"NewsWrap"
for the week ending March 24, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #991, distributed 3-26-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Lucia Chappelle, Graham Underhill,
and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley]
Reported this week by Rick Watts and Greg Gordon
New lesbigay equality laws passed muster this week in Britain’s House of
Lords. Peers rejected a Tory amendment to throw out the Equality Act (Sexual
Orientation) Regulations by a vote of 168-to-122. The legislation bans
discrimination based on sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services,
just as existing measures ban racial- and gender-based discrimination.
The government’s Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly hailed the regulations, to
take affect in April, as a "major step forward" that will deliver "dignity,
respect and fairness for all... It cannot be right in a decent, tolerant society
that a shopkeeper or restaurant can refuse to serve a customer because they
are gay."
There were angry demonstrations outside the Lords chambers protesting the
legislation, and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Winchester, and a Church of England
bishop who’s also a member of the House of Lords, each claimed that the
rights of lesbians and gay men were "trumping" everyone else's.
But openly gay Labour peer Lord Alli noted that, "The sight of children
holding up homophobic placards outside the Lords seems a good argument for these
regulations."
Catholic adoption agencies have been given 21 months to comply with the new
laws. They’ve faced criticism for threatening to shut down if the regulations
were approved. The 21-month window is said to give them sufficient time to
pass on their skills and experience to secular agencies.
Bills expanding the definition of hate crimes and sex education were
introduced this week in the U.S. Congress.
A similar version of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act
passed in the House of Representatives last year but died in the Senate, which is
expected to get a companion bill in April.
The legislation adds sexual orientation, gender and gender identity to local
hate crimes that the U.S. Justice Department has the authority to investigate.
It makes grants available to state and local agencies for training law
enforcement personnel, and for investigating and prosecuting such crimes.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's anti-queer hate crimes statistics are
now based only on voluntary reporting, and some states and major cities don’t
even participate.
Proponents are hoping that the hate convictions this week of four men in the
brutal New York City bashing attack on openly gay performer Kevin Aviance, and
the highly-reported beating death of 72-year-old gay man Andrew Anthos in
Detroit last month, will put a current spotlight on the issue and spur passage of
the bill this time.
The second bill introduced in Congress this week would provide grants for
comprehensive and age-appropriate sex education, replacing the abstinence-only,
hetero-only limitations imposed under the former Republican leadership and
current president.
The federal government is expected to spend more than one billion dollars in
abstinence-only education through next year. Federal funding is denied to
institutions that discuss homosexuality or birth control.
The Responsible Education About Life Act was introduced in the House by
California Democrat Barbara Lee and Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays, and
in the Senate by New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg. It would grant 206
million dollars per year to states for comprehensive sexuality education.
"We need to get real about sex education," Lee said in a written statement.
"We should absolutely be teaching young people about abstinence, but we
shouldn't be holding back information that can save lives and prevent unwanted
pregnancies."
Full legal equality for gays and lesbians hasn't ended homophobia in
Quebec, according to a report issued earlier this month by the Canadian province's
Human and Youth Rights Commission.
Based on the work of the government's Joint Task Force on Homophobia, it says
that sexual minorities still encounter discrimination at work, at school and
within their families, as well as in health care, social services, and sports
and leisure activities.
The report also said that young gay males are six to 16 times more likely to
think about or attempt suicide, compared with their heterosexual peers, and
that young lesbians are five times more likely to consider or attempt suicide.
The Commission recommended appointing a government minister to draft, fund
and implement a provincial strategy against homophobia. It said work is needed
in the areas of information, awareness, training, scientific knowledge and
support for LGBT organizations.
Quebec's minister of justice has vowed to implement the Commission's
recommendations.
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch this week condemned a
legislative proposal in Poland that would allow teachers to be fired for
"promoting" what the bill calls "homosexual culture." The measure is not clearly
defined, but would seem to include a ban on teaching basic information about
HIV/AIDS and lessons promoting tolerance toward gays and lesbians.
It’s the latest culture clash between Poland and international human rights
organizations since a socially conservative government took office in late 2
005, focusing its rhetoric on so-called "family values" and what it calls the
need for a "moral renewal."
