"NewsWrap"
for the 3 weeks ending January 6, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #980, distributed 1-8-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner 
with Bill Kelley]


Reported this week by Rick Watts and Sheri Lunn


  At least twenty-one churches around the United States have left the 
Episcopal Church USA, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and affiliated 
instead with the powerful, anti-queer Anglican Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter 
Akinola.  Two large congregations in Virginia are among the latest to defect 
in recent weeks.
The U.S. parishes, now members of Akinola's ultraconservative Convocation of 
Anglicans in North America, oppose the Episcopal Church's consecration of 
openly gay New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson and its support for blessing 
same-gender relationships.  Conservatives are also uncomfortable with November's 
elevation of Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first woman Presiding Bishop of the 
Episcopal Church.  That was also a first for the global Anglican Communion, 
which has never before had a female priest leading one of its provinces.


  In a late-December interview with "The New York Times," Akinola said that 
the only time he knowingly touched an openly gay man horrified him.  "This man 
came up to me after a service, in New York I think, and said, 'Oh, good to see 
you bishop, this is my partner of many years."  As they shook hands, he 
recalled, "I said, 'Oh!' [and] I jumped back."
Akinola denies that he's violating Anglican rules that prohibit bishops from 
controlling parishes outside a bishop's territory.  He says the Convocation 
was formed to serve theologically conservative Nigerian Anglicans living in the 
U.S., and that it then began attracting conservative American Episcopalians.
His growing power -- Nigeria has more Anglicans than any other nation except 
England -- is seen as a possible threat to the supremacy of the Anglican 
Communion's traditional spiritual leader, England's Archbishop of Canterbury, a 
post now held by Rowan Williams.  Williams has been unable to quell the rumblings 
within the Communion that erupted shortly before Robinson's consecration.
The Anglican Communion is a confederation of national churches that have a 
total of 77 million members, more than 15 million of them in Nigeria.  There are 
26 million Anglicans in England, 8 million in Uganda, 5 million in Sudan, 4 
million in Australia, about 2-and-a-half million each in Kenya and in the 
United States, 2 million in Tanzania, 800,000 in Canada, half a million in New 
Zealand, and smaller numbers in several other nations.


  Also making waves in the global Anglican Communion, more than 50 gay and 
lesbian priests from the Church of England have registered their same-gender 
relationships under the Civil Partnership Act, according to Colin Coward, the 
director of a pro-LGBT group within the Church.  He told the "Times of London" 
this week that "civil partnerships have helped to increase the stability of 
same-sex relationships and reduced the social exclusion to which lesbian and gay 
people are often subjected."  But the news has outraged Anglican 
traditionalists.
The Church of England's stance on same-gender relationships has been muddied 
by its Council of Bishops.  In 2005, that body decided that clergy could enter 
civil partnerships as long as they informed their supervising bishops that 
they would refrain from sexual activity.  Just how the "no sex" rule could be 
enforced has also been unclear.
According to the "Times," Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is likely 
to face renewed criticism from primates of the Anglican Communion at a meeting 
set to take place in Tanzania in February.


  Switzerland’s first same-gender civil union took place this week.  A gay 
male couple, one aged 89 and the other 60, registered their partnership in 
Locarno in the southern state of Ticino.  The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, 
has reportedly been together for 30 years.
The civil union legislation was passed by Switzerland's Council of States and 
the National Council in 2004.  Because of the country's unique system of 
"direct democracy," citizens who collect 50,000 signatures in 30 days can force a 
referendum on any new law.  The Roman Catholic Church was instrumental in that 
effort, while Protestant churches generally supported the legislation.  Sixty 
percent of Swiss voters approved the new law, and it finally took effect on 
January 1st.  That referendum was the first time in Europe that the issue of 
same gender partnerships had been the subject of a national plebiscite.
Swiss civil unions, however, do not grant full marital rights to gay and 
lesbian couples.  They're barred from adopting children or from receiving 
fertility services. 


  The Czech Republic is reporting a surge in civil partnerships since they 
became legal there six months ago.  More than 200 gay and lesbian couples have 
exchanged vows, according to a report this week by Prague Radio.
LGBT civil rights leaders have been pleasantly surprised by the numbers.  
Jiri Hromada, of the Gay Initiative, said he had expected much less interest.
The legislation, the first in a post-Communist country in central Europe to 
legally recognize gay and lesbian unions, gives couples who register their 
partnership inheritance and healthcare rights similar to those given to 
heterosexual married couples.  It does not, however, allow same-gender marriage or the 
adoption of children by lesbian or gay couples.
The Czech Republic, which joined the European Union in 2004, is likely the 
most liberal of Eastern European countries.  Recent public opinion polls show 
most Czechs support civil partnerships for same-gender couples.


