“NewsWrap" for the week ending October 6, 2007 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,019, distributed 10-8-07) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Jon Beaupré and Rick Watts Colombia's Constitutional Court ruled this week that same-gender couples were entitled to the same social security rights as their heterosexual counterparts, and that gays and lesbians should be able to include their partners in their health insurance plans. A bill granting those benefits was initially passed by Colombia's Congress in June, but ultimately defeated when a small group of senators -- reportedly under pressure from the South American country's powerful Roman Catholic Church -- used a procedural maneuver to reverse their votes on the measure. Although homosexual acts were decriminalized in the 1980s, LGBT activists there now say that, at least in the near future, they'll need to depend on the courts to secure further rights for same-gender couples. In what is likely the strongest example yet of how the Internet has changed U.S. political discourse, a battle has been waging, mostly online, over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA. While trans-people were added in recent years, lesbigay activists have lobbied for a federal bill banning workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians for more than three decades. In its original incarnation in the current congressional session, ENDA would ban discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. But claiming that there weren't enough votes to pass a transgender-inclusive bill in the Democrat-controlled Congress, lead sponsor Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who's been reelected to his seat several times after coming out as a gay man, offered an amended version last week that eliminated the gender identity or expression provisions. The other lead sponsor, openly lesbian Representative Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, then asked that her name be removed from the amended bill. An online war of words also began between Frank and Lambda Legal, one of the country's leading LGBT legal advocates -- and an unprecedented coalition of queer groups around the country -- over the removal of transgender protections, and the language of the revised measure. While acknowledging Frank's long-term advocacy on behalf of the LGBT community, opponents of the stripped-down version of ENDA charged that there were loopholes that could still allow employers to fire or refuse to hire lesbians or gay men if they didn't conform to standard definitions of femininity or masculinity. And while exemptions for religious institutions remain, they also claim that faith-based businesses, such as church-run hospitals, would still be allowed to fire or refuse to hire gays and lesbians. More than 150 organizations across the U.S., led by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and including such groups as the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, numerous statewide LGBT groups, and virtually all transgender rights organizations, have historically united to say that no person in the LGBT community should be abandoned in the fight for employment rights. The country's largest queer advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign, which joined the discussion a bit later, has issued its own press releases opposing an ENDA that doesn't include the trans community. In a statement released on October 1st, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California wrote that, "After discussions with congressional leaders and organizations supporting passage of ENDA, we have agreed to schedule mark-up of the bill in the Committee on Education and Labor later this month, followed by a vote in the full House. This schedule will allow proponents of the legislation to continue their discussions with Members in the interest of passing the broadest possible bill." House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn of South Carolina issued a statement on October 5th, erroneously calling it the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, but confirming Frank's assertion that “Despite the Leadership's strong desire to pass an inclusive measure, the whip count made clear that we simply lack the necessary votes to pass a gender identity-inclusive version of the bill at this time.” That reluctance, however, doesn't seem to reflect the views of the heterosexual public. In a September poll conducted online by Harris Interactive in conjunction with Witeck-Combs for Out & Equal, a San Francisco-based U.S. LGBT group that advocates for equitable workplaces, a majority who self identified as heterosexual incorrectly believed that job protections for gays and lesbians already exist in federal law. Seventy-nine percent said that how an employee does his or her job, and not their sexual orientation, should be the standard for judging an employee. Sixty-seven percent also said the same thing about gender identity. In other news, Grace Abrams and Fiona Power have become the first legally recognized same-gender couple in Australia. The federal government was forced to formally acknowledge the marriage last week, following a decision by the country's Administrative Appeals Tribunal to grant a female passport to Abrams, a post-operative trans woman. She had married her long-term female partner using her male birth certificate before undergoing gender reassignment surgery in Thailand in 2005. Abrams was then denied a passport reflecting her new gender when she returned to Australia, on the grounds that she was married to a woman. She successfully appealed that decision by Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer at the Tribunal in Sydney last month. Prime Minister John Howard's government has consistently opposed any legal recognition of same-gender couples, and has announced that no actions favoring such rights would even be considered until after the next elections. Elsewhere, prison authorities in Saudi Arabia this week began administering 7,000 lashes to each of two men convicted of committing "homosexual acts," according to a report on the “365Gay.com” Web site, citing the local “Okaz” newspaper. The two unnamed men were dragged into a public square in the southwestern city of Al-Bahah, where their shirts were removed and they where whipped. The process was repeated the next day, according to the report, and was to have continued until all 7,000 lashes had been administered. Islamic law, as interpreted and enforced in Saudi Arabia, allows sentences ranging from imprisonment and flogging to death for “deviant sexual behavior.” In the past several years there have been a number of reported mass arrests at what authorities have called "gay weddings" in various parts of the country, but little official information has been released on the outcomes of any trials, or punishments carried out for those convicted. But two gay men targeted by anti-gay death squads in Iraq were granted asylum in the United Kingdom in late September. One had worked as a cultural-programs officer for the British Council in Baghdad, and the other was a doctor at Baghdad's Al-Nu'man General Hospital. Both had received death threats from fundamentalist militias, and a grenade had been thrown through a window at the home of one of them. His partner was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in April 2004 by men suspected of belonging to the Badr militia, according to the London-based organization Iraqi LGBT. The group says that since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, "militant death squads" have executed "hundreds" of people solely for being gay. A Minnesota judge this week refused to overturn the misdemeanor disorderly conduct plea and conviction of conservative U.S. Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho arising from his arrest in a restroom sex-sting operation at the Minneapolis airport. Craig emphatically denied being gay following those revelations, and has consistently voted against LGBT interests in the Senate. Despite previous vows to resign on September 30th, and then again if he wasn't allowed to withdraw his guilty plea, Craig announced this week that he now intends to finish his term in office. "I have seen that it is possible for me to work here effectively," he said in a statement. But Craig also said he wouldn't seek a fourth term in November 2008. Most observers believe that seat is nevertheless likely to stay Republican. And finally, actor George Takei, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu on the original “Star Trek” TV series, has become the first openly queer person to have an asteroid named after him. The asteroid formerly known as 1994 GT9, located between Mars and Jupiter, has been renamed 7307 Takei by the International Astronomical Union. Unlike several Web sites that offer to sell naming rights to stars, the I.A.U.-approved names are actually used by astronomers, according to Tom Burbine, the Mount Holyoke College astronomy professor who proposed the new name. He said he suggested Takei in part out of appreciation for the actor's work with the Japanese American Citizens League, where he was Cultural Affairs Chairperson, and with the Human Rights Campaign, for whom he's a spokesperson for its Coming Out Project. Coincidentally, the twentieth annual National Coming Out Day, which encourages LGBT people to “take your next step” in the coming out process, is observed yearly on October 11th. Takei joins “Star Trek” creator Gene Rodennberry and fellow cast member Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, to have an asteroid named after him. The 70-year-old actor, who's most recently appeared on the immensely popular “Heroes” TV series as “hero” Hiro Nakamura's father, said he was “blown away” by the honor. "It came out of the clear blue sky, just like an asteroid,” he said, adding, "I am now a heavenly body.” ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com