“NewsWrap" for the week ending June 14, 2008 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,055, distributed 6-16-08) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Chris Wilson and Pam Marshall Norway has become the sixth country in the world to establish marriage equality for same-gender couples. Legislation requiring civil marriage terminology to be gender-neutral passed in the parliament this week by a vote of 84-to-41. A 1993 law created civil unions for gay and lesbian couples providing most of the rights of marriage, but they couldn't adopt children. The new law allows adoption, and also permits lesbians to be artificially inseminated. Norway joins Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa, Canada, and the U.S. states of Massachusetts and California to open civil marriage to same-gender couples. Gays and lesbians and their supporters staged large LGBT Pride marches this week in three European capitals where queer rights are being challenged. In Rome, about 10,000 Pride participants protested Italy's new right-of-center government and its Catholic Church allies for opposing legislation granting limited rights to same-gender couples. Attempts by the former government of Romano Prodi to pass the bill were stymied by rightwing members of his coalition and the Vatican. The legislation died when voters returned Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government to power. Rome's new right of center mayor denounced his city's Pride march as "an act of sexual exhibition". About two thousand gays and lesbians and their supporters in Athens called for legal recognition of same-gender relationships during their Pride march, many carrying signs that read "Yes to civil marriage". Police had to intervene to separate right wing protestors from march participants. Greece's conservative government has moved to annul the marriages of two same-gender couples that were conducted last week, and prosecute the small town mayor who performed them. About two thousand people attended Warsaw's second legal Pride march. The event had been banned until 2007 by former mayor Lech Kaczynski, who is now Poland's president. Queer activists took Kaczynski to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that the ban was illegal. A public opinion survey released last week, however, found that more than 60 percent of the Polish population believe homosexuality is an illness. Following a storm of protest late this week, Budapest's police chief lifted a ban he'd originally imposed on this year's Pride parade in the Hungarian capital. Gabor Toth had claimed that the parade, scheduled for July 5th, would obstruct major traffic routes. Fifteen Hungarian LGBT groups, a Hungarian member of the European Parliament, the mayor of Budapest, and the European wing of the International Lesbian and Gay Association had all denounced the decision to bar the parade. Peaceful LGBT Pride marches have been held in Budapest for several years. Some participants at last year's Pride event, however, were attacked by right wing extremists. Hungary's Registered Partnership Act granting same-gender couples many of the rights of marriage goes into effect in January. Organizers said about 375,000 people attended the annual three-day Pride festival this week in West Hollywood, California, many celebrating impending marriage equality in the Golden State. Under sunny skies, an estimated 175,000 revelers enjoyed the Pride parade on June 8th, with its usual complement of scantily clad dancers of all genders gyrating to decibel-busting beats on festively-decorated sound trucks and floats; social service, religious, political, and musical marching units; and government officials including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Aussie pop star Olivia Newton-John headlined one of the evening concerts during the Festival. About 1,500 people took part in the ninth Pride parade in Seoul, South Korea on May 31st. Starting and ending at Berlin Square, the route was the longest ever. Festivities between noon and 6 p.m. included entertainment at the Square before and after the parade. A party ran late into the night at a local club. Elsewhere, soon after Gambian President Yahya Jammeh had threatened to "cut off the head" of any homosexual in the country, police in the West African nation arrested two gay Spanish men in late May for allegedly propositioning male taxi drivers. Reports said the drivers feigned interest in the come-ons and lured the tourists to a rendezvous point secretly arranged with police officials, who arrested the men when they arrived at the location. The Spanish Embassy reported that the men were released after five days in jail and quickly left the country. A Ugandan court this week released three gay men on bond who had been arrested for protesting discrimination against sexual minorities during an international HIV/AIDS conference in the capital city of Kampala. The protesters denounced organizers for not involving them in the conference, and asked the meeting to pressure Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni into accepting them as a minority group. Museveni, however, has a long history of outspoken homophobia. The three men, charged with "criminal trespass with intention to annoy and insult participants," were among 13 gay people arrested as they staged the protest. They face a court hearing in the coming week. The others were freed for lack of evidence. A Cairo appeals court has upheld the three-year prison sentences of five Egyptian men arrested in a crackdown on people thought to be HIV-positive. Four other HIV-positive men have been jailed for a year as a result of the campaign targeting the crime of "habitual practice of debauchery". At least three other men were arrested, but then released months later when they were found to be HIV-negative. All 12 men were force-tested for HIV and subjected to anal probes to "prove" they had not engaged in sodomy. Those who tested HIV-positive were reportedly chained to hospital beds for months. Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS program at Human Rights Watch, called the jail sentences "inhuman and unjust... fear has trumped justice in a court of law." A Turkish court ordered the closure of the Lambda Istanbul Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, and Transsexual Solidarity Association in late May, citing unspecified "errors and deficiencies" in the group's bylaws. The case against the group was brought by the Istanbul governor's office, which argued that the group's name itself, and its objectives, are illegal and offend society's "moral values and family structure." The court did not rule on that claim. Lambda Istanbul, which formed in 1993 and officially registered as an association in 2006, called the action an affront to human rights, and vowed to continue its activities pending a higher appeals court ruling. Meanwhile, two more European LGBT rights organizations were narrowly recommended this week for consultative status at the United Nations. COC Netherlands and Spain's Federacion Estatal de Lesbianas, Gays, Transexuales, y Bisexuales will first be able to voice their opinions to the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council - or ECOSOC - at its next meeting in New York City in July. The ECOSOC is made up of 19 countries, and assists in providing information to the General Assembly. Both groups overcame denial of their applications for consultative status at a January meeting of the ECOSOC Non-Governmental Organization Committee. Colombia, Dominica, Israel, Peru, Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States supported granting consultative status to each group in this week's vote. China, Egypt, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, and Sudan were opposed. Representatives from Angola, Burundi, Guinea, India, Turkey, and Cuba were not present for the vote. LGBT organizations were first given consultative status in 2006. The International Lesbian and Gay Association has urged other groups to apply. The ECOSOC has now granted consultative status to five LGBT organizations. The Organization of American States - or OAS - has overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning human rights violations against LGBT people. The Resolution on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity was supported by 34 of the 35 member countries of the OAS, which “brings together the nations of the Western Hemisphere to strengthen co-operation on democratic values, defend common interests, and debate the major issues facing the region and the world.” Human Rights Watch called the anti-bias resolution "a crucial step to end the silence around violence against LGBT people in the Americas,” but cautioned that “concrete changes in law and policy must follow.” Anti-discrimination measures are currently being considered in Argentina, Brazil, Chilé, and Paraguay. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in early June became the first national leader to spearhead a conference specifically dedicated to promoting LGBT equality. He called homophobia "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head." And finally, in what she describes as “the easiest coming out experience that anyone could possibly have," Katherine Patrick, the youngest daughter of African-American Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, talked about telling her parents that she's a lesbian during an exclusive interview with the family this week in the Boston-based LGBT “Bay Windows” newspaper. The Governor said they agreed to the interview to make the news public on their own terms. “[R]ather than have someone do a 'gotcha' and our giving the misimpression that this wasn't completely natural in our family,” he said, “we thought, 'All right, let's just say it and move on.'" Katherine Patrick, who since March has been interning at the LGBT rights group MassEquality, said that when she told her father and mother about a year ago, he simply gave her a big hug, saying “Well, we love you no matter what,” as mother Diane joined in. The 18-year-old came out to them about three weeks after state lawmakers rejected putting a constitutional amendment to ban same-gender marriage before the voters. Governor Patrick supported maintaining the marriage equality law that followed the 2004 state high court ruling ordering it, and lobbied legislators to stop the proposed amendment from reaching the ballot. "He didn't know that I was gay then," Katherine told the paper. "For someone so publicly to fight for something that doesn't even affect him was just like, 'That's my dad!'" ************** Vote for your city's best dining and nightlife. City's Best 2008. (http://citysbest.aol.com?ncid=aolacg00050000000102)