"NewsWrap" for the week ending March 3, 2007 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #988, distributed 3-5-07) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Lucia Chappelle, Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Charls Hall and Sheri Lunn What the "Canadian Press" news agency called the country’s "last great battle for same-sex equality" ended this week with a partial victory in the Supreme Court for the surviving partners of lesbian and gay couples. The high court said same-gender partners had been wrongly denied survivor benefits under the Canada Pension Plan ­ or C.P.P. The court struckk down part of a law passed in 2000 ­- in response to a previous ruling on the issuue -- that granted survivor benefits only to same-gender partners widowed after January 1, 1998, saying it was unconstitutional to bar them from collecting family benefits. This week’s judgment makes any same-gender partner widowed after the 1985 enactment of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms eligible for survivor benefits averaging about 500 dollars a month, plus one year of back pay. But the judges denied full retroactive payments going back to 1985, demanded by about 1,500 claimants or their estates in a class action lawsuit. The court said that there is not "an automatic right to every government benefit that might have been paid out had the court always interpreted the Constitution in accordance with its present-day understanding of it." Surviving partners in Quebec are not affected by this week’s ruling because the province runs its own pension plan. The Quebec Court of Appeal ruled on a similar case in 2002, ordering that recognition of same-gender spouses for pension purposes be extended back to 1982, when the Charter was first adopted there. Well-known Canadian queer rights activist George Hislop launched the surviving spouses’ class action federal lawsuit soon after he was denied survivor benefits following the 1986 death of his partner of 28 years, Ron Shearer. Shearer had paid into the C.P.P. for decades. Hislop himself didn't live long enough to celebrate this week’s high court ruling. He died in October 2005 at the age of 78. LGBT rights lawyer Doug Elliott, who acted for the claimants, said of Hislop, "He'd be thrilled to be here today." Elliott, who’s argued almost every major queer rights case before Canada’s Supreme Court, told reporters that, "We're just about done, I think." Apparently not done is Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who has survived to govern another day ­- but only after sacrificing his cammpaign promise to legally recognize same-gender couples. Prodi resigned last week when his government lost a major foreign policy vote. But rather than ordering new elections, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called on Prodi to assemble a new center-left government. Catholic-affiliated centrist elements in Prodi’s government supported him on foreign policy issues, but strongly opposed any move to create a form of civil unions for queer couples. Backers of the partnerships proposal said lawmakers could still introduce the legislation at a later date. Passage, however, at least in the near term, remains unlikely. Australian Prime Minister John Howard seems to be bowing to pressure from more moderate elements of his ruling Liberal Party government, saying this week that he’s ready to consider granting lesbigay couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples in matters like pensions, taxes and welfare. Howard's government in 2004 passed a law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Last month, it rejected for the second time an attempt by the Australian Capital Territory to enact civil union legislation, charging that it violated the same-gender marriage ban. Some Australian queer activists are cautiously optimistic that some legal recognition of same-gender couples will be proposed. However, given Howard’s track record on queer issues, many remain skeptical. Meanwhile, Sydney’s 29th annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, arguably Australia’s biggest party, was held on March 3rd. Openly gay British actor Rupert Everett led a contingent of 120 floats and almost 8,000 participants past an estimated 350,000 cheering spectators on central Sydney's Oxford Street. Along with the usual lampooning of Prime Minister Howard and pop celebrities, a number of parade entries focused on "green" issues, such as global warming. A giant replica of planet Earth, split in two with one half barren and decaying, and the other bright and colorful to symbolize hope, was one of the centerpieces of the celebration. On a more somber note, a report issued this week by IGLHRC -- the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission ­- says LGBT ppeople are routinely denied access to effective HIV prevention, counseling and treatment across the African continent. Called "Off the Map," the study is the result of a year-long research project conducted through interviews with leaders of African LGBT organizations, local HIV/AIDS project managers, and health care