"NewsWrap"
for the week ending April 28, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #996, distributed 4-30-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner
with Bill Kelley]
Reported this week by Jon Beaupre and Rick Watts
The European Parliament called on Poland this week to stop its leaders from
inciting hatred against gays and lesbians. The resolution was prompted by
ongoing anti-queer statements by government officials, and recent reports that
Poland was drafting a law to punish teachers who "promote" homosexuality. It
says in part that Polish authorities should "publicly condemn and take measures
against declarations by public leaders inciting discrimination and hatred
based on sexual orientation." The assembly also asked the European Union's
anti-racism center in Vienna to investigate "the emerging climate of racist,
xenophobic and homophobic intolerance in Poland," and to determine whether E.U.
anti-discrimination rules were being violated.
During heated debate on the resolution, openly gay British MEP Michael
Cashman said that having lived under years of repression, Poland’s leaders should
understand the value of fundamental human rights. But Polish MEP Witold Tomczak
argued that homosexuality is against the laws of nature, and demanded that
"so-called defenders of human rights" address "discrimination against normal
families." Several Polish MEPs walked out of the chamber when attempts to
prevent the debate failed.
Poland’s Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski quickly condemned the resolution,
insisting that "Nobody is limiting gay rights in Poland," but that "It's not
in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals -- that's
obvious."
The "Agence France Press" news agency reports that Maciej Giertych, an MEP
from the League of Polish Families, has published a pamphlet stating that
homosexuality is "biologically useless" and "reversible" as long as there is "the
desire to become heterosexual, and the spiritual motivation".
Meanwhile, the European branch of ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay
Association, is calling on the continent’s mayors, and celebrities, to sign
onto a declaration supporting the right to freedom of assembly and expression for
LGBT people. The campaign will unveil its first signatories during
ceremonies observing the May 17th International Day Against Homophobia, or IDAHO, and
will continue through September. The appeal, with its initial signatures, will
first be delivered to the mayors of European cities where LGBT Pride marches
and other public events have been banned, restricted or faced violence,
including Moscow, the Latvian capital of Riga, and the Moldovan capital of Chisinau.
ILGA-Europe Executive Director Patricia Prendiville said in a statement that,
"Despite the calls by various European [and] international and national human
rights organizations, some city authorities are still prepared to break the
law and ban Pride events… We hope that [other] mayors and celebritiees will sign
our appeal [during] 2007, which is the European Year of Equal Opportunities
for All."
The Netherlands' Supreme Court has ruled that the tiny Caribbean island of
Aruba, which its nation governs, must recognize Dutch same-gender marriages.
The decision came in the case of a Dutch woman and an Aruban woman, Esther
and Charlene Oduber-Lamers, who legally married in the Netherlands in 2001,
settled in Aruba, and were told by local authorities that their marriage would not
be recognized.
The Common Court of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba previously
ruled in the couple's favor, but the government of Prime Minister Nelson
Oduber appealed, calling it a moral issue.
The Australian state of Victoria will have a domestic partner registry by the
end of the year, according to an announcement this week by Premier Steven
Bracks.
He said the registry would be similar to one already operating in Tasmania,
which offers the country’s only other statewide legal recognition of
same-gender relationships.
Gay and lesbian couples would sign a registry affirming their co-dependent
relationship. A government-issued certificate would then allow them to make
emergency medical decisions for one another, receive health care at the same
rates as for married couples, and have rights to a partner's pension after that
partner dies. Couples would also have rights in the execution of wills and the
division of property. Bracks was quick to add, however, that the legislation
would not create civil unions or marriage. The registry "simply reaffirms
that someone has a relationship," he told reporters. A private members bill that
would have created civil unions in Victoria previously failed to gain support.
LGBT rights groups generally applauded the announcement, but had wanted
Bracks to challenge federal legislation that bars same-gender marriage. In 2004
the Australian government passed legislation defining marriage as between a man
and a woman. Prime Minister John Howard has also refused to consider any form
of national civil unions for same-gender couples.
Two attempts by the Australian Capital Territory to create civil unions
failed when the federal government, which has the authority, overturned the first
bill and threatened to do likewise to the second.
