"NewsWrap" for the week ending June 16, 2007 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,003, distributed 6-18-07) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Christopher Gaal and Don Lupo Colombia’s legislature this week made it the first nation in Latin America to pass a bill granting same-gender couples many of the rights of married and common law heterosexual couples, including health insurance, social security, and inheritance rights. Registered same-gender couples must be of legal age and have lived together for at least two years. Advocates had tried four times since 1999 to pass the legislation, but until now they were unable to overcome vociferous opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Marcela Sanchez, director of the queer rights group Colombia Diversa, told reporters that as many as 300,000 lesbian and gay couples in the South American country will benefit from the new law. Her group formed soon after the last rejection in 2003 to lobby for the bill’s passage. Its success this time is attributed to a February Constitutional Court ruling that struck down the definition of cohabiting couples as "men and women" in a law that allowed unmarried couples joint ownership of land and rights when one partner dies. The court said the law must be gender neutral. While the high court justices said that their decision did not automatically provide full legal recognition to lesbigay couples, proponents said that the ruling showed for the first time that the Court favored greater rights for same-gender relationships. Colombia’s two legislative chambers must agree on unified wording of the bill before sending it to President Alvaro Uribe, who previously announced his support for it. Senator Armando Benedetti, one of the bill's sponsors, told the "Associated Press" that "This is a victory that only a few months ago seemed unthinkable in this country. To my surprise, the Congress has shown itself to be a modern, responsible and liberal institution." Swedish gay and lesbian couples have been able to enter into civil par tnerships since 1995, but many liberal politicians and queer activists charge that such unions are not equal to marriage and are now outdated. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's conservative Moderate Party has so far refused to support full marriage equality, as recommended by a parliamentary committee last year -- but eight of his party’s supportive MPs, including one Cabinet minister, threatened this week to resign over the issue. Two of the coalition government partners, the Center and Liberal parties, also strongly support such legislation. A fourth party in the coalition, the Christian Democrats, is opposed, and has threatened to scuttle any move toward marriage equality. The Prime Minister said that his party will make a decision on the issue at its annual conference in about three months, but his renegade MPs are pressuring him to act sooner. The marriages of some 8,500 same-gender couples in the only U.S. state where they’re legal, Massachusetts, appear to be safe -- at least for the next five years. The legislature this week refused to put a constitutional amendment banning same-gender marriage before state voters in 2008. The proposed ban, which needed to be approved by at least 50 out of 200 lawmakers in two consecutive joint legislative sessions to be placed on the ballot, was supported by only 45 lawmakers this week. 62 supported the proposal during its initial consideration in the Legislature less than six months ago. Former Republican Governor and now presidential hopeful Mitt Romney strongly supported putting the marriage ban before voters, but his successor, Democrat Deval Patrick, has been a vocal opponent. Anti-equality forces vowed to continue the fight, however, possibly through yet another petition drive and another battle in two consecutive legislative sessions. Secretary of State William F. Galvin said this week that if those efforts were successful, such a proposal couldn’t be placed before voters until at least 2012. Many believe that those chances are slim, however, because the state’s voters have tired of more than three years of highly contentious and often heated debate on the issue. Lesbigay advocates say they still have one more fight in Massachusetts: repealing an antiquated law that has been used to prevent marriages by same-gender couples from other states. Most other U.S. states have laws banning recognition of same-gender couples. The law says couples cannot be married in Massachusetts unless their unions would be legally accepted in their home states. It was passed in 1913, ostensibly to prevent interracial couples from marrying there. As soon as same-gender couples from out of state began applying for marriage licenses in Massachusetts in 2004, then-Governor Mitt Romney directed municipal clerks not to issue them, citing the 1913 law. