Reminder: there won't be a "NewsWrap" segment on the next two "This Way Out" programs (#978 and #979). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "NewsWrap" for the week ending December 16, 2006 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #977, distributed 12-18-06) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Sheri Lunn and Rick Watts Three LGBT advocacy groups were granted consultative status this week by the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association -- or ILGA -- will now be allowed to participate in the work of the U.N. as a queer-identified non-governmental organization. Two of ILGA-Europe's individual member organizations, Denmark's National Association for Gays and Lesbians and Germany's Lesbian and Gay Federation, were also granted consultative status. The Australia-based Coalition of Activist Lesbians had until now been the only LGBT organization to be given such access. Patricia Prendiville, Executive Director of ILGA-Europe, called her group's achievement "truly historic," saying that, "This is the best recognition of LGBT rights as human rights that LGBT activists could have received." The move follows by just days a statement sponsored by Norway at the U.N. Human Rights Council, and supported by 53 other countries, urging that forum to address sexual orientation and gender identity-based discrimination. According to a statement issued by ILGA itself, at least seven other LGBT groups are planning to apply for U.N. consultative status in 2007. But the High Court in Dublin has rejected a lesbian couple’s lawsuit to have their Canadian marriage recognized in Ireland. Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan, a couple of more than 20 years who legally married in British Columbia in 2003, charged that the concept of marriage, defined as being between a man and a woman in the Irish Constitution, is outdated. That document was drafted in 1937. Justice Elizabeth Dunne, however, dismissed the case. In her 138-page ruling, she acknowledged that gay and lesbian couples may face discrimination, but said legislation amending the Constitution is their only remedy. The High Court in London also denied recognition earlier this year to Canadian-wed British lesbian couple Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson. The court declared their union to be a Civil Partnership under a U.K. law that took effect in December 2005. That legislation gives same-gender couples virtually all the rights of marriage -- except in name. Sweden's dominant Lutheran Church has announced that it will bless registered gay and lesbian partners starting in January. Individual priests will be permitted to opt out of performing the ceremonies, but the local church will then be responsible for finding another priest to officiate. Sweden's 1995 partnership law grants registered same-gender couples all the rights and obligations of marriage -- except in name. In the U.S., both houses of the New Jersey state legislature this week approved a bill to give same-gender couples all the rights of marriage -- except in name. A Civil Unions bill passed the Democratic-controlled Assembly 56-to-19 and the Senate 23-to-12. Governor Jon Corzine -- also a Democrat -- has said he would sign the measure into law. The bill was drafted in response to an October 4-to-3 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling giving the state 6 months to extend all the rights and benefits of marriage to gay and lesbian couples. But the Court mandate allowed lawmakers to decide whether to call such unions "marriage" or something else. The legislation extends to same gender couples all the rights and privileges available under state law to heterosexually married people, but does not use the word "marriage," or even "spouse," anywhere in its 60-plus pages. Queer advocacy groups argue that the civil unions bill creates a different, inferior institution, and that leaders steam rolled it through the legislature even as public opinion in support of full marriage rights was growing. Stephen Goldstein of Garden State Equality told reporters that he was "glad for the progress but not very satisfied," adding that his and other LGBT advocacy groups would continue to fight for complete marriage equality. New Jersey will become the third state, following Vermont and Connecticut, to create civil unions for same-gender couples. California has domestic partnerships that grant similar legal status. The state legislature passed a marriage equality bill in 2005 that was vetoed by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. A similar bill has been introduced for the next legislative session. Massachusetts remains the only state to grant all the rights and responsibilities of marriage -- including the name -- to lesbian and gay couples. The U.S. federal government refuses to legally recognize any same gender couples, including those married in Massachusetts. The New Jersey legislature this week also made the Garden State the ninth in the U.S. to outlaw discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on gender identity or expression. Governor Corzine is also expected to sign that measure into law. New Jersey will join California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico and Rhode Island in passing statewide transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination protections. The District of Columbia has a similar law, as do more than 80 U.S. cities and counties. Scotland's Parliament has legalized adoption by same-gender couples. The vote was 101-to-6 with 6 abstentions. A move to