In the U.S. state of New York, Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer fulfilled
a campaign promise this week by asking the state legislature to legalize
same-gender marriage. "Strong, stable families are the cornerstones of our
society," Spitzer said in a prepared statement. "The responsibilities inherent in
the institution of marriage benefit those individuals and society as a whole."
The news release noted that children of the state’s lesbigay couples lack the
legal protections that marriage provides, such as health care, hospital
visitation, property ownership, inheritance, taxation, insurance coverage, child
custody, and pensions.
However, the proposal was quickly rejected by the leader of the
Republican-controlled state Senate, and the leader of the Democratic-dominated Assembly has
yet to announce his position.
Washington state’s Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire this week signed
into law a domestic partnership bill that provides same-gender couples there
with limited legal protections. When the law takes effect July 21st,
Washington will join California, Hawai’i, Maine, and the District of Columbia in
granting same-gender couples some of the state-level rights and responsibilities of
marriage.
The New Hampshire legislature gave final approval to a civil unions bill
this week, which Democratic Governor John Lynch has promised to sign. The first
and only openly gay bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, New Hampshire’s V.
Gene Robinson, said that he and his partner of 18 years, Mark Andrew, a state
health care administrator, would be among the first to civilly unite there.
New Hampshire is poised to join Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey in
offering marriage-like civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.
Massachusetts is the only U.S. state where same-gender partners can legally
marry, although those unions are not recognized by most other states. The
federal government refuses to recognize any form of legal unions for lesbigay
couples.
Iowa’s Democratic Governor Chet Culver has promised to sign a bill to add
sexual orientation and gender identity to categories included in the state’s
anti-discrimination laws, which passed in the legislature this week.
Iowa’s citizens are already protected in employment, housing, and public
accommodations on the basis of race, religion and disability.
More than a dozen church leaders across the state supported the bill. Carol
Ryan Terrell, head of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and Action Fund told a
news conference that "Civil rights laws are designed to protect groups of
people who have faced blatant and historic discrimination."
But some social conservatives opposed the measure. Chuck Hurley, president
of the Iowa Family Policy Center, urged a gubernatorial veto, telling the "Des
Moines Register" that "We don't think sexually immoral behavior should be made
into a protected class... That's not the purpose of the civil rights code."
With Culver’s expected signature, Iowa will become the 19th U.S. state to
prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the 10th to
ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity. A federal bill to ban
workplace discrimination against LGBT people, the Employment Non-Discrimination
Act, or ENDA, was introduced this week in the U.S. Congress.
The "China Economic News" Web site is reporting that a fledgling advocacy
group for gay men has formed in southwestern China’s Chongqing City. The
group’s name is Lan Yu, after the popular gay-themed Chinese film. One of its
founders, Liu Ji, is a student at the Southwest University of Political Science
and Law and a longtime HIV/AIDS educator. He said the group was established to
help gay men fight homophobia and discrimination. It also wants to bridge the
gap between gay men and other members of society, he said, because
discrimination often causes gay men to withdraw and engage in risky sexual behavior.
The group plans to open hotlines offering information about HIV/AIDS and
homosexuality.
And finally, Nepal’s LGBT advocacy group Blue Diamond Society announced
this week that the Himalayan country’s Supreme Court has accepted a lawsuit
against the Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, and the Ministry of Law, Justice
and Parliamentary Affairs. The plaintiffs are demanding national policies to
defend and legally protect the human rights of sexual and gender minorities,
and the abolition of all of Nepal’s discriminatory laws. The high court has
issued a "show cause order" requiring the government to respond within 15 days.
In a sign that times may already be changing, the Cutey Beauty Salon recently
opened in an upscale area of the capital city of Kathmandu, near a popular
department store and an art gallery. According to a report by the "Indo-Asian
News Service," it’s being run by gay and transgender people, and is being
supported by the Oslo-based Norwegian National Association of Lesbian and Gay
Liberation and the Sigrid Rausing Trust in London. It offers a fairly typical
array of beauty services, including haircuts, facials, manicures and pedicures,
but it also trains members of the queer community who want to become beauticians.
"...[T]ransgenders and [other] sexual minorities… are the most margiinalized,
poor and socially excluded in Nepal," said Blue Diamond Society leader Sunil
Pant. "The salon is an opportunity for them to lead self-supporting and
dignified lives so that they can make a living and contribute to the larger society.
This is a first of its kind in Nepal."
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