“NewsWrap" for the week ending March 22, 2008 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,043, distributed 3-24-08) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Rick Watts and Sheri Lunn The International Lesbian and Gay Association - or ILGA - has called off its 24th World Conference, which was to be held in Canada's Quebec City from May 14th to 18th. ILGA is the world's premier international queer advocacy group. It's a 30-year-old federation of more than 600 LGBT organizations - and associated members, such as city governments - from some 90 countries. The Coalition Gaie et Lesbienne du Québec was the primary organizer of May's World Conference. While acknowledging that new leadership there “took over this challenging task at a late date,” ILGA's board co-chairs said in a statement this week that a recent site visit “confirmed [a] current lack of preparedness... and the lack of funding necessary for the Conference to take place." They also noted that “participation from the Global South through scholarships would have been very limited, at best, and this is a fundamental component of an ILGA World Conference.” The co-chairs said they hope that the Conference can be rescheduled, and issued "a formal call for new proposals from ILGA member organizations for hosting the World Conference later this year." They emphasized, however, that any local organizer must take on significant responsibility for paying for the gathering because "ILGA does not have the capacity to fully fund the Conference." Meanwhile, the mayors of the Latvian capital of Riga and the Estonian capital of Tallinn have refused to take part in a European campaign affirming freedom of assembly and expression for LGBT people. Pride events in both cities have been violently attacked by skinheads and religious fundamentalists in recent years. The European branch of ILGA wanted the leaders of those cities to join 19 others in Europe who've declared their support for the initiative. They include the mayors of Paris, Nicosia, Amsterdam, London, Stockholm, Barcelona, Venice, Vienna, Copenhagen, Budapest, Zürich, Berlin, and Dublin. But the openly gay mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, won easy reelection on March 16th. He's become a popular political figure, not only in Paris but across the country, particularly with the poor and middle classes. French President Nicolas Sarkozy's party lost majorities in several towns and cities in this week's balloting, including conservative Strasbourg. A growing number in Delanoë's Socialist Party see him as the strongest candidate to defeat Sarkozy in the next election, scheduled for 2012. If that happens, Delanoë would become the world's first openly lesbian or gay national head of state. A New York City gay activist and his husband are demanding a meeting with Polish President Lech Kaczynski after becoming unwilling poster boys in the infamously homophobic leader's campaign against the European Union's proposed Charter of Fundamental Rights. It would be legally binding on E.U. institutions, such as the European Court of Justice, as part of the new Reform Treaty endorsed by the E.U. heads of government in Lisbon. Kaczynski showed a photo of Brendan Fay's Canadian wedding to Thomas Moulton in a nationally televised address this week, claiming that the proposed Charter could force the legalization of same-gender marriage in the devoutly Catholic country. It wasn't clear how the photo was obtained. Fay and Moulton said they were shocked to find themselves caught up in the controversy when they were inundated with calls from media around the world. Fay told the Times of London that “It came totally and utterly out of the blue.” He accused Kaczynski of “demeaning and insulting... our civil marriage contract in a way that dishonored the love and commitment of others like us around the world. For us... it's not so much the personal effect as it is the message, particularly to young people in Poland.” Fay also went on Polish radio and television to emphasize that he and Moulton are themselves Catholic, and that they met at Sunday Mass. He also sent a formal protest letter to the Polish Consul-General in New York saying that “We are frustrated to hear that images from such a joyous day are used to spread intolerance... We would never have agreed to permit our photographs as part of a homophobic campaign.” The Consul-General has reportedly agreed to meet with the pair in the coming week. Almost 300 people gathered outside the state capitol in Oklahoma City this week to protest the horrendously homophobic comments of Republican state representative Sally Kern [sound:] “The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation... I honestly think it's the biggest threat, even more so than terrorists...” - remarks you heard in full last week on “This Way Out”. But the Oklahoma lawmaker is standing by them. She told the “Associated Press” that "I see no reason to apologize for what God says, that homosexuality is a sin,” and complained that “They are trying to vilify me." She said she's received more than 30,000 e-mail messages, some of them threatening, and that someone had harassed her husband, who's a Baptist minister. But Rob Howard of the queer advocacy Cimarron Alliance Foundation of Oklahoma told the protestors that "Hateful speech leads to