“NewsWrap" for the week ending April 19, 2008 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,047, distributed 4-21-08) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Erica Springer and Tanya Kane-Parry Colombia's Constitutional Court has decided that same-gender couples should be given the same government pension and health benefits as heterosexual married partners. This week's ruling said that denying those benefits to gay and lesbian couples would violate the principles of non-discrimination and human dignity protected by international law. The same court ruled last year that same-gender couples were entitled to the same property rights as heterosexual couples. In that case the Court carefully noted that full legal recognition of same-gender couples, such as through civil unions, was the province of legislators. Colombia's Congress then provisionally passed a bill giving same-gender couples most of the same rights as heterosexual married couples. President Alvaro Uribe said he would sign the measure into law. But it died in a procedural move after the South American country's powerful Roman Catholic Church warned lawmakers that the bill violated Vatican policy, and that they could be denied the sacraments for supporting it. Italy has taken a major swing to the right, and the country's LGBT community is bracing for possible repercussions. The party of 71-year-old former Prime Minister and conservative media magnate Silvio Berlusconi won a convincing victory in last week's parliamentary elections. With close ties to the Vatican, Berlusconi has been a staunch opponent of LGBT equality. Thanks to the support of right-wing allies - including an anti-immigrant and small neo-fascist parties - Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party will reportedly enjoy a comfortable majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Pioneering transgender legislator Vladimir Luxuria was among several progressives to lose reelection bids. Berlusconi's 2001-through-2006 years as Prime Minister were Italy's longest since the end of World War II, before he was ousted by the left-of-center and generally queer-supportive Romano Prodi. Prodi's contentious 9-party coalition government, ranging from Communist to Vatican-affiliated, disintegrated late last year. A divisive attempt to enact civil partnership legislation, which Prodi had promised during his campaign, was seen as a significant factor in the coalition's collapse. Berlusconi will now lead Italy's 63rd government since 1945. And in what some Italian LGBT activists fear is a signal of things to come, a mob of young people late this week burst into Rome's LGBT center, the Merio Mieli Homosexual Cultural Circle. They shouted anti-gay and anti-Semitic slogans, and support for Benito Mussolini, Italy's World War II-era dictator, as they ransacked the building. There were no injuries reported among those who were at the center during the melee, and police say they're searching for the perpetrators. Meanwhile, police have raided the offices of the Lambda Istanbul Cultural Center, the largest LGBT civil rights organization in Turkey, for the second time this year. A dozen police officers had a search warrant claiming that the center was suspected of being a business that "facilitates prostitution, acts as a go-between [and] provides a place for [prostitution]," which are violations of Article 227 of Turkey's Penal Code. The officers took a list of Lambda Istanbul's members and other organizational documents during a two-hour search of the building. The raid took place just days before a court hearing in a case against Lambda Istanbul brought by the Istanbul Governor's Office, which accuses the group of violating Turkish "moral values and its family structure." Human Rights Watch director of LGBT Programs Scott Long said in a statement that "What's really immoral is the Istanbul authorities' campaign against Lambda Istanbul for protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people." Human Rights Watch is also condemning a police raid on Labrys and its LGBT community center in Kyrgyzstan. Human Right Watch says it's also the second time that that group has been targeted. Labrys was hosting a dinner at the center for local and international LGBT rights groups on April 8th when three officers entered without a warrant, first threatening to arrest anyone without identification. Citizens in the central Asian country aren't required to carry a passport or an identity card, but critics say that police often use I.D. checks to humiliate and arbitrarily arrest people. The officers then searched desks and opened private locked files at the center, which since its February 2008 opening has also served as a shelter for transgender people and women who've been victims of violence. According to a Labrys spokesperson, police demanded to see the group's registration documents, rent statements, and other organizational information. Human Rights Watch's Scott Long called it "an outrage that police can barge into a building for no reason, threaten people, and search private files." Following reports here and elsewhere of a police