"NewsWrap"
for the week ending March 10, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #989, distributed 3-12-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Lucia Chappelle, Graham Underhill,
and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley]
Reported this week by Jon Beaupre and Christopher Gaal
Outspokenly homophobic Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has been criticized by the
mayors of London, Berlin and Paris as the four men gathered in the British
capital, along with the mayor of Beijing, for their annual summit.
Luzhkov banned last year's first attempt at an LGBT pride parade in Moscow,
has repeatedly promised to ban this year's march, and recently called pride
parades "satanic."
Last year’s organizers have sued Luzhkov for libel. They’re demanding a
retraction and a token amount of monetary damages. They’ve also filed suit in
the European Court of Human Rights over last year’s ban, seeking a determination
of their right to march and the equivalent of about 26,000 U.S. dollars in
damages.
Speaking at a London press conference on February 28th, Luzhkov compared
homosexuality to alcoholism and cigarette addiction. "We don't know how many
citizens... have this unusual sexual orientation," he said, but "… wwe are against
propagating, we are against promoting. Like any other society, we want to
protect ourselves from the promotion of alcohol and tobacco. When we promote
smoking, it's bad, it's wrong. [T]hrough the gay parade you promote some
uncertain people and it becomes an invitation to acquire this quality of the sexual
minorities."
Queer-friendly London Mayor Ken Livingstone told reporters that both he and
openly gay Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit privately chastised Luzhkov for his
comments.
But openly gay Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë spoke directly to Luzhkov during
the press conference. "This is not a disease you catch at some point," he
said. "Some of us have brown skin, some of us have fair skin, some of us have
brown eyes, some of us have blue eyes. We are born heterosexual or homosexual.
And that's it."
Despite being attacked last year during alternative Pride events by
skinheads, neo-fascists and fundamentalist Christians, Moscow activists are vowing to
march again this year on the same date, May 27th -- the anniversary of the
repeal of laws against consensual homosexual acts in the former Soviet Republic.
But the new mayor of Riga is supporting an LGBT rights march in his city
later this year. In an interview with the "Diena" newspaper, Janis Birks said
he was ashamed at events in the Latvian capital last year, when bags of human
excrement were thrown at Pride marchers. He called for tolerance and
understanding, saying, "We need to have discussion within society." Birks said that if
security could be provided, the event could go ahead. "The problem is not in
the march, but sexual orientation," he said.
In a separate interview, Latvia's Minister for Society Integration, Oskars
Kastens, told the "Neatkariga" newspaper that, perhaps contrary to organizers’
intentions, the decision to include a church service in previous Pride
celebrations may have been antagonistic in a heavily religious society.
Riga Pride 2007 is scheduled for May 30th to June 3rd.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to march in Dublin,
Ireland's St. Patrick's Day parade this year, again snubbing her city’s event
because of its organizers' refusal to allow self-identified gay and lesbian
groups to march.
Quinn, an Irish-American and the city's first openly queer council leader, is
expected to be joined by other members of the New York City Council, as well
as the lord mayor of Dublin, the speaker of the Lower House of the Irish
Parliament, and Dublin City Council members. Quinn said that, "I hope my
participation in the Dublin march will send a message about the importance of
inclusion."
The New York City parade is organized by the Roman Catholic-affiliated
Ancient Order of Hibernians. They’ve refused to allow gays and lesbians to march
under their own banner since 1991, claiming it would "politicize" the event.
For a second year, the nondenominational group Soulforce has started
visiting universities across the U.S. that make life impossible for openly queer
students.
Two busloads of young "Equality Riders" will be traveling to 32 Christian
colleges with policies that silence or exclude LGBT people.
One of the buses visited Notre Dame University this week, where the activists
attempted to discuss their experiences in the cafeteria of the Student
Center. Six were issued trespassing citations by Notre Dame campus police.
Another busload of students was harassed by people making lewd comments and
gestures as they arrived at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. They awoke
the following morning to find their bus defaced by graphic anti-gay graffiti. A
Dordt College spokesman said college officials were "saddened" to learn about
the vandalism and apologized to the group. Equality Riders received a
similar welcome in Cleveland, Tennessee last year, when homophobes scrawled
"fags-mobile" on the side of their bus.
At least six U.S. newspapers have dropped right-wing commentator Ann
Coulter's syndicated column following her March 2nd use of the term "faggot" during
a speech to a conservative political group. The Human Rights Campaign was
among several national queer advocacy groups to condemn her use of the derogatory
term, calling her remarks "vile and disgusting."
