“NewsWrap"
for the 2 weeks ending December 1, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,027, distributed 12-3-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley]

Reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and Bridgette Strong

  Homophobic John Howard became only the second Prime Minister in Australian history to lose his own Parliamentary seat as the former opposition Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd, scored an overwhelming victory in national elections November 24th.  That ended the 11-year rule of Howard's oxymoronically named Liberal Party.
How much more queer-friendly a Labor government will be remains to be seen.  Rudd is opposed to marriage equality, but promised during the campaign that a Labor government would implement most of the recommendations of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, which in June urged changes to 58 national laws that discriminate against same-gender couples.
In a press release celebrating Howard's undoing, Rod Swift of the Australian Coalition for Equality wrote that, "Our job will be to keep Labor to its promises, and to ensure it fulfills the great hopes it has raised for reform."

  The outgoing Howard government pushed through a federal law in 2004 defining marriage as exclusively heterosexual, and twice quashed legislation in the Australian Capital Territory to create civil unions for lesbigay couples.  Incoming Attorney General Robert McClelland told reporters that Labor is unlikely to block a third attempt.  The state of Tasmania has had a same-gender partnership law since 2004.
One analyst said the election results in Australia demonstrate a deep shift in societal attitudes during the last decade.  “Howard worked to enshrine a traditional view of the family, to reassert a white Australian identity, and the role of the churches," wrote Dr. Lindy Edwards of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University.  "More than half of Australians under 50 [now] consider a gay couple with children to be a family.  More Australians believe government should do more to help Aboriginal people... It appears to be part of a general increase in Australians' commitment to equality and justice.”

  But dozens of anti-queer protestors from churches and mosques across Uganda staged a noisy demonstration on November 24th as the Queen opened the summit of the Commonwealth heads of government in Kampala.  They accused Western countries of spreading homosexuality throughout Africa.  The Interfaith Rainbow Coalition Against Homosexuality in Uganda claimed in a statement that "Developed countries in the Commonwealth legalized homosexuality and influenced the poor states."  Neither the Queen, nor the heads of government from the 48 former British colonies that make up the Commonwealth, reportedly saw the demonstration.
Earlier in the week an international group of activists and their supporters called the Commonwealth People's Forum on LGBT Rights issued a list of recommendations to the assembled leaders, including the abolition of sodomy laws in countries such as Uganda and India, ending state sanctioned brutality against sexual minorities, and the recognition of same-gender relationships.
But Ugandan cabinet minister Nsaba Buturo told reporters that “Homosexuality has no room in this country.”
Last month Uganda's leading Muslim cleric proposed to President Yoweri Museveni that homosexuals be rounded up and marooned on an island in Lake Victoria until they die.
Male homosexuality is illegal in Uganda under laws originally established by the British colonizers in the nineteenth century.  Offenders face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Anti-queer attacks - both verbal and physical - are commonplace in Uganda, but have been on the rise since August, when several representatives of LGBT groups held a first-ever public news conference to demand basic civil rights.  Fearing government reprisals, many wore disguises.

  But Uruguay's lower house passed legislation on November 29th to create civil unions for same-gender and heterosexual couples.  That bill, and a similar measure passed earlier in the Senate, must be reconciled into a single law for a final vote.  Unless unanticipated backsliding occurs, passage is considered to be only a formality.  The measure - a campaign promise of the ruling leftist coalition - is expected to become law before the end of the year.
Couples would have to have been together for at least five years and sign a registry, which would entitle them to pension, inheritance and parenting rights.
Same-gender marriage will remain illegal in Uruguay, something LGBT rights groups say they will continue to fight.  But, they say, the civil unions bill is a step in the right direction in a region traditionally dominated by the Roman Catholic Church.
Buenos Aires approved the continent's first civil unions law in 2002, and the neighboring Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul passed similar legislation two years later.  Civil unions also became legal in Mexico City and the state of Coahuila this year.
Uruguay is poised to become the first country in Latin America to have a national civil unions law.

  Meanwhile, about 25,000 people marched in the 16th LGBT Pride parade in Buenos Aires on November 17th.  This year's theme was "Our Celebration Is a Demand: Freedom, Equality, Diversity."
Organizers and marchers called for marriage equality -- not just the civil unions available only in the capital -- and for new laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Argentina's incoming President Cristina Kirchner has reportedly expressed support for a national civil unions law.