hate crimes." He and other speakers renewed calls for passage of a state hate crimes law. Kern's remarks attracted international attention earlier this month after they were recorded and posted on YouTube by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. And comments by the Vice President of Policy at the notoriously anti-queer Family Research Council are drawing attention this week. Discussing the Uniting American Families Act, a bill in Congress to allow U.S. gays and lesbians to sponsor their foreign partners' immigration, just as bi-national heterosexual couples do, Peter Sprigg told a reporter for the “Medill Reports” at Northwestern University that [sound:] "We oppose this bill because... it's part of an assault on the definition of family... I would much prefer to export homosexuals from the United States than to import them into the United States, because we believe homosexuality is destructive to society." Rachel B. Tiven of Immigration Equality, a national group working to end LGBT discrimination in U.S. immigration law, said those remarks supported “the forced exile of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender American citizens... Rhetoric that endorses the removal or eradication of any group is simply intolerable.” The most recent U.S. census, which is 8 years old, counted almost 36,000 households headed by same-gender couples where one partner was not an American citizen. Hundreds of lesbigay couples have been forced to leave their U.S. homes and move to one of the 19 countries that do recognize bi-national same-gender relationships. The Uniting American Families Act has gone nowhere in Congress, and isn't likely to as long as George W. Bush is president. We've been reporting in recent weeks about several queer asylum cases around the world. New stories surfaced this week about a 19-year-old gay Syrian requesting asylum in Scotland, and an 18-year-old gay Cameroonian seeking refuge in Switzerland. A deportation order was issued against Syrian gay teen Jojo Jako Yakob after he was arrested in Scotland for possession of a fake Belgian passport and placed in a detention facility. His lawyers say his asylum application was mishandled by authorities. Yakob told reporters that he fled Syria two years ago after being arrested for distributing anti-government leaflets, and surviving severe abuse at the hands of police and prison guards after they discovered that he's gay. He said he was beaten so badly that he fell into a 20-day coma. He escaped to Lebanon soon after he was released from the hospital, and eventually made his way into Scotland. Yakob will appear before a full immigration hearing in Glasgow on May 7th to determine his fate. And according to a report this week on the British queer Web site “PinkNews,” Switzerland is due to return a Cameroonian teenager to his home country, where he could face prison and physical abuse. 18-year-old Anatole Zali arrived in Switzerland from the West African country in February and immediately sought asylum. He told authorities that he hid at his cousin's home after police officials threatened his life because he's gay. He said his cousin was then arrested on suspicion of being gay. Zali fled to Switzerland after an arrest warrant was issued for him. His appeal for asylum was denied in mid-February. Under Swiss law, however, asylum-seekers are not given state-funded legal assistance, and Zali had to submit all of his asylum papers without legal representation. Amnesty International argues that Switzerland has obligations under international law to give him access to a fair and thorough asylum process, and to not return anyone to a country where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations. Organizers of a campaign on Zali's behalf are urging Swiss authorities not to deport him to Cameroon, where he's likely to face arrest - and homophobic violence - because of his sexual orientation. But finally, a Tel Aviv family court has ordered the registration of a gay couple as the fathers of a five-year-old boy, and the Israeli government has agreed to do so. One of the men, Avi Shadiv, adopted the boy four years ago in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. His longtime partner Giora Shavit had applied to Israel's Interior Ministry to be registered as the boy's second father. The Ministry refused, and the couple then went to court. The landmark ruling in their favor makes them the first gay male couple in the country to win a lawsuit seeking joint adoption. It's the latest in a series of legal victories for gay and lesbian couples in Israel. Last year the country's Supreme Court ruled that the government must register - though not necessarily recognize - the marriages of same-gender couples who wed in countries where they're legal. Israeli courts have also ruled in favor of lesbian couples where one had conceived a child in vitro and the other wanted to be listed as co-parent. Shavit told the “Jerusalem Post” of his successful adoption case that "I wanted to become a father to him in every sense of the word... Of course,” he added, “I know that this will affect other decisions regarding gay and lesbian couples in the future." ************** Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL Home. (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15?ncid=aolhom00030000000001)