"NewsWrap" for the week ending November 11, 2006 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #972, distributed 11-13-06) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Rick Watts and Don Lupo   Mexico City lawmakers approved a measure this week to legally recognize same-gender civil unions.  It's the first such vote by a legislative body in the history of Mexico, a conservative, predominantly Roman Catholic country.  Mexico City Mayor Alejandro Encinas supported the bill and is expected to sign it into law.  At least one conservative non-governmental group, the National Pro-Life Committee, said it might request a court injunction to overturn it. The bill allows gay and lesbian couples to register their unions with civil authorities, granting them property, pension, inheritance and even co-parenting rights, but stops short of full marriage equality or allowing the adoption of children. The left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party has pushed for the law in the Mexican capital for years.  The vote was 43-to-17, with all the opposition coming from the conservative National Action Party of President VicentéFox and President-elect Felipé Calderon.  Their party has consistently voiced support for so-called "traditional" families.  The bill was also severely criticized by the country's Roman Catholic Bishops. Mexico City, with a population of 8.7 million, could be part of an increasingly progressive movement in parts of Latin America for lesbigay rights.  The Mexican capital appears poised to join the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, and the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, which have also enacted civil unions legislation.  Lawmakers in Costa Rica and Colombia have debated, but not yet passed, national civil union measures.   A twice-postponed LGBT pride parade in Jerusalem scheduled for November 10th could not overcome continuing tensions in the Middle East, and a pride rally in a tightly guarded sports stadium was held instead on the outskirts of the holy city. The planned pride march had been violently opposed for several days by hundreds of rioting ultra-Orthodox Jews, who threatened further violence if the parade proceeded.  Dozens were arrested, and there were injuries to several police officers called in to restore order on an almost-daily basis. About 4,000 gays, lesbians and their supporters gathered at Hebrew University's Givat Ram Stadium for the 4-hour rally that featured vendors, entertainment, dancing, and speeches.  One banner read "There are different ways to be a Jew."  Two men dressed as sperm handed out condoms to participants. The parade was originally planned to coincide with a quadrennial World Pride Festival in Jerusalem, which itself was postponed because it would have been held during the volatile time of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.  The delayed week long Festival was eventually held in August, but the parade was cancelled because of the conflict with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah at the time.  The latest attempt to hold a pride parade was cancelled by Israeli police the day before it was scheduled because of heightened tensions following an errant Israeli shelling in Gaza that killed several Palestinian civilians. The pride events had also been consistently criticized by Muslim and Christian religious leaders, in Israel and elsewhere.  The Vatican demanded cancellation of the parade for fear of offending "the sensibilities of religious communities".  Perhaps ironically, the last World Pride event -- including a parade -- was held in Rome in 2002, despite strong opposition from the Vatican, but there was no violence there. Security was tight in Jerusalem on November 10th, with at least 3,000 Israeli police deployed to secure the pride rally.  Earlier in the day, five Orthodox teens carrying brass knuckles, clubs, knives and a loaded pistol were arrested.  Authorities believe they were planning to violently disrupt the event. Police also prevented about 50 LGBT activists, who had gathered at the city's Liberty Bell Park, from holding a spontaneous march to the rally.  At least 20 of them were arrested after they refused to get on buses to the university.   A wave of dissatisfaction with President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, and seemingly endless charges of corruption against several Congressional Republicans, swept Democrats into power in both the U.S. House and Senate in national midterm elections this week.  Nancy Pelosi, a liberal Democrat from San Francisco with an excellent record on LGBT issues, is expected to become the first-ever female Speaker of the House. A wide-ranging ban on not only same-gender marriage and civil unions, but also domestic partnerships for unmarried couples, was defeated in Arizona.  Although the margin was slim, it was the first time that's happened to any initiative involving legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples in more than 2 dozen states where such measures have been on the ballot. But in Colorado, an initiative prohibiting same-gender marriage passed, and a separate measure to create domestic partnerships was defeated.  Voters in Wisconsin also passed a constitutional amendment banning same-gender marriage and civil unions by a significant margin, disappointing queer activists who had hoped for a victory there.  