"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential
candidate John Edwards," Coulter said, "but it turns out you have to go into rehab
if you use the word 'faggot.'"
She was probably alluding to the much-publicized use of the same word by
"Grey’s Anatomy" TV star Isaiah Washington. He later apologized and said he was
going into counseling to deal with the issue.
Even some Republican leaders have criticized Coulter, and a growing number of
national companies have pulled their ads from her Web site.
Coulter’s slur also comes on the heels of former National Basketball
Association All Star Tim Hardaway’s statement in a radio interview that he "hates gay
people," for which he was roundly criticized and subsequently apologized.
Some observers believe that the strong negative reaction to these comments
are a sign that homophobic public statements are finally becoming unacceptable
in the U.S.
Three U.S. state legislatures addressed healthcare benefits for the
partners of lesbian and gay workers this week.
A bill in Hawai’i to extend health coverage to the unmarried partners of
state and county workers passed in the House, and now advances to the state Senate.
In addition to covering same-gender partners, the bill would also provide
coverage to interdependent pairs not in a domestic relationship, which has
increased its chances of passage.
The bill was introduced after the legislature killed a proposal earlier this
year to create civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.
Four years after Minnesota rescinded health benefits for the partners of
its gay and lesbian government workers, a state Senate committee has approved a
bill that would require labor contracts to extend health insurance benefits to
same-gender partners similar to those given to the spouses of married
employees. It passed on a divided voice vote and now heads to another committee.
Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty, however, opposes the benefits. He signed
the bill in 2003 that revoked domestic-partner benefits negotiated under the
administration of previous Governor Jesse Ventura.
And legislation to prohibit publicly funded universities and colleges from
extending domestic partner benefits to families of faculty and staff has been
narrowly defeated in a Kentucky legislative committee. Under House Health and
Welfare Committee rules, the tie vote of 8-to-8 resulted in its defeat.
"It wasn't the overwhelming victory that we would have liked," said Kentucky
Fairness Alliance Executive Director Christina Gilgor, "but it's a victory."
The bill was introduced after the University of Louisville decided to offer
the benefits, making it the first publicly funded college in the state to do
so. The University of Kentucky and Northern Kentucky University are each also
considering a similar move.
Meanwhile, Utah’s legislature has refused to repeal the state’s sodomy
law, more than three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v.
Texas that such laws are unconstitutional. Utah’s only openly queer lawmaker,
Democratic state Senator Scott McCoy, introduced the measure, but the
legislature’s Republican leadership refused to allow either debate or public hearings.
Most Utah lawmakers are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, or Mormons, who consider homosexuality a sin.
And we told you a couple of weeks ago about the arrest of an outspokenly
anti-queer and now former Baptist minister in Oklahoma for soliciting oral sex
from an undercover policeman. His attorney argued that under Lawrence v. Texas
it wasn’t a crime for consenting adults to solicit private homosexual acts.
A judge this week found Lonnie Latham not guilty of the misdemeanor charge of
committing a lewd act. He faced up to a year in jail and a fine of 2,500
dollars.
Latham had vocally supported a directive urging the Southern Baptist
Convention's 42,000 churches to try to convince gays and lesbians that they can become
heterosexual "if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their
sinful, destructive lifestyle."
And finally, also acquitted on more serious charges was the editor of "KAOS
GL," Turkey's only gay magazine. Umut Guner, who’s also vice chairman of an
advocacy group for queer rights that bears the same name as the magazine, was
found not guilty earlier this month of disseminating pornographic material,
according to the "Anatolia" news agency. He risked up to three years in jail.
Guner was charged in connection with a July 2006 issue of the magazine, which
examined heterosexual and homosexual pornography, and contained a drawing
featuring nude figures.
The judge acquitted Guner on the grounds that the alleged offence did not
actually take place because the magazine was confiscated before it could be put
on sale.
KAOS GL, and the magazine that bears its name, were created in 1994 in Ankara
as Turkey's first LGBT advocacy group.
It won a major legal victory in October 2005 when a prosecutor threw out a
motion by the Ankara governor to ban the group on grounds of immorality.
A Turkish court earlier this week ordered access to the popular YouTube Web
site blocked after videos posted there implied that the founder of modern
Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was gay. Under pressure from civil libertarians,
authorities restored access to the site a few days later.
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