“NewsWrap" for the week ending February 9, 2008 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,037, distributed 2-11-08) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Leigh Moore and Bridgette Strong Police in Senegal this week detained a group of men, and then released at least some of them, after making mass arrests in the capital city of Dakar on charges of homosexuality. The actions began soon after the publication in a popular gossip magazine of several men's photos at what is being called a “gay wedding”. According to different media outlets, from 5 to 7 men were released, one reportedly a French national, but up to 20 may have been arrested, and some could still be in jail. Police have not said how many other men, if any, are being held. A spokesperson told the pro-government “Le Soleil” newspaper that those arrested were questioned over "gross indecency and marriage against nature." Authorities stressed that their release does not mean that charges have been dropped against any of the men, and said that police are still searching for several others who may have fled the country. Senegal is one of the few African nations originally colonized by France that still criminalizes homosexuality. Sex between consenting same-gender adults is punishable by up to five years in prison. Religious leaders in the predominantly Muslim country have repeatedly warned against "enemies of the faith and of morality." International human rights groups are urging the government to release any remaining detainees and drop the investigation. Six men were also arrested earlier this month at a party organized through a gay Web site in India. According to the “Times of India,” police got an anonymous tip, planted an undercover officer at the party's farmhouse location, and then conducted the raid. The story said that condoms and bottles were impounded. The Web site had advertised the party as a birthday celebration for the host, and the “Times” said that about 82 people had signed up for the event, which charged an admission fee. Police noted that the host's birthday was not, in fact, on the day of the party, but the official charge was possessing alcohol without a permit. All those arrested were released when a magistrate refused to allow the police to keep them behind bars. Ashok Row Kavi of the queer equality group Humsafar Trust said that "There's something objectionable in the way the police - instead of going after terrorists and thieves - are going after innocent people. Besides,” he added, “carrying condoms isn't a sin." In Australia, condoms were hopefully carried, “just in case” this week, as an estimated four thousand people marched in Melbourne's 13th Queer Pride Parade. The traditional Dykes on Bikes and more than a thousand athletes from the just-concluded Asia Pacific Outgames headed the procession, followed by several colorful floats and marching units. A police band marched for the first time. Celebrants capped the parade with a concert in Catani Gardens. Martin Foley, a lawmaker from Albert Park, read a message from recently elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd saying that his government would "continue to march towards tolerance, respect and diversity". Whether or not the Rudd administration is merely marching in place remains to be seen. His government is balking at civil unions legislation in the Australian Capital Territory that would allow same-gender couples to hold public ceremonies celebrating their big day. The territorial government announced plans in November to reintroduce civil unions legislation, which had twice been overridden by the former Liberal Party government of John Howard. Rudd's new Labor government said at the time that it was not opposed in principle to the bill. But Attorney General Robert McClelland told the “Australian” newspaper this week that the public ceremonies were “inappropriate.” A.C.T. Attorney General Simon Corbell told the paper, however, that "We will stand by our commitment to our community for the legal option for a ceremony - that is our position." Rudd's government is not saying whether it will exercise its ability to override the territory if the civil unions bill is passed as proposed, but warns that it must uphold federal legislation passed in 2004 limiting marriage in Australia to heterosexual couples. Meanwhile, in Sydney, Anglican Bishop Peter Jensen announced this week that he and the five regional bishops in his diocese will be boycotting the Church's once-a-decade global gathering in England known as the Lambeth Conference. Jensen vocally opposed the 2003 ordination by the Episcopal Church - the Anglican wing in the U.S. - of openly gay and partnered Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. He's also railed against same-gender unions. Jensen said he's taking the action because other Church leaders with a more liberal view of homosexuality have also been invited to Lambeth. Leading anti-queer Nigerian Bishop Peter Akinola had earlier announced that his Anglican bishops, along with those in Uganda and Rwanda, would also be boycotting the Conference. But virtually every other Australian bishop criticized Jensen's statement, and said they would not be attending an alternative "Futures" gathering in June being organized by Jensen and Akinola in Jerusalem for conservative Anglican bishops shortly before