  But a civil union bill approved by Colombia's Senate died in the House of 
Representatives in late December.
The bill would have set up a registration mechanism and granted same-gender 
couples in the South American country rights equivalent to marriage in the 
areas of social security, health benefits, pensions and joint ownership of 
property.  It passed the Senate in October by a 48-to-40 vote.
According to the Bogotá daily "El Tiempo," "Up until the last moment of the 
[2006 House session], [the bill] was on the agenda, [but] when it came time to 
vote... the quorum disintegrated."
Colombian-born New York City queer activist Andrés Duque lamented the 
cowardice of House members as "incredibly disappointing if not necessarily 
surprising."


  A proposed constitutional amendment to end marriage equality in the U.S. 
state of Massachusetts is a step closer to getting on the 2008 ballot.  
Lawmakers voted on January 2nd, the last day of a special Constitutional Convention, 
to advance the proposed amendment, which defines marriage as the union of a man 
and a woman.
Lesbigay activists were hoping the session would end without a vote, as it 
did when lawmakers recessed in late December.  Amendment supporters, who 
collected more than 150,000 signatures to place the issue before legislators, would 
have been forced to begin the process all over again.  The state's high court 
scolded the legislature in December for avoiding a vote on the citizen 
petition, but said it had no power to intervene.  61 lawmakers favored moving the 
amendment forward this week, while 132 opposed.  Under Massachusetts law, the 
measure needed to be approved by at least 50 members of the current legislature, 
and needs the support of at least 50 members of the new legislature, before it 
can go on the 2008 ballot. The amendment does include language that existing 
same-gender marriages would remain legal.
Marc Solomon, Campaign Director for MassEquality, a queer advocacy group, 
criticized the prospect of holding a public vote on the rights of a minority.  He 
also told reporters that 17 lawmakers who supported the amendment won't be 
returning in the new legislative session, and that 7 newly elected lawmakers 
will vote against it.
About 8,000 lesbian and gay couples have wed in Massachusetts since the 
Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that the state Constitution guarantees them 
the right to marry.


  Alaska Governor Sarah Palin vetoed a bill in late December that would have 
prohibited the state from extending healthcare benefits to the same-gender 
partners of public employees.  The measure was passed by the 
Republican-controlled legislature during a special November session in direct defiance of a state 
Supreme Court order.
Palin, also a Republican, said she rejected the bill as unconstitutional, 
even though she personally opposes the benefits.  "Signing this bill," she wrote, 
"would be in direct violation of my oath of office."
Alaska's Supreme Court ruled last year that because state law bars 
same-gender couples from legal marriage, denying healthcare benefits to the same-gender 
partners of public employees violates Alaska's constitutional guarantee of 
equal protection for all its residents.
In September, a Superior Court judge assigned to oversee details of 
implementation found that the regulations proposed by state lawmakers were too 
restrictive.  They required, for example, that gay and lesbian couples certify being 
in a committed relationship for at least 12 months, and document each year they 
are still together.
The legislature then passed, and Palin signed, a bill that calls for voters 
to decide whether there should be a constitutional amendment denying benefits 
to same-gender couples.  Palin said the measure, set for a special election on 
April 3rd, will be non-binding but is intended to help guide legislators.
LGBT rights groups say they will now focus on defeating that measure.


  And finally, the highest court in the Canadian province of Ontario ruled 
this week that a five-year-old boy can have 3 legal parents -- 2 moms and 1 dad. 
 In the landmark case, the Ontario Court of Appeal said the female partner of 
the child's biological mother could be legally recognized as the boy's third 
parent.
The biological father, named on the boy's birth certificate, is a friend of 
both women and is taking an active role in the child's life.
The two women, who've been together since 1990, didn't want to use the 
adoption process to gain parental rights for the second mom because, under current 
law, the father would then lose his legal status as a parent.
One outraged conservative group called the ruling "naked judicial activism," 
while another charged that it would open the floodgates to multiple "parenting 
by committee."  Mary Douglas, of the conservative Christian-based Campaign 
Life Coalition, warned that, "Attacks on the family unit will ultimately lead to 
the destruction of our society."
But the Family Services Association of Toronto worked with the applicant's 
legal counsel during the case, and the group's Director of Social Reform, Laurel 
Rothman, praised the decision.  She told reporters that "The situation basical
ly recognizes the changing face of families in Canada in the beginning of the 
twenty-first century."