"NewsWrap" for the week ending December 2, 2006 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #975, distributed 12-4-06) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Jon Beaupre and Tanya Kane-Parry Two men celebrated South Africa's first same-gender wedding in the Southern Cape town of George on December 1st, the day the new Civil Union Act allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally unite took effect. Vernon Gibbs and Tony Halls have been together for nine years and combined their surnames following the ceremony. Vernon Halls-Gibbs said it was significant that their union took place on World AIDS Day. "This marriage... is for all HIV/AIDS sufferers and gay people who have experienced discrimination," he said. "I just have one message I would like to give to everybody, that we are just two men who love each other and who have loved each other for a long time." His new husband Tony said of their union that, "It gives us as a couple a lot more security when it comes to pension, property and bank accounts." The couple runs a guest lodge and animal rehabilitation center, which was attacked last year after it became known that it was being marketed to gay tourists. The Halls-Gibbs wore matching game-ranger outfits at their wedding ceremony. The Civil Union Act was signed into law on November 30th, just a day before the December 1st deadline set by last year's South African Constitutional Court ruling that said marriage discrimination against same-gender couples was unconstitutional. That ruling, which ordered Parliament to fix the inequity by December 1st, was based on South Africa's first-in-the-world constitutional ban on sexual orientation discrimination. Most other South African same-gender couples, however, will probably have to wait until next year before they can legally tie the knot. Only Home Affairs marriage officers are currently able to officiate at civil ceremonies under the new Civil Union Act, while religious marriage officers have to first undergo examinations on the new Act, a process which could take weeks to implement. Vernon and Tony Halls-Gibbs were only able to marry because the Home Affairs registry office they traveled to in George had no other bookings, but registry offices across the rest of the country report that they're booked solid with heterosexual weddings. The soonest gay and lesbian ceremonies can take place in most areas will be January, and couples in Cape Town, Wynberg, Bellville and Nyanga may have to wait until March. Angry queer activists are saying that Home Affairs, which was on record against it, failed to prepare for the new law that everyone knew was coming. The Civil Union Act also allows civil registry officials who object to same gender weddings on "moral grounds" to refuse to perform them. Some legal experts believe that provision of the Act may be unconstitutional. The Roman Catholic Church and several conservative Protestant denominations fought the Civil Union legislation, and will also not perform same-gender weddings. Even though South Africa has become the first on the continent to legally recognize same-gender couples, other uncertainties remain. The country's Human Rights Commission and some LGBT rights advocates have warned that civil unions may not satisfy the Constitutional Court's mandate for marriage equality. South Africa's Marriage Act remains unchanged, although a government spokesperson has said changes will eventually be made to incorporate gay and lesbian couples. The separate Civil Union Act says nothing about gender, but establishes the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnized and registered by either a marriage or civil union." In a separate case, South Africa's Constitutional Court ruled on November 23rd that gays and lesbians should be able to inherit the property of their partners who die without a will. The high court said the country's Intestate Succession Act discriminated against same-gender couples, and that whenever the word "spouse" is mentioned in that law, the words "or partner in a permanent same-sex life partnership in which the partners have undertaken reciprocal duties of support" should be added. Israel's High Court of Justice ruled 6-to-1 on November 21st that same-gender couples who marry in places where it's legal must be considered legally married in Israel. The case was brought by five Israeli couples who married in Canada. Supported by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, they appealed to the country’s top court after authorities refused to recognize their Canadian unions after they came home. The court ordered the Interior Ministry to recognize the five couples as "married". The court emphasized, however, that its decision was not a recognition of same-gender marriage. Israel's religious authorities control the country's marriage and divorce laws, and the court stressed that only Parliament could change that situation. The high court decision was nevertheless denounced by religious conservatives as "an abomination." "We don't have a Jewish state here," said Moshe Gafni, an ultra-Orthodox lawmaker. "We have Sodom and Gomorrah here.'' He called the ruling "the destruction of the family unit in the state of Israel." Gafni said he might