crackdown on gay bathhouses in Beijing - said to be tied to a “clean up” prior to the upcoming Olympic Games - a posting on a Singaporean gay e-mail list charges that a similar operation is under way in Shanghai. "Three or four of the major clubs have been closed by the police following raids," the report said. “Not sure if this is a sign of things to come." Other recent alleged police actions against gay men in Beijing include a bar raid and temporary closure, crackdowns in cruisy parks, and arrests of sex workers tracked down via their Web postings. Updating our report last week, an official at the European Broadcasting Union reports being given "a guarantee for the safety of delegations, press, and fans issued by the President of Serbia" for people attending the annual Eurovision Song Contest, being held this year in Belgrade. Several Serbian media outlets have reported that "thousands" of gay and lesbian people are coming to Belgrade for the popular televised event next month. But a local official told reporters that "We are not organizing their arrival, therefore we can not take care of their security." Human rights activists have raised concerns that Westerners in general may be victimized by violent nationalist rightwing elements in the country. Gay men are a specific target, according to the president of the fascist organization Obraz in the pages of the daily newspaper “ALO!” last week. The story referred to the continent-wide Eurovision competition as "gay youth day." But in the U.S., leaders of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have agreed to meet with the LGBT Mormon group Affirmation in August, according to a report in the “Salt Lake Tribune”. The first-ever meeting was said to have been authorized by the Church's new President, Thomas S. Monson. Affirmation's Assistant Executive Director, Dave Melson, told the “Tribune” that they hope to discuss such problems as lesbigay Mormons being kicked out of their homes for coming out, being told to marry someone of the opposite sex to stay in the Church's good graces, and being expelled from Brigham Young University for going to gay bars. Also in Utah, same-gender and heterosexual domestic partners began registering their relationships in Salt Lake this week. The City Council unanimously approved the registry in February, but the measure ran into trouble with the legislature over its name. The state House approved the ordinance earlier this month with assurances that it wouldn't be called a domestic partner registry, which some lawmakers said violated a state constitutional amendment banning same-gender marriage. It's therefore called a “mutual commitment registry,” and is open to adult unmarried couples who live together in an interdependent relationship. The registry had been a campaign promise by Mayor Ralph Becker. His spokesperson said that the resulting certificate could be used to demonstrate eligibility for domestic partner health insurance at companies that offer such benefits. Registered couples also have visitation rights at city hospitals when a partner is ill, and are entitled to family rates at facilities operated by the city. The first couple to register was Lisa LeDuc and Brandie Balken, who've been together for seven years. Balken told the “Salt Lake Tribune” that "It's not every day you get to be a gay celebrity." And finally, two more “gay celebrities” officially exited the closet this week. As one wag asked, “Hath hell frozen over?” 21-year-old Azariah Southworth, the producer and host of the popular Christian youth TV show “The Remix,” has publicly announced that he's gay. "This has been a long time coming,” he told the Nashville-based publication “Out and About”. “I'm in a place where I'm at peace with my faith, friends, family, and more importantly myself." Expressing uncertainty about his TV future, he said that "I know I will be cut off from many within the Christian community, [but] I believe by me living my life honestly and authentically now, I am able to be a better person and a better Christian.” “The Remix,” a syndicated music show featuring popular Christian performers, is seen on three networks in more than 128 million homes worldwide. Also coming out this week, in the pages of Toronto's “Globe and Mail” newspaper, was 28-year-old Canadian-born actor Luke MacFarlane, a regular on the U.S. ABC-TV series “Brothers & Sisters”. MacFarlane says he chose to come out now because his gay character on the show, “Scotty Wandell,” exchanges vows with another character, “Kevin Walker,” in next month's season finale. He also told the newspaper that he might like to get married someday, although he declined to say whether or not he currently has a boyfriend. Editor Michael Jensen noted on the “AfterElton.com” Web site that “Neil Patrick Harris and T. R. Knight, two of television's other out gay actors, both play heterosexuals... MacFarlane's coming out marks the first time an out actor on network television has played such a prominent gay role." ************** Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car listings at AOL Autos. (http://autos.aol.com/used?NCID=aolcmp00300000002851)