exempt faith-based adoption agencies from having to consider same-gender couples was defeated. According to a report in "The Scotsman" newspaper, lawmakers attempted to appease religious opponents by adding a clause requiring those who adopt to have formed "a stable family unit." Back in the U.S., the senior pastor of a second Colorado mega-church has resigned after being "outed." Following an anonymous phone call to his church, the Reverend Paul Barnes of the 21,000-member Grace Chapel in South Denver announced in a videotaped message to his congregation this week that he was stepping down. "I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy," Barnes sa id in the video, according to a story in the "Denver Post," which was allowed to view the tape. "I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away," the paper reported Barnes as saying. He and his wife have two daughters in their 20s. His resignation comes a month after national evangelical leader and Colorado Springs pastor Ted Haggard was "outed" by male sex worker Mike Jones, who's reportedly writing a "tell all" book about their relationship. Barnes said in the video that he's been in counseling three times and never found anyone he could talk to, but that he continues to believe that sexual orientation can be changed. Gay men and transgender people will no longer be classified as "permanently mentally ill" by Thailand's military, but they still won't be serving in the armed forces because they have "sexual identity problems." All Thai men within certain age brackets are interviewed yearly to determine if they're fit to serve their two years of mandatory service. The military changed the wording in response to complaints from gay and transgender people who said the reference to "mental illness" on their military records limited their employment opportunities. It's uncertain, however, if "sexual identity problems" will be any better. The release last week of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations to extricate the United States from that civil war-torn country has prompted the queer advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to renew its call for repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The Iraq Study Group reported that neither the Pentagon nor C.I.A. have enough people with foreignlanguage skills to operate effectively in Iraq, which also hampers intelligence gathering. The SLDN cited a study by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office that said approximately 300 language experts have been fired -- at least 50 of whom specialized in Arabic -- under the ban on openly-gay or lesbian servicemembers. In a press release, SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn urged the Bush Administration to "put the success of our military operations ahead of federal bigotry and work with Congress to dismantle the military's ban." A recent study by the Williams Institute at U.C.L.A.'s School of Law estimated that about 65,000 closeted lesbians and gay men are currently serving in the U.S. armed forces. Legislation destined to make news in 2007 includes a new civil unions bill in the Australian Capital Territory. The federal government used its power to overrule a similar measure passed by the Territory's legislature earlier this year, and has already expressed dissatisfaction with the latest proposal. Same-gender partners will be given the same parental rights to fertility treatment as heterosexual couples in the new year, according to the British government's draft legislation published this week. Among the changes to current law would be the removal of the requirement that doctors consider the "need for a father" when deciding who should have access to fertility services. Clinics would also no longer be able to deny treatment outright to lesbians and single mothers. But legislation being debated in Nigeria's House of Representatives would outlaw not just same-gender marriage, but imprison anyone who participates in such ceremonies, anyone associating with a known homosexual, or anyone distributing material deemed to promote a "same-sex amorous relationship." Even two friends getting together in a private home where at least one is a gay man or lesbian could go to prison for five years under the bill. Engaging in homosexual acts is already illegal in Nigeria, subjecting those convicted to lengthy jail terms in the predominantly Christian south, and execution in the Muslim-dominated north. Few in Nigeria's deeply closeted lesbigay community are publicly opposing the bill, and it's widely expected to pass. But finally, we previously reported that activists in the once-repressive but now queer-progressive Australian island state of Tasmania had written to Tas-born Crown Princess Mary of Denmark asking her to "gently" lobby for an anti-bias law in the Danish-administered, semi-autonomous Faeroe Islands. It's not known if she acted on that recommendation, but Faeroese legislators this week voted 17-to-15 to outlaw discrimination against gays and lesbians. About 48,000 people, most with fundamentalist Christian beliefs, live in the tiny fishing community located between Scotland and Iceland. A similar proposal was defeated last year, with opponents arguing that homosexuality violates Biblical teachings. But the issue resurfaced in September following a vicious assault against Rasmus Rasmussen, a popular 25-year-old openly gay musician and radio personality. Police officials were reluctant to investigate the case as a hate crime because, they said, discrimination against gays was not illegal there.