"Polish authorities claim to be protecting families," Scott Long, director of
Human Rights Watch's LGBT rights program, said in a statement, "but in fact
they are trying to deny children free speech and lifesaving information on
HIV/AIDS... Schools should be training grounds for tolerance, not bastions of
repression and discrimination."
Michael Heflin, director of Amnesty International USA's OUTfront Program,
said, "This proposed legislation is repugnant. It violates international human
rights standards and goes against Poland's own constitution. The world must
tell Polish authorities that this is completely unacceptable."
But in the Australian island state of Tasmania, the government is funding
an anti-homophobia campaign intended for all its high schools, following
recommendations issued by the University of Tasmania.
Called Pride and Prejudice, the University’s review urged the expansion of a
pilot program that’s been running in three local high schools.
State Education Minister David Bartlett is pledging 50,000 dollars to train
about 15 additional teachers to run the course.
Senior education lecturer Doug Bridge told the "Australian Broadcasting
Corporation" that the course has made a difference in students' attitudes toward
gay men and lesbians, saying that "All of the students [who] were involved [in
the pilot program] emerged…with less homophobic attitudes."
U.S. Episcopal bishops risked losing communion with their global Anglican
counterparts this week by resolutely affirming their support for gay and
lesbian relationships. Anglican bishops meeting in Tanzania last month, prompted by
theologically conservative leaders in its African, Asian and Latin American
regions, issued an ultimatum to the U.S. church -- which is part of the 77
million-member global Communion -- giving it until September 30th to stop
authorizing ceremonies for same-gender unions. The ultimatum also demanded an
unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another partnered gay bishop -- as the Episcopal
Church did with the elevation of New Hampshire’s Gene Robinson in 2003.
In strong and direct language, the Episcopal House of Bishops said that it
views the Gospel as teaching full inclusion of lesbians and gay men in the
Church. The bishops also said they would oppose any plan for Anglican leaders
outside the U.S. to oversee the small number of defecting conservative American
Episcopal congregations, as was also proposed in Tanzania. "If that means that
others reject us and communion with us, as some have already done," the
bishops’ resolution stated, "we must with great regret and sorrow accept their
decision."
The small but affluent Episcopal Church, with 2.3 million members,
underwrites a significant chunk of the Communion's budget. The Anglican spiritual
leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, issued a brief statement calling
the Episcopal resolution "discouraging." But the Reverend Susan Russell of the
Episcopal queer advocacy group Integrity compared the bishops' statement to a
"coming out process," saying, "This was a huge step, that the American church
was not willing to go back into the closet about its inclusion of gay and
lesbian people in order to capitulate to those who would exclude us."
North American Anglicans appear to be on a collision course with the rest of
the Communion. The Canadian church's Council of General Synod approved a
resolution last week saying that "the blessing of same-sex unions is consistent
with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada."
The Church of Sweden sent mixed messages this week about performing
lesbigay wedding ceremonies if Parliament changes the current law to allow
same-gender marriage. Even though it already blesses legal registered gay and lesbian
partnerships, Archbishop Anders Wejryd said that the Church might refuse to
carry out the ceremonies if a new law referred to the partnerships as "marriage,"
and insisted that individual priests be allowed to refuse to conduct them.
Registered partnerships have been legal in Sweden since 1995, and grant most
of the benefits and obligations of marriage. However, a parliamentary
committee concluded last August that the law was outdated, and recommended that the
government propose legislation to establish full marriage equality. Hans
Regner, formerly Sweden's most senior government lawyer, issued a report this week
saying that same-gender couples should be able to marry and to be legally
regarded as spouses.
And finally, the "Associated Press" reported this week that police
officials in the Philippines are warning gay officers not to sway their hips or
display other suggestive behavior while on duty -- or risk losing their jobs.
Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, a spokesman for the Philippine National
Police, told a Manila radio station that his department doesn’t discriminate,
but would not hesitate to fire those who behave in a questionable manner.
"If [gay officers] sway their hips while marching, or if they engage in lustful
conduct, I think that will be a ground for separation," he said. There have
been no reports of any specific incidents that may have prompted Pagdilao’s
comments.
A new political party in the Philippines specifically representing lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender people was recently refused registration for May
congressional elections on the grounds that it doesn’t have nationwide
chapters. Its members are appealing.
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