  Some 300 people joined the 4th LGBT Equality March in Poznan -- Poland's fifth-largest city -- on the same day.  They were protected by about 400 police officers.
A similar march was banned in 2005.  Activists took to the streets anyway, and were pursued by members of All Polish Youth chanting, "Let's gas the fags."  When police ordered the marchers to halt, many sat down in the street, and at least 70 of them were aggressively arrested.  A parade was allowed in 2006 following harsh criticism from the European Union and rulings by Polish courts that the 2005 ban was illegal.
Anti-queer protesters at this year's event were limited to what one organizer called "a few ... football hooligans."  Politicians from leftist parties took part in the celebration.  This year's Pride events also included parties, movies, art exhibits, lectures, a concert, and an auction.

  But progressive Polish activists have expressed dismay over their newly-elected government's refusal to sign on to the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights.  In a TV debate during the campaign, now-Prime Minister Donald Tusk had pledged to sign the Charter, which broadly mirrors the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, and could have offered lesbigay people in Poland the possibility of some basic civil rights protections.
Former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski had refused to endorse the Charter, claiming that his country was "culturally different" from its E.U. partners, especially regarding the rights of LGBT people and the use of the death penalty.
In his first address to the Polish parliament last week, Tusk said he would honor the position of the previous government and join the U.K. as the only nations in the 27-member E.U. to opt out.
"In Poland,” lamented Tomasz Szypula, Secretary General of the national Campaign Against Homophobia, “there's no anti-hate speech, anti-hate crime, [or] anti-discriminatory laws which mention sexual orientation, and now there won't be the Charter of Fundamental Rights."
The Charter will become legally binding on E.U. signatories, including cases in the European Court of Justice, as part of a new Reform Treaty drafted in Lisbon in October.  It's scheduled to be formally signed in that city on December 13th.

  In other news, December 13th will also mark the debut of gay singing duo Jason and deMarco in Singapore.  A scheduled performance by the pair two years ago for Safehaven, a queer-affirming Christian support group, was banned by the authorities because, they said, “alternative lifestyles are against the public interest.”  Singapore's Media Development Authority okayed this year's “Hope” concert after being assured by organizers that its purpose is AIDS education and HIV prevention, an increasing concern that the government in the tightly-controlled city-state has been forced to address.

  A gay man in the U.S. state of Virginia, who was told in early November to remove his car license plates because they spell out the word “poofter” - British slang for gay - has now reportedly been told he can keep them.
David Phillips, who's had the plates for eleven years, told the “Washington Post” that "It's just an amusing word that I self-identify with."
The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles ordered Phillips to return the “poofter” plates because they were considered to be offensive.
Phillips told an online blog last week that the DMV phoned him and relented.  He says he still wants a formal apology from them.

  And finally, if your holiday gift shopping has hit a snag - assuming you've got the ever-elusive “disposable income” - an online company that markets decidedly-odd items may have what you're looking for [sound: "Thank you all very much, uh, for coming out today"]: a talking “action doll” of Idaho Senator Larry Craig that uses his now-infamous press conference proclamation [sound:] "I am not gay.  I never have been gay."
Craig was arrested in June by an undercover police officer in the Minneapolis airport restroom.  The officer said the senator swiped his hand under the stalls and tapped his foot next to his in a way that's often used to signal a desire for sex.  Craig has claimed that he has a “wide stance” when on the toilet, and that the officer misunderstood those motions.  But he pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge to avoid being prosecuted for lewd conduct.  He's since been trying to get his plea deal overturned, thus far unsuccessfully.
The conservative Republican, who throughout his career has voted against every LGBT civil rights measure, initially promised to resign, but later said he will finish his term, which ends in January 2009.
The talking Larry Craig doll, which stands about 12 inches tall, also wears a T-shirt with his "I am not gay" pronouncement.  The arms are "bendable,” the company says on its Web site, “so you can put him in all sorts of poses... even the famous 'wide stance' the Senator refers to."
Stupid.com sells several other unique items, including a George W. Bush countdown key chain.


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