“NewsWrap" for the 3 weeks ending January 5, 2008 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,032, distributed 1-7-08) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Bridgette Strong and Leigh Moore Nepal's Supreme Court on December 21st ordered the government to pass new laws and rewrite old ones to extend equal rights and anti-discrimination protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and intersex people. Current Nepalese law prohibits "unnatural" sex under penalty of up to two years in prison. The high court ruling came in a public-interest case filed by four queer advocacy groups. "Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex are natural persons irrespective of their masculine and feminine gender,” the Court wrote, “and they have the right to exercise their rights and live an independent life in society." Leading activist Sunil Pant of the Himalayan country's Blue Diamond Society noted that "This is the first time ever any Supreme Court has spoken [in] such a positive manner [about] gender identity issues,” while The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said the ruling “set a new standard for LGBTI rights around the world." The Court also ordered the government to form a committee to study same-gender marriage in other countries, with a view to changing Nepalese law in that area, too. Hungary's Parliament passed a civil partnership law on December 17th. The “Registered Partner Act” grants spousal rights in areas that include joint tax filing, decision-making in health care, and inheritance, social security and pensions rights to same-gender couples, or heterosexual couples who choose not to marry. The new law will not, however, allow same-gender couples to adopt or have access to fertility treatment, nor will it allow couples to share a common surname. Passage of the legislation was not a surprise. The bill was introduced by the left-of-center government in November over objections from the coalition's small Free Democratic Party that it did not go far enough. The law takes effect in January 2009. And President Tabaré Vázquez signed a bill December 27th making Uruguay the first Latin American country to grant same-gender couples access to civil unions on a national level. The legislation, which passed the Senate in September and the House of Representatives in November, took effect on January 1st. Couples must have lived together for at least five years, however, before they can take advantage of the law, which grants spousal rights in areas that include inheritance, property ownership, pensions, parenting and health care. The new law grants those rights to "two people -- whatever their sex, identity, orientation or sexual option may be -- who maintain an emotional relationship of a sexual nature [and] an exclusive, singular, stable and permanent character without being united in matrimony." Dozens of gay and lesbian couples entered into civil unions in the U.S. state of New Hampshire in the early morning hours of New Year's Day as a new law legalized those partnerships after midnight. Organizers said they counted 37 couples, bundled up in below-freezing temperatures, in the outdoor ceremony on the plaza of the New Hampshire Statehouse. The law gives same gender couples the same rights, responsibilities and obligations of marriage in the state without calling the union a marriage. Civil unions or domestic partnerships, however, aren't recognized by the federal government, or by most other states. A U.S. federal judge issued an order on December 28th preventing a domestic partnership law in Oregon from going into effect as scheduled on January 1st. Opponents asked U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman to intervene after the Oregon Secretary Of State's office ruled in October that they had failed to collect enough valid signatures on a referendum petition to block the law. He scheduled a hearing for February 1st for lawyers to argue whether elections officials wrongly threw out valid signatures that would have qualified the referendum. The measure includes benefits related to inheritance rights, child-rearing and custody, joint state tax filings, joint health, auto and homeowners insurance policies, and visitation rights at hospitals. There's likely to be an appeal, no matter how Judge Mosman rules in the case, effectively stalling the legislation from taking effect for at least several months. Hundreds of same-gender couples held protest vigils in Portland and at least six other Oregon cities this week to condemn the delay. The California Supreme Court, however, has rejected a bid to overturn a law protecting same-gender domestic partners from increased property taxes when one of them dies and the other inherits the couple's home. The state tax board ruled in 2003 that domestic partners must be treated in the same way as married couples in property inheritance, to insure that a surviving partner wouldn't lose a home due to higher single person taxes. The legislature made the rule law in 2005, but it was challenged by several Northern California property tax assessors, who claimed that the provision violated the state's Probate Code and the Family Code. Last October the California Court of Appeal upheld the law and dismissed the suit, saying that the Legislature adopted the