offer a bill in parliament to overturn the court ruling and make recognition of all same-gender marriages in Israel illegal. A Moscow appeals court this week upheld a lower court ruling that said the city government acted legally when it banned an LGBT Pride parade in May. The Moscow Central Prefecture court agreed with the lower court that the city had the right to prohibit events based on security concerns. Because of the ban, this year's first-ever march was downsized to an attempt by LGBT activists to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, then walk a few blocks for a rally across from City Hall. The participants were violently attacked by neo-fascists, skinheads, and fundamentalist Christians. Riot police were slow to move in, and most of the 200 people detained were LGBT people and their supporters. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov called the attempt to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider a "desecration... a provocation [and] a contamination. People burst through and of course they beat them up," he said. Dmitry Bartenev, an attorney for two LGBT groups that had filed the appeal, said he will take the issue to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The new chair of Latvia's Human Rights and Social Affairs Committee is a parliamentarian who's called gays and lesbians "degenerates" and "perverts." Janis Smits, a leading member of the ultra-right Latvia First Party, was elected to the post by Parliament in what is seen as retaliation against President Vaira Vike-Freiberga for her support of LGBT rights. Mindful that Latvia's European Union membership requires laws banning sexual orientation discrimination, she had earlier this year essentially forced Latvia's parliament to enact such legislation. The European Parliament's Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights said it "deplores" the selection of Smits as the country's Human Rights chair, noting that he "frequently quotes the Old Testament in defense of his old-fashioned values arguing in favor of a world-view that advocates sexual minorities should be put to death." Terry Davis, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, also issued a statement condemning the selection, saying that, "the parliamentarians who made this decision should realize that what is at stake is the international reputation of Latvia." The socially conservative island nation of Grenada has rejected a recommendation from a regional United Nations office to decriminalize homosexuality and prostitution. Health Minister Ann David-Antoine said her government would not consider legal reforms advised in a report by the United Nations Development Program after a September conference in Barbados on combating HIV/AIDS. "Every sovereign country has to take on board its own cultural situation, the faith and religious situation within the country," she told reporters after announcing the government would not consider any changes to its laws. Lesbigay rights advocates in the Australian island state of Tasmania have written to Tas-born Crown Princess Mary of Denmark asking her to point out the benefits to her childhood home that have come from its greater acceptance of gays and lesbians. The letter is a direct response to recent media reports of anti-queer harassment, and the absence of anti-discrimination laws, in the Danish-administered, semi-autonomous Faroe Islands. Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesperson Rodney Croome said that his state has an important lesson to teach the Faroes and other island communities about the benefits of accepting diversity. Croome said it would be inappropriate for Princess Mary, as the future Queen of a constitutional monarchy, to speak publicly about political matters, but added that she has every right to talk about how Tasmania has changed for the better in the past several years after long being known for its harsh anti-queer laws and attitudes. "I’m sure no-one would resent Princess Mary gently and graciously pointing out lessons from her homeland that may benefit some of her future subjects," said Croome. "A word in the right ear at the right time could make all the difference." And finally, Sir Elton John was performing in Australia this week, and had two less-than-gentle words for that country's conservative Prime Minister John Howard. The pop star and his partner David Furnish last December became one of the first queer couples in England to tie the knot in a civil partnership ceremony. "It was just a commitment I wanted to make because I love him, and vice-versa, and it was just a great day," Sir Elton told the Seven Television Network. The Howard Government overturned a civil unions law earlier this year in the Australian Capital Territory, but the P.M. insisted that his Government was not "anti-homosexual". "It is not a question of discriminating against them," he said. "It is a question of preserving as an institution in our society marriage as having a special character," and that the A.C.T. civil unions law would have been "treated for all purposes as being equivalent to a marriage." Asked what he would like to say to Howard about the PM's views on same gender unions, Sir Elton simply replied: "Up Yours."