“NewsWrap" for the week ending May 10, 2008 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,050, distributed 5-12-08) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Leigh Moore and Greg Gordon Lawmakers in the Australian Capital Territory, or A-C-T, which administers the federal capital Canberra, passed a watered-down version this week of a bill granting legal recognition to registered same-gender couples. A civil unions proposal that included a legal ceremony was rejected by the federal government, which can overrule territorial legislation, because the administration of Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it too closely resembled marriage. The territory's Attorney General, Simon Corbell, accused the federal government of pandering to the Christian right. The law passed by the territory's Legislative Assembly - which Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said “is not the outcome the A-C-T government wanted” - allows gay and lesbian couples to officially register their relationships, but does not require ceremonies, and is similar to registries already in force in the states of Tasmania and Victoria. A-C-T Attorney-General Corbell told the “Australian Associated Press” that registered partners will gain access to superannuation, social security, tax breaks, and other benefits that heterosexual couples take for granted. "Although we have been unable to provide gay and lesbian couples the opportunity to affirm their relationship in a legally-recognized public ceremony,” he said, “this is a historic moment on the inevitable path towards removing discrimination." The A-C-T becomes the third of Australia's eight states and territories to extend some form of legal recognition to same-gender relationships. The Rudd Government last week announced plans to reform about 100 federal laws that financially discriminate against same-gender couples, but stressed its continuing opposition to marriage equality or civil union legislation. Britain's House of Lords this week passed a watered-down version of a bill making it a crime to incite hate violence based on sexual orientation. Passage of the measure was only assured by including a Conservative Party amendment that allows people to use a religious or free speech defense if they're charged under the measure. Ben Summerskill of the country's leading queer advocacy group Stonewall called it “another historic step towards legal equality,” but told the “Pinknews.com” Web site that "We will push the government before the offence is finally introduced to minimize the impact of this exclusion.” Meanwhile, the newly elected Conservative Party Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has appointed openly gay London Assembly member Richard Barnes to serve as a Deputy Mayor. Brian Coleman, another openly gay Tory lawmaker, has been appointed to lead the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. Sir Simon Milton, leader of Westminster Council, who was knighted in 2006 and last year contracted a civil partnership with his long-term partner, becomes a Senior Adviser on Planning. Mayor Johnson has said he plans to attend this year's Pride event in London. In the U.S., voters in Falls Church, Virginia this week elected the state's first Black openly gay or lesbian candidate to public office. The political advocacy group Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund reported that Democrat Lawrence Webb narrowly won election to the Falls Church City Council, placing third in the race for three seats, and finishing ahead of the fourth-place candidate by just 39 votes. Incumbents won the other two seats. "I... hope my election opens the door for others to get involved in public service," Webb said in a statement. "It doesn't matter if you're gay or Black or both. What matters is your dedication to building a better community and your willingness to work hard at it." But the Michigan Supreme Court ruled this week that no matter how hard they work, gays and lesbians employed by local governments and state universities aren't entitled to health insurance coverage for their domestic partners. The 5-to-2 ruling said that the state's ban on same-gender marriage also prohibits domestic partner benefits for public sector employees. The law, approved by voters 59-to-41 percent in 2004, defines the relationship of one man and one woman as the only union recognized as a marriage "or similar union for any purpose." Justice Stephen Markman, writing for the majority - all Republicans - said that while marriages and domestic partnerships aren't the same, they are “similar”. Dissenting Justice Marilyn Kelly asserted that the constitutional amendment prohibits only same-gender marriages or similar unions. "It is an odd notion,” she wrote, “to find that a union that shares only one of the hundreds of benefits that a marriage provides is a union similar to marriage." Some 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments in Michigan have domestic partner benefit policies in force, covering at least 375 same-gender couples. The ruling's impact on those couples is not yet clear. But the highest court in New York, the Court of Appeals, this week refused to hear a case challenging a lower court ruling that marriages of same-gender couples wed in jurisdictions where they're legal must be recognized in the state. The case involved a word processing supervisor at a community college who was denied health benefits for her lesbian partner, even though they had legally married in Canada. Executive Director Alan Van Capelle of the Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's largest LGBT rights group, said in a statement that "Until a law is passed by the New York State Legislature, there will always be the possibility that another court decision could undo [this ruling] and strip away from otherwise legally married same-sex couples all of the 1324 state-based rights and responsibilities that come with a marriage license in New York." The Democrat-controlled New York State Assembly passed marriage equality legislation last June, with the support of both the previous and current Democratic governors. But the Republican-controlled Senate has refused to take up the bill. A state commission examining Vermont's civil union law submitted its report to the legislature late last month but made no recommendations on revising the law to allow for same-gender marriage. The Vermont Commission on Family Recognition and Protection, chaired by former Republican state Representative Tom Little, described months of hearings it held throughout the state, where same-gender couples complained that employers, hospitals and insurance companies have not recognized their civil unions as equivalent to marriage. Little, who chaired the House Judiciary Committee when it passed the state's civil union law in 2000, said his Commission purposely decided not to include recommendations in the report. "That's a decision for Vermont's elected officials," he said. Queer-supportive state legislators have signaled the introduction of a marriage equality bill - but not until after the November elections. A similar measure is reportedly percolating in Maryland. New Jersey, Connecticut and New Hampshire also have civil union laws. Lawmakers in New Jersey and Connecticut have heard similar discrimination complaints from civilly united same-gender couples. Massachusetts is the only state where lesbian and gay couples can legally marry, although federal law doesn't recognize them. The California Supreme Court is expected to issue a marriage equality ruling in a few weeks. Similar cases are pending in Connecticut and Iowa state courts. In other news, the Director of Tourism on the Cayman Islands has issued a formal apology to a gay American tourist who was detained this week by an off duty police officer for kissing his boyfriend on a nightclub dance floor. While homosexual acts between consenting adults were decriminalized in the British Overseas Territory by a U.K. Order in Council in December 2000, there are laws in the Penal Code and the Towns and Communities Law that make the public displays of affection by two people of the same gender a crime, especially if it causes distress or disturbance to other members of the public. But Tourism Director Pilar Bush wrote to 23-year-old Massachusetts resident Aaron Chandler describing his treatment as an "isolated incident," and “to assure you that the Cayman Islands is a welcoming jurisdiction to all people." Tourism represents about 70 percent of the Caribbean island's Gross Domestic Product. The Web site of the nation's largest newspaper, the “Caymanian Compass,” crashed earlier in the week because of the high number of hits it received after news about the incident spread across the Internet. And finally, a heart-warming children's story about a real-life penguin family with two fathers has once again topped the right wing's hit list of library books. “And Tango Makes Three,” released in 2005 and co-written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, was, according to the American Library Association, the most “challenged” book in public schools and libraries for the second straight year. It defines a “challenge” as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” “And Tango Makes Three” is based on the true tale of Roy and Silo, a male penguin couple in New York City's Central Park Zoo who foster a chick named Tango - a story that, ironically, opponents charge is an attack on “family values.” Other books on the American Library Association's latest 10 most challenged list include Maya Angelou's memoir “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” because she writes about being raped as a young girl; Mark Twain's “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” long attacked for alleged racism; and Philip Pullman's “The Golden Compass,” in which a former nun says, “The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake.” The number of reported library challenges did drop from 546 in 2006 to 420 last year. But, the library group said, at least 65 challenges in 2007 led to a book being banned. They also noted that for every challenge listed, about four to five are never reported. ************** Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight? Get new twists on family favorites at AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001)