"NewsWrap" for the week ending June 30, 2007 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,005, distributed 7-2-07) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Sheri Lunn and Rick Watts Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada narrowly overruled clergy and lay people at their General Synod this week to defeat a proposal that would have allowed local congregations to bless same-gender unions. Bishops voted 21 to 19 against sanctioning the blessings, trumping larger margins in favor by clergy and laity. The proposal had to pass in all three legislative bodies to be implemented. A bishop who’s expressed support in the past for full acceptance of gays and lesbians, however, was elected to lead the Anglican Church of Canada. Bishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island was chosen on the fifth ballot. Queer-supportive Katherine Jefferts Schori became the first woman elected to lead the U.S. Episcopal Church last year. Sharp disagreements over the ordination of openly gay Epsicopal bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, and the blessings of same-gender unions in both countries, have threatened to split the Canadian church and the U.S. Episcopal wing from the 77-million member global Anglican Communion, a loose federation of national Christian churches around the world. Orthodox Anglicans, primarily from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, believe sex outside of heterosexual marriage is contrary to Biblical teachings. But many liberal Anglicans in North America favor a more inclusive and welcoming interpretation. Thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people marched safely through the streets of central London at the city’s annual Pride parade on June 30th, just a day after a double car-bomb attack thought to be terrorist-inspired in the city's West End was foiled. On the same day in Paris, organizers said some 700,000 people attended that city’s annual Pride parade. Lesbigay activists want to start a dialogue with recently elected conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy to lobby for his support of queer equality issues. An estimated 8,000 LGBT people and their supporters paraded through Dublin on June 23rd. Organizers said it was the largest Irish Pride event to date. Revelers braved occasional heavy downpours at a post-parade concert and rally to hear speeches, music, and dance for several hours. On the same day, some 400,000 people turned out for Pride in Berlin, where the political focus was on discrimination in the workplace and in schools, while about a thousand marched with Pride in Athens and enjoyed a post-parade concert. Queer communities in New York, Toronto, Chicago and San Francisco held their annual Pride marches on June 24th. Crowds estimated at close to a million each watched in New York and Toronto, while between 300 and 600 thousand spectators were reported in Chicago and San Francisco. Marriage equality was the main political focus in New York and San Francisco. Legislation to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry has passed the state Assemblies in California and New York, but is unlikely to be enacted in either state this year. In Toronto, where same-gender marriage is legal - as it is across Canada - the city kept its marriage bureau open throughout the weekend. Several dozen couples, many from the U.S., tied the knot. A post-parade street party in the gay village went on throughout the evening. Chicago marchers celebrated the opening of the city's new LGBT Community Center. The 20-million-dollar complex, on the city's North Side, will offer educational, recreational and social services along with theater events and social functions. Top Jamaican reggae-dancehall singers Beenie Man, Sizzla and Capleton have signed an agreement to stop encouraging violence against LGBT people in their music. Under the "Reggae Compassionate Act," written by reggae promoters working with activists from the international Stop Murder Music campaign, the three performers won’t release new anti-gay songs, or re-release or perform their earlier gay-bashing material. The document states, in part, that "There's no space in the music community for hatred and prejudice, including no place for racism, violence, sexism or homophobia. We agree to not make statements or perform songs that incite hatred or violence against anyone from any community." Stop Murder Music's campaign has led to the cancellation in several countries of concerts by the three singers, and fellow dancehall singers Elephant Man, TOK, Bounty Killa, Vybz Kartel and Buju Banton. They’re also notorious for promoting violence against LGBT people in their songs, but none of them has endorsed the agreement as yet. Gareth Williams, co-chair of the Kingston-based Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, hopes that the singers who’ve signed the pledge mean it. "We hope it is not commercially motivated by the singers' desire to maintain their concert revenues," he said, "but a sincere commitment that will encourage an end to homophobic violence, and to all violence against everyone." The British military this week issued a blanket apology to all gay and lesbian members of the armed forces who were discharged because of their sexuality. The ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military was lifted in 