the Lambeth Conference is scheduled to convene. The Anglican Primate of Australia, Phillip Aspinall, told reporters that "I think the only way we can really address issues of deep difference in the life of the Church is to come together, pray together, study the scriptures and speak openly with each other. That some bishops seem willing to forgo this important opportunity is disappointing." In another part of the Anglican world, two churchgoers were assaulted when a group of men loyal to a defecting bishop in Zimbabwe's capital city of Harare tried to prevent his successor from being installed. Bishop Nolbert Kunonga was ousted when he quit the Church over his traditionalist views of homosexuality. He attempted to establish his own dissident congregation by seizing the Cathedral of St. Mary and All Saints and its contents. But Zimbabwe's highest court ruled in late January that the local synod was within its rights to remove Kunonga, and that the property belonged to the Anglican Church, not the former bishop and his followers. Prior to the scheduled installation of the new bishop, Sebastian Bakare, Kunonga and his followers barricaded themselves inside the Cathedral. When two representatives of Bakare tried to gain access they were badly beaten. Kunonga announced from the pulpit last December that he was leaving the Anglican synod, claiming that senior bishops supported homosexuality. He echoed notorious comments by Zimbabwe's rabidly homophobic President Robert Mugabe that gays and lesbians are "worse than dogs and pigs." Bakare's installation went ahead this week, but not at the Cathedral. The ceremony was held instead at a local football arena. In other news, a New York appeals court has ruled that the state must recognize a lesbian couple's Canadian marriage. The Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court this week reversed a lower court judge's 2006 ruling that a community college in the city of Rochester didn't have to extend spousal health benefits to an employee's lesbian partner, even though the two had legally married in Canada. The state legislature “may decide to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages solemnized abroad,” the ruling said. “Until it does so, however, such marriages are entitled to recognition in New York.” The New York Civil Liberties Union called it “the first known decision in the country to hold that a valid same-sex marriage must be recognized.” Patricia Martinez and Lisa Ann Golden formalized their relationship in a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2001, and married in Canada in 2004. But Martinez's employer, Monroe Community College, refused to extend health care coverage to Golden because its contract with the Civil Service Employees Association didn't address benefits for same-gender couples. The contract has since been expanded to extend that coverage to domestic partners. The Appellate decision would seem to require the recognition throughout the state of valid same-gender marriages conducted elsewhere -- presumably including those in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It was not clear, however, if the ruling would be appealed. A long-awaited date has been set for oral arguments before the California Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the state's ban on same-gender marriage. The Court announced this week that it will hear three hours of arguments on March 4th in San Francisco. The judges will then have 90 days to issue a ruling. The legislature approved the marriage ban in 1977, and voters reaffirmed it in a 2000 ballot measure. The plaintiffs in several consolidated cases include the city of San Francisco - which fueled the controversy when it briefly conducted marriages for same-gender couples in 2004 - along with the state's major queer advocacy group, Equality California, and several same-gender couples who were denied marriage licenses. They're being opposed by the California Attorney General, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and conservative groups who argue that only voters can overturn the existing marriage statutes. Marriage equality cases are also pending in Connecticut and Iowa. And finally, Brazil's world-famous Carnivale wrapped up this week - marking the beginning of Lent in what may be the world's largest Roman Catholic country - with a queer extravaganza on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. That wasn't before the city's biggest of several Carnivale controversies: an entry in one parade had planned to feature naked Holocaust victims and a dancing Hitler on its float with the theme of "It Gives You Goosebumps." After a Jewish group won a court order banning the depiction, organizers protested with a float topped by white-gowned men and women wearing gags. According to a report by the “Associated Press”, and with the streets already littered with feathers and sequins after five days of partying, thousands of onlookers applauded the Carnivale-capping Gala Gay Ball, as men in glittering miniskirts, evening dresses, bead-studded lingerie and feathered headdresses samba'd down a wide avenue in a party that would last until dawn - to the appropriate sounds of ABBA's "Dancing Queen." ************** Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music. (http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp00300000002548)