"NewsWrap"
for the week ending September 8, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,015, distributed 9-10-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner
with Bill Kelley]
Reported this week by Christopher Gaal and Rick Watts
Israel will continue to grant equal property and inheritance rights to gay
and lesbian couples, even if the Knesset the country’s parrliament - passes
laws with the opposite intention. According to a report this week in the
"Ha’aretz" newspaper, that directive from Attorney General Menachem Mazuz came in
an internal memo to the responsible government agency, the Custodian General.
Marriage in Israel is the sole province of the rabbinate, and civil marriage
laws don’t exist there although both lesbigay and heteroseexual activists
continue to lobby for a civil marriage law. The only proposed legislation now in
the Knesset would specifically limit common-law marriage to heterosexual
partners.
The Attorney General decided in 2004 not to appeal a landmark ruling by the
Nazareth District Court that Israel's inheritance laws should apply equally to
opposite- and same-gender couples. But the Custodian General’s office has
opposed that more inclusive definition of a couple.
Mazuz’s memo noted that the proposed common law marriage legislation "does
not change the current law or legal rulings," saying that it’s intended only to
preserve the status quo. He instructed the Custodian General to continue
accepting inheritance claims by surviving partners of same-gender unions.
In a case that could redefine some of the rights of same-gender couples in
Europe, an adviser to the European Union's highest court said this week that
it should uphold a gay man's right to a share of his deceased partner's pension.
Tadao Maruko is a 65-year-old German man who’s been fighting for more than
two years to access his partner's savings. The Luxembourg-based European Court
of Justice was asked to define the rights of civil partnerships, as compared
to those of legally married couples.
Advocate General Damaso Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer said in his non-binding opinion
that ``the refusal of such a payment'' amounts to ``indirect discrimination''
against legal unions between same-gender couples that are similar to marriage.
The Justice Court follows its adviser’s legal guidance in most cases, and the
official ruling is expected in the next six months.
Maruko's lawyer, Helmut Graupner, said a judgment in his client’s favor would
only affect other countries where same-gender unions are treated similarly to
marriage, such as in the U.K., where couples can enter into a civil
partnership. That wouldn't be the case in France or Luxembourg, where same-gender
unions aren't recognized as equal to marriage, or in Austria, where marriage
between a man and a woman is the only legally recognized union.
California’s Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a chance to make
history again for better or worse - following passage on Septemberr 7th in
the state Senate of a bill opening marriage to same-gender couples. It had
already passed in the state Assembly. The measure, by Democratic Assemblyman
Mark Leno of San Francisco, is nearly identical to one approved by the
legislature in 2005. Schwarzenegger vetoed that bill, claiming that only a public
referendum or the courts could order marriage equality, and he’s indicated that
he’ll veto this one, too.
The bill amends the California Family Code to define marriage as a civil
contract between two persons, instead of a civil contract between a man and a
woman. It also specifies that no religious institution would be required to
conduct marriages that are contrary to its fundamental beliefs. California law
already permits same-gender couples to register with the state as domestic
partners, providing several important rights. However, they and their families are
not eligible for more than a thousand federal protections offered to married
couples, including social security benefits and the ability to sponsor a
partner for immigration purposes. Federal laws will still need to be changed to
extend those rights to same-gender couples who legally marry in any state.
Schwarzenegger has until October 14th to act on California’s marriage
equality bill. Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese urged him "to think
about how the history books will remember this decision." Meanwhile, the state
Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments later this year or in early
2008 challenging California’s refusal to allow the civil marriages of
same-gender couples.
Attorneys for Equality Advocates Pennsylvania, appearing this week before
the Commonwealth Court, one of two state intermediate-level appellate courts,
challenged Pennsylvania’s policy of denying Unemployment Compensation benefits
to workers who leave their jobs to follow a relocating same-gender partner.
Legally married workers who leave their jobs under comparable circumstances are
eligible to receive those benefits.
The appeal was originally filed in December 2006 on behalf of LGBT worker
Joan Procito, who was denied Unemployment Compensation benefits after relocating
with her family to Florida. It argues that each claimant’s individual reasons
for relocating must be considered, and where those reasons are "necessitous
and compelling," the state must award the benefits whether or not the
claimant is married.