providers. It notes that "Africa, a continent with slightly more than ten percent of the world’s population, is home to 60 percent, or more than 25 million people, of those living with HIV. But… there [remains] a wall of silence that surrounds AIDS and same-sex practices that may prove to be a significant obstacle to conquering the disease." The report calls for international pressure on national and regional African authorities to improve the access of LGBT people in Africa to HIV prevention and treatment services. Cary Alan Johnson, IGLHRC’s Senior Specialist for Africa and the author of the study, said that "Homophobic stigma, the denial of homosexuality, and legislation that criminalizes same-sex behavior, all serve to push the issue of same-sex HIV transmission further underground, and drastically limit HIV services." Meanwhile, 365gay.com reported this week that a man charged with homosexuality in the west African nation of Cameroon has been released thanks to IGLHRC-affiliated attorneys, who discovered that he had been languishing in prison there for two years. With other human rights groups, they located an attorney to work on his behalf. The man, in his early twenties and identified only as Alexandre D. to protect his identity, had been arrested on charges of homosexuality. The judge in a habeas corpus hearing finally arranged for him found that the government had no files on his arrest and no evidence to present, and ordered his immediate release. IGLHRC’s Cary Alan Johnson told the queer news Web site that "He could have spent the rest of his life in prison... He was lost in the system." Consensual homosexual acts are a criminal offense punishable by up to 5 years in prison in Cameroon. Officials there have notoriously arrested and detained several gay men for months without any legal proceedings. According to Johnson, Alexandre is at least the seventeenth person in the last year to be released after spending time in jail on charges of homosexuality. He said there could be thousands of gay men just like Alexandre in prisons throughout Africa. "We just don't know," he said. And there were reports this week that Nigerian lawmakers are continuing to fast-track what would almost certainly be the most anti-queer legislation in the world. The international advocacy group Human Rights Watch issued a call to the country’s legislators this week to reject the bill, which would imprison anyone who speaks out on behalf of civil rights for lesbians and gay men, or even associates with them. Critics believe the law is being pushed through prior to April’s national elections, and is being used by candidates to pander to societal hostility towards gays and lesbians. Consensual same-gender sex is already illegal in Nigeria, punishable by imprisonment in the predominantly Christian south and by death in the Muslim north. Legislation to repeal the Pentagon’s notorious "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy was reintroduced this week in the U.S. Congress, this time with the participation of a possible poster boy for the cause: the first member of the U.S. military to be wounded in Iraq. In March of 2003, Marine Staff Sergeant Eric Alva was leading about a dozen Marines in a supply unit in Iraq when he stepped on a landmine, losing his right leg. He spent months in rehabilitation, and was visited by President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Alva, who also appeared on several national television programs, was awarded a Purple Heart for his service and received a medical discharge. He came out as a gay man this week during a Capitol Hill press conference to reintroduce the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, a bill to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the armed forces. "I'm an American who fought for his country and for the protection and the rights and freedoms of all American citizens," Alva said, "not just some of them, but all of them." While critics of the policy have pointed to the discharge for homosexuality of hundreds of military personnel serving in critical areas ­- most notably Arab language specialists -­ conservatives continue to defend it as necessary for "unit cohesion and morale." Despite the new Democratic majority in Congress, supporters admit that repeal remains an uphill battle. And finally, also coming out this week was Christian Chavez, a singer for the Mexican pop group RBD. He made the announcement after photographs of him kissing and exchanging rings with another man during a 2005 wedding ceremony in Canada surfaced on the latingossip.com Web site. RBD has been wildly popular across Latin America and among Spanish-speakers in the United States. "Although I'm scared and filled with uncertainty, I know that I can rely on the support of my fans," Chavez said in a statement in both Spanish and English posted on the group's Web site. "Their love is bigger than all of this. I ask them from the bottom of my heart not to judge me for being honest." He urged others "to feel proud of who they are, and never make the same mistake I did."


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