rule for domestic partners to "guarantee equality for all Californians, regardless of gender or sexual orientation." With the high court's refusal to hear the case, no further appeals are possible. The issue of same-gender marriage is also before the Supreme Court of California. No date has been set for oral arguments in that case. In Israel, only rabbis can perform marriages. But the city of Tel Aviv has agreed to recognize same-gender and intermarried couples, as well as others not married by rabbis, for municipal-service and tax purposes. Tel Aviv will recognize "partnership cards" issued by New Family, a group working to overturn the rabbinate's stranglehold on marriage in the country. The wallet-sized cards are a formal document signed by the couple before a witnessing attorney that proves the relationship is legally binding under rules governing common-law relationships. Estimates place the number of those couples as high as 40 percent of Israeli households, with some 18,000 same-gender couples, and 250,000 couples that include at least one immigrant who is not Jewish, and therefore cannot legally marry in Israel. Attorney Irit Rosenblum, founder and chair of New Family, told the “Jerusalem Post” that the move allows couples to "transform their relationship from a 'normative' one - a common-law one - to a contractual one," while Tel Aviv City Councilman Etai Pinkas said that “the municipality has taken it upon itself to do everything in its power to grant equality." Two other cities have already done the same, and similar recognition is reportedly being considered elsewhere in Israel. Religious conservatives are threatening to introduce national legislation to ban such actions. But bowing to Papal pressure, the Rome City Council has rejected a domestic partners registry for same-gender and heterosexual couples. Registered couples would have been entitled to hospital visitation rights, family rates at city-run recreation centers, and other benefits controlled by the Council. The Vatican has vehemently opposed any measures to legally recognize same-gender couples. Italy's center-left coalition government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi was expected to fulfill one of its campaign promises last year by establishing some form of legal recognition for same-gender couples nationally, which would grant them some economic benefits, but the ruling coalition's slim majority in Parliament has put any such legislation on the back-burner. Meanwhile, in his first public address of 2008, Pope Benedict XVI for the upteenth time condemned queer couples, saying that legal recognition of any other than the union of one man and one woman “threatens the very foundation of peace.” The very foundation of the global Anglican Communion seems to be crumbling. The 77-million-member worldwide church consortium has been heading towards schism since the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire's openly gay and partnered V. Gene Robinson as a bishop in the U.S. branch, the Episcopal Church. That region's staunch support of Robinson, and the blessing of same-gender couples in several U.S. churches and by some Canadian Anglicans, have been vehemently opposed by leaders of the Communion's conservative regions, primarily in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, who cite Biblical condemnation of homosexuality. Dozens of conservative parishes and one diocese have also left the U.S. Church over its queer-friendly positions, aligning themselves instead with Anglican provinces in Africa or South America. Reversing a previous announcement that would have allowed Robinson to attend the Communion's once-a-decade Lambeth Conference this July without voting privileges, the Communion's spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in late December dis-invited Robinson, and maintained his refusal to invite Martyn Minns, who broke away from the Episcopal Church and was consecrated a Bishop by the Church of Nigeria. Their leader, Archbishop Peter Akinola, has been the Communion's major anti-queer voice. Meanwhile, Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, Australia is leading an unofficial gathering of conservative bishops this June in Jerusalem, just a month before the Lambeth Conference is scheduled to begin. Several bishops, including Nigeria's Akinola, have threatened to boycott Lambeth if the rift over homosexuality is not resolved in their favor. But finally, openly gay actor and LGBT rights activist Sir Ian McKellen, who became Britain's first openly gay knight in 1990, has been awarded another high accolade. He was named a Companion of Honor in the Queen's New Year's honors list. The order has only 65 members. It was founded by King George V to recognize leaders in the arts, science and industry. In announcing the honor, the palace hailed McKellen for his work as both an actor and a human rights activist. Best known for his roles in “X-Men” and “The Lord of the Rings,” McKellen is also a founding member of the British LGBT rights group Stonewall. "I am honored to join an Order which includes such distinguished practitioners in the arts,” McKellen said in a statement. “It is particularly pleasing that 'equality' is included in my citation." ************** Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489