Bans on marriage equality and civil unions passed in five other states: Idaho, South Carolina, Tennessee, South Dakota and Virginia, all traditionally "red" conservative states.  But the measures in South Dakota and Virginia won by much narrower margins than in recent years elsewhere -- 52 to 48 percent in South Dakota, and 57 to 43 percent in Virginia. "It's clear that fear-mongering around same-sex marriage by the GOP and the extreme Christian right is fizzling out," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.  "It doesn't have the juice it had just two years ago -- people are getting sick of it."   As if to confirm Foreman's comments, Massachusetts lawmakers meeting in a special joint Convention this week delayed a vote on a proposed amendment to the state constitution to limit marriage to heterosexual couples.  Proponents had hoped the measure would go on the 2008 state ballot through a complicated process of consecutive legislative approvals, but the delay appears to have killed its chances of ever going to the voters. In a procedural maneuver, lawmakers voted 109-to-87 to recess until January 2nd, the last official day of the session.  Because they didn't formally adjourn, it would seem to prevent termed out Republican Governor Mitt Romney, an outspoken opponent of marriage equality, from ordering the legislature back into session over the next two months. Speaking on behalf of the over 8,000 queer couples who've legally married in Massachusetts since the Supreme Judicial Court ordered equality in 2003, openly gay and married state Senator Jarrett Barrios said in an emotional floor speech that "You don't have to live next to us.  You don't have to like us… We aree only asking you today to end the debate so that we can sleep easily knowing... that we will at least …ennjoy the same rights the rest of you have enjoyed for time immemorial." The action came two days after Massachusetts voters elected African-American Deval Patrick, a marriage equality supporter, as the state’s first Democratic governor in 16 years.  Democrats were also elected to all of the statewide offices.   Democrats Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin -- the two openly lesbigay members of the U.S. House of Representatives -- easily won re-election.  "Out" candidates also fared well in races at the state and local level.  At least 67 candidates backed by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund won election, including 34 to state legislatures.  Among them were Patricia Todd in Alabama and Kathy Webb in Arkansas, the first open lesbians or gays ever elected to public office in those states.  Al McAffrey became the first "out" candidate ever elected to the Oklahoma state legislature; former state representative Ed Murray became the first openly gay state senator in Washington; and Jolie Justus was elected as the first-ever openly lesbian or gay state senator in Missouri.   LGBT activists nationwide delighted in the defeat of several high-profile anti-queer incumbents, especially Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who lost by double digits to moderate Democrat Bob Casey.  Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, has been outspokenly anti-queer and a leading proponent of the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment.  He made headlines 3 years ago when he warned that the Supreme Court ruling that struck down sodomy laws would lead to the legalization of "man on dog" sex. Equality advocates also cheered the defeat of anti-queer Republican Senator Mike DeWine in Ohio.  His Democratic challenger, Congressman Sherrod Brown, has a strong record in support of LGBT rights. And incumbent Republican Senator George Allen of Virginia, who abandoned a moderate veneer in the past few years to support the Federal Marriage Amendment and oppose even employment protections and hate crime laws, lost to moderate Democrat Jim Webb in what turned out to be the final national vote count giving Democrats control of the Senate.   Republicans in the House of Representatives targeted by activists for their anti-queer records were also sent packing by voters, including Congressmen Clay Shaw of Florida and John Hostetler of Pennsylvania.  But Marilyn Musgrave, the Colorado Republican who's been the lead House sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment, survived a strong Democratic challenger backed by LGBT groups.   A non-discrimination ordinance in the city of Ferndale, Michigan finally passed.  It was the third time since 1991 that a queer-inclusive human rights measure was on the ballot.  And a city charter amendment banning bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity was approved by a wide margin in Corvallis, Oregon.   And finally, Kim Coco Iwamoto, a 38-year-old attorney, won election to the Hawai'i state Board of Education and, according to national queer advocacy groups, has become the highest-ranking transgender elected official in U.S. history.  She came in third in the race for 3 seats on the 14-member Board, which oversees the island state's 285 public schools.  Iwamoto, who was born on the island of Kauai and attended a Catholic boys' school in Honolulu, earned a law degree from the University of New Mexico.  She was featured in a handbook on transgender policy there for her advocacy of special restroom facilities on the school's campus after she was repeatedly harassed for using the women's bathroom.