Equality Advocates Pennsylvania’s Employment Rights Project Attorney Katie
Eyer noted that state law prohibits same-gender couples from marrying, and that
"For the state to then turn around and say that same-sex couples are required
to marry in order to receive benefits borders on the absurd."
In other news from around the world, six men were jailed in Cameroon in
mid-August after a young man who’d been arrested on theft charges was coerced by
police into naming his gay friends, according to a report by the International
Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
"The tactics of the Cameroonian government define the term 'witchhunt,'" said
Cary Alan Johnson, IGLHRC's senior program officer for Africa. "Imagine
finding yourself in prison because your name is on a list." He said more than 20
people have been detained in the past two years under Article 347 of
Cameroon's penal code, which criminalizes consensual sex between men.
Steave Nemande, director of the gay group Alternatives-Cameroun, said that
"Hardly a month goes by without reports of the arrests of people because of
their sexuality."
There’s been no update on the status of the men most recently arrested.
But about 60,000 people turned out for Copenhagen's annual Pride parade on
August 25th, highlighting 11 days of pride-related events. A party followed
in Town Hall Square featuring Danish and Swedish entertainers. Pride events
appear to be "ho-hum" now in most of Scandinavia: a posting on the "Euro-Queer"
e-mail list said there was scant mainstream media coverage.
And the sixth Q! Film Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia attracted less
opposition than in some previous years when fundamentalist Muslim protesters tried to
shut it down.
The event, which ran from August 24th to September 2nd, featured 80 movies,
making it the largest LGBT film festival ever held in Asia.
An Indonesian documentary shown at the festival focused on the "sacred
transvestites" of a community on the island of Sulawesi.
A Malaysian court this week annulled the marriage of a Muslim couple after
ruling that both were women, even though they lived together as husband and
wife.
An Islamic Shariah court in southern Malacca state ruled that Mohamad Sofian
Mohamad and Zaiton Aziz, both in their early 40s, would have to separate.
According to Mohamad Mokhtar Karim, a lawyer for the state, doctors found that
Mohamad may have short-cropped hair and dress as a man, but still has female
sexual organs. He told the "Associated Press" that Mohamad was originally given
the female name Mazinah Mohamad after birth, but had mistakenly been allowed
to change her name to a male one on her identity card.
The couple married in a mosque in 2002, but the bride's family challenged its
legality, claiming that the groom is biologically a woman. The state lawyer
said the question of whether the two women were lesbians was not raised in
court and was "speculation."
In 2005, the Malaysian government declared a marriage between her male
partner and a transwoman -- still legally a man -- invalid.
And a postoperative transsexual in the Australian state of Victoria lost a
federal court case in late August in which she sought to have her gender
changed from male to female on her birth certificate. In a 2-to-1 ruling, the
court said the unnamed woman could not switch her official gender because she
remained married to her wife, and Australian federal law bans same-gender marriage.
But in the U.S., the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition has congratulated
Stanford University for its recent decision to add "gender identity" to its
non-discrimination policy. The change on the prestigious Northern California
campus took effect on August 23rd. The group’s announcement said that "Stanford
now joins 147 other [U.S.] colleges and universities specifically banning
discrimination based on gender identity or expression."
And finally, "He Said Yes: The Story of Father Mychal Judge," is a
biography of the openly gay New York City Fire Department chaplain published this week
on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 U.S. terrorist attacks. It’s an
illustrated 32-page children’s book written by Kelly Ann Lynch, who knew Judge and
frequently sought his counsel. The story ends on September 11th, 2001, when
Judge becomes the first official victim of the attacks that killed thousands in
the twin towers.
The book charts major events in his life, and describes how the priest
ministered to all of humanity, including suburban families, alcoholics and the
homeless; AIDS patients; firefighters and police officers; and the loved ones of
those killed in airline disasters.
The Franciscan father's instinctive ``yes'' made him indispensable to many,
says Lynch, but it also wore him out -- much like his phone answering machines,
which routinely broke down from overuse every six months. "It was his gift,
and it connected him to thousands," she said, so "the [‘He Said Yes’] title
would make Mychal laugh."
Gay activist Brendan Fay, a friend of the priest, told the "Associated Press"
that Judge loved children and often wrote letters to them at the time of
their baptisms. "A few who saved [those letters] now treasure them with the
affection of relics," Fay said. And "Kids who never knew Father Judge can now read
his story."
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