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which legalized same-gender marriage in 2003, upheld the 1913 law last year, ruling that the state "has a significant interest in not meddling in matters in which another state, the one where a couple actually resides, has a paramount interest." Queer activists say they want to take some time to savor the defeat of the marriage ban amendment. But Marc Solomon of the queer advocacy group MassEquality said that he expects to meet with the state’s top politicos sometime soon to discuss the introduction of a bill to repeal the law. The governor and leaders of both houses of the state legislature have signaled their support for such a measure. U.S. LGBT civil rights groups this week also marked the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down state laws that specifically banned interracial marriage. In the 1967 case, called Loving v. Virginia, the high court ruled that "The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men." In other news, the landmark adoption of a baby boy by two gay men in Western Australia has the country buzzing. It’s believed to be the first adoption of an unrelated child by a same-gender couple in Australia, hailed as "groundbreaking" by queer rights proponents, and predictably condemned by a plethora of rightwing religious groups. The state changed its laws in 2002 to open adoption to qualified same-gender couples. The unnamed gay couple has been waiting since then for a child. State Attorney-General Jim McGinty, who spearheaded passage of the laws, said the recent adoption had the full consent of the child's birth mother. "The only consideration when it comes to adoption is the best interests of the child," he said. The boy’s birth grandmother phoned a Perth radio station this week to defend the adoption. "It's not a matter of being gay or not. It's a matter of being in the best place and the best parents," she said, "And that's what these guys are." The government of Australia’s conservative Prime Minister John Howard opposes legal recognition of, and adoption by, same-gender couples. Pride was on the march at the 32nd annual parade on June 10th in the Northern California city of San Jose. It highlighted a two-day family festival that drew more than 9,000 people to booths, a concert stage, and children's playground. A woman who brought her husband and three children to the parade told the "San Jose Mercury News" that she wanted "to teach my kids that being gay is not wrong or bad. Everybody's different." In a related story, the San Jose City Council voted 10-to-2 this week to file a friend of the court brief supporting neighboring San Francisco’s California Supreme Court challenge to the 2000 voter-approved law that restricts marriage to a man and a woman. In Southern California, the usual hundreds of thousands celebrated West Hollywood’s 37th annual Pride festival and parade during the same weekend. Newly out retired pro basketball player John Amaechi served as Grand Marshall. The traditional hunky bodies, marching bands, and festive floats mixed with political banners demanding LGBT equality. Last week, the state Assembly again passed a bill to open marriage to gay and lesbian couples, but Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed a veto if it reaches his desk, as he did in 2005. He claimed then and maintains now that only the state Supreme Court can overturn that ban on same-gender marriage approved by voters seven years ago. In Canada, thousands also hit the streets of Calgary, Alberta on June 10th at its 17th annual Pride march, capping a festival celebrating diversity. A giant rainbow flag demonstrated what organizers called "harmonious unity." Several Pride-goers frolicked in a fountain during the after-party at a downtown plaza. In the Australian state of Queensland, more than 2,500 celebrants marched with Pride on June 16th in Brisbane. They carried banners urging anti-bias protections for LGBT people in the workplace, and equitable treatment for gay fathers. Organizers said this year’s turnout almost doubled that of last year’s event. However, police needed tear gas to disperse protesters throwing stones and fireworks at about 400 people in the annual LGBT Pride march in the Romanian capital of Bucharest on June 9th. About a hundred protestors were arrested, according to police officials, but no one was seriously injured. Earlier in the week, however, at least eight people assaulted two men leaving the annual "Gay Fest" film festival in Bucharest. Police intervened and arrested several of the attackers. Florin Buhuceanu, one of the organizers of the Pride march, told reporters that "It is our right to express our beliefs, and we will not renounce [them] in the face of violence." And finally, more than a million people marched in the streets of the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo on June 10th as part of what organizers say is the world's largest Pride event. A festival leading up to the parade drew an estimated three million people. Police confirmed the crowd figures, which exceeded last year's turnout of two-and-a-half million. Along with its traditionally colorful parade entries, participants carried banners demanding an end to homophobia in the country. According to activists, more than 2,500 LGBT people have been murdered in Brazil since the early 1980s. Parade organizer Nelson Matias Pereira said this year's participants were appealing for a world "where racism, sexism and homophobia, in all their forms, no longer exist."


**************************************
See what's free at http://www.aol.com.