couples spousal rights in legal and financial matters, according to a recent 
Sunday Tribune/Millward Brown IMS poll.
Twenty-six percent oppose such rights, and 10 percent had no opinion.
Men, farmers, and people over 50 were more likely to express anti-queer 
positions, while women, and people between 18 and 35 more frequently supported 
equality.


  The United Kingdom will implement rules in April to prohibit sexual 
orientation-based discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services, 
according to an announcement last week by the Blair government.
The measures were set to take effect in October, but have apparently required 
more tinkering after some churches said, among other concerns, that they 
feared being forced to rent their premises to LGBT groups for meetings.


  Four people were convicted of public violence and grievous bodily harm in 
St. Maarten this week for viciously beating gay American tourists Ryan Smith 
and Richard Jefferson in April.  The two New York City-based employees of CBS 
News, who'd been vacationing on the Caribbean island, were among a group of 
friends leaving a popular bar when they were victimized by the unprovoked assault. 
 Prison sentences for the four attackers ranged from six months to six years. 
 The harshest penalty was given to Michel Javois, nicknamed "Duracell," who 
was identified as the ringleader of the group and the man who beat the men with 
a tire iron.


  Violent protests by Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem over the LGBT Pride Parade 
set to take place there on November 10th have injured at least 8 police 
officers and lead to several arrests during virtually daily demonstrations in the 
week leading up to the event.  Protesters, sometimes numbering in the thousands, 
have burned trash and tried to blockade streets as they throw stones, steel 
pipes, gasoline, chairs, eggs, and whatever else they can find at police 
arriving to restore order.
Following the edict of a Jerusalem-based rabbinical court, posters on the 
walls of almost every street along the parade route encourage Orthodox Jews to 
protest it.  They are likely to be joined by many Arab Muslims who also strongly 
oppose homosexuality.  "Demonstrate against the evil people who have sin in 
their souls and plot against the holy city," say the posters.  "They are 
desecrating Jerusalem with their ugliness."
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that the parade must be allowed to take 
place based on free speech rights.  Up to 8,000 people are expected to join the 
parade, but face possibly tens of thousands of protesters.  Police spokesperson 
Micky Rosenfeld said thousands of officers are being drawn from across the 
country to secure the march.  All of the 2,000 Border Police troops stationed in 
the Palestinian territories will also be deployed to guard the parade.  
According to other reports, 200 medical personnel and 47 ambulances are being 
assigned to the event, as well as a treatment station and 10 medics on motorcycles.
Hagai El-Ad of Jerusalem Open House, the group organizing the event, said he 
hoped it would not be marred by violence, and that it was up to the police to 
ensure that.  There's a chance that the parade could still be canceled.  Avi 
Dichter, the Cabinet Minister in charge of the police, told Israel Radio this 
week that "If police believe that they cannot guarantee public safety, the 
march will not go ahead."


  In other news, Britain's "Daily Mirror" newspaper has "outed" Tory Member 
of Parliament Greg Barker, reporting that he left his wife and three children 
to have an affair with the male interior decorator who had redone the family 
home.
The 40-year-old Barker, who represents Bexhill and Battle in East Sussex, has 
a mostly anti-queer voting record, although he did support the Civil 
Partnership Bill in 2004.  He's described himself in constituent newsletters as a 
"family man."
Barker is not expected to suffer much political fallout from the "outing".  
Several reports said Conservative Party Leader David Cameron, for whom Barker 
is a top lieutenant, plans to stand by him.  "The revelations about Mr. Barker 
caused little surprise at Westminster, as he is not the only married MP who is 
gay," London's "Times" reported.  "MPs from all wings of the Tory party 
[have] expressed support for Mr. Barker."
Barker himself refused to comment on the "outing" except to confirm that he 
has separated from his wife, and demand that he is "entitled to a private life."


  Meanwhile, a powerful U.S. Christian Evangelical leader is embroiled in a 
"he said, he said" scandal involving gay sex and illegal drugs.
The Reverend Ted Haggard has stepped down from the presidency of the 30 
million-member U.S. National Association of Evangelicals, and from his position as 
Senior Pastor at the 14,000-member Colorado Springs, Colorado New Life Church.
Gay escort Mike Jones told reporters this week that the two have had monthly 
sexual encounters during the past three years, and that he'd purchased "speed" 
for Haggard on several occasions.  He said he advertised himself as an escort 
on the Internet and was contacted by a man who called himself "Art," who 
snorted methamphetamine before they had sex.  Jones says that the two last got 
together in August.
The 50-year-old Haggard, a married father-of-five, says he'd been referred to 
Jones by the staff of a Denver hotel, although it's not clear what type of 
services he was seeking.  He admits to getting a massage from Jones, but denies 
any sexual activity.  He's also admitted buying methamphetamine from Jones, 
but denies ever using the drug.
Colorado voters have been inundated with contentious debate on the rights of 
same-gender couples leading up to measures involving marriage and domestic 
partnerships on the November 7th state ballot.  Haggard has been one of the most 
outspoken opponents of legal recognition for same-gender couples, not only in 
Colorado but nationally.  Jones says he only recently saw a man on television 
identified as Haggard railing against lesbigay rights, and that he went public 
to expose what he called the minister's double standards.
Haggard reportedly has close ties to the White House, and has often been 
credited with rallying evangelical voters behind George W. Bush and the Republican 
Party during the 2004 elections.


  And finally, retired tennis star and LGBT rights advocate Martina 
Navratilova, and PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- are condemning 
hormone-altering experiments on so-called "gay sheep" at Oregon State 
University and Oregon Health and Science University.  The research, funded by 
taxpayers through 2008, attempts to manipulate the sexual orientation of sheep to 
insure that they're born heterosexual.
According to the researchers' grant applications, the experiment involves 
drugging pregnant sheep to prevent the actions of hormones in their fetuses' 
brains, and cutting open the brains of rams determined to be "male-oriented."  The 
intent is to find the hormonal mechanisms behind homosexuality, and to effect 
change through the use of some sort of estrogen delivery system.
In letters sent to the presidents of both universities, Navratilova called 
the project "homophobic and cruel."  She asked them to end the research, and 
spend the tax dollars instead to fund "a gay and lesbian community center to 
foster dialogue and acceptance."
The sheep experimenters say they hope to apply their test results to humans.