2000 - more than 30 years after homosexuality was decriminalized in the U.K. Various branches of the military have since moved toward inclusion. Last year the Royal Navy hired national LGBT rights group Stonewall to advise it. The man in charge of equality training for the Ministry of Defense, Wing Commander Phil Sagar, apologized for the persecution that gays and lesbians suffered prior to 2000, telling the "BBC" that "We’re sorry for anyone who has suffered personal trauma. Our challenge is to create an environment where there is a genuine freedom from harassment and discrimination." The government has paid out the equivalent of more than 1.6 million dollars to 24 former servicemembers who’d threatened court action over their dismissal after the removal of the ban in 2000. More than 50 claims are still pending. The United States is the only major Western power to bar gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. A recent U.S. poll found overwhelming support for a bill introduced in Congress in February to repeal the Clinton-era "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy, while two lawsuits are challenging that policy in federal courts in Massachusetts and California. [R] Three former leaders of a U.S.-based ministry that counsels gays and lesbians to change their sexual orientation also apologized this week, saying that their message had caused isolation, shame and fear. The interdenominational Christian organization Exodus International was created in 1976 in Orlando, Florida and has grown to include more than 120 ministries in the United States and Canada and over 150 ministries overseas. It promotes ``freedom from homosexuality'' through prayer, counseling and group therapy. Current Exodus president Alan Chambers claimed that the ministry's methods have helped many people, including himself. "I think there's room for more than one opinion on this subject," he said in a statement, "and giving people options isn't dangerous." But all major U.S. psychiatric and psychological associations have said so-called "reparative therapy" is often destructive. Disavowing Exodus at this week’s press conference were co-founder Michael Bussee, who left the group in 1979, Jeremy Marks, former president of Exodus International Europe, and Darlene Bogle, the founder of Paraklete Ministries, an Exodus referral agency. ``Some who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families,'' the three said in a statement released outside the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center. It coincided with the opening of the annual Exodus conference, held this week at Concordia University in Southern California. And for the first time, a majority of Americans believe that gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation even if they wanted to, according to results of a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released this week. Fifty-six percent of about 515 respondents said they do not believe sexual orientation can be changed. In 1998, according to a CNN/Time poll, that number was 36 percent. In a 1977 poll, the number was 13 percent. The sampling error for the new poll, conducted from May 4th to May 6th, is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. But another survey suggests that more than 150,000 secondary students in the U.K. have been bullied because they’re gay or lesbian. Among the findings of a new poll released this week, over two thirds of lesbian and gay students reported being victimized by homophobic bullying at school by students and staff alike, ranging from verbal and physical abuse to death threats. 70 percent said the bullying directly affected their school work, and half said they’d missed school entirely because of it. The survey was sponsored by national queer advocacy group Stonewall, and is reportedly the largest poll of lesbigay young people ever conducted in the U.K. Nearly all the 1100 gay, lesbian and bisexual students surveyed said they’d heard derogatory phrases in school, such as "dyke," "queer," or "poof," and that only half of their teachers intervened when students used such homophobic language. Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill said that, "These deeply disturbing figures should serve as a wake-up call to everyone working in education." But finally, in happier news for U.S. LGBT young people, the number of Gay-Straight Alliances registered with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, has mushroomed in recent years, according to a press release issued this week by the group, which advocates for a safe school environment for LGBT students. The first Gay-Straight Alliance was formed in 1988 by LGBT and supportive heterosexual students to provide a safe haven for queer kids to discuss issues of concern to them. Since then, GLSEN said, 3,577 GSAs have registered with them -- at least one from every state, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. Despite efforts in several locales to ban them, the Federal Equal Access Act protects the right of students to form such clubs. GLSEN founder and Executive Director Kevin Jennings said that, "The spirit of tolerance in so many of our nation's students truly amazes us at GLSEN. Schools still are not a safe place for far too many of them, but GSAs are helping change that every day."


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