“NewsWrap"
for the week ending July 26, 2008
 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,061, distributed 7-28-08)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley]

Reported this week by Leigh Moore and Jon Beaupré

  Two more LGBT groups have been given consultative status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, or ECOSOC.
C.O.C. Netherlands and the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transexuals and Bisexuals of Spain will now be allowed � as non-governmental orgaanizations, or NGO’s � to deliver oral and written reports att U.N. meetings, and to organize events there.
ECOSOC, consisting of 54 member states of the U.N., grants consultative status after reviewing recommendations of its subsidiary body � the NGO Committee � which screens the applications.
Among more than 3,000 such groups, only a handful of LGBT organizations have gained consultative status, often after the full ECOSOC overturned negative recommendations from its NGO Committee, which is typically dominated by member countries hostile to LGBT rights.
In recent years, ECOSOC has approved Danish, German, and Swedish LGBT organizations for consultative status, along with a group from the Canadian province of Quebec and the European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association.
The U.S.-based International Wages Due Lesbians and the Australian-based Coalition of Activist Lesbians have each had consultative status at the U.N. for more than a decade.
The NGO Committee is scheduled to review several additional applications from LGBT groups at its next two sessions in January and May 2009.

  Some 5,000 athletes from across Europe converged on Barcelona this week for the annual Eurogames, which were first held in 1992 in the Dutch capital of the Hague.
More than 30,000 tourists were expected to attend the Olympics-style sporting event in the Spanish port city, which is open to competitors of all sexual orientations and gender identities.  Organizers say it could boost the local economy by up to 30 million euros � almost 48 million U.S. doollars.
The 4-day event kicked off on July 24th in colorful opening ceremonies at the Palau Sant Jordi indoor sporting arena, which also hosted events during the 1992 Summer Olympic Games.  Athletes are competing in several venues around Barcelona in 28 different sports, including tennis, swimming, track and field, and basketball... but same-gender versions of ballroom dancing are also a competitive sport.  Queer conferences and cultural events are also being held in conjunction with the sports competitions.

  More than 120,000 people turned out for Vienna's 13th LGBT Pride parade on July 12th.  Organizers called for an end to discrimination in Austria and for marriage equality.

  But an attorney for the family of a California gay man who died after being shot by police during an LGBT Pride-related boat cruise in San Diego Harbor is planning to file state and federal civil rights lawsuits.
Brian Claypool said the suits will accuse San Diego Harbor Police and the two officers involved of excessive force, negligence, and civil rights violations.
Harbor Police were alerted by operators of the charter boat late in the evening on July 19th that a man had gone overboard.  37-year-old Steven Paul Hirschfield of West Hollywood was rescued, but reportedly began fighting with officers.
He allegedly grabbed a Taser from one officer and hit him in the face, and then, police officials said, Hirschfield attempted to take the officer’s handgun.  As the two struggled, a second officer shot Hirschfield.  He was pronounced dead by paramedics when the police boat docked.
But family attorney Claypool said that autopsy results showed no evidence on Hirschfield’s body that he had struggled with police prior to being shot, and that he was not the aggressor. “The way the officers handled the situation,” he said, “is consistent with individuals who have a bias or prejudice against gay people.”
A spokesperson for the Harbor Police said the department had no comment because it had not yet seen details of the lawsuit.

  A judge ruled this week that 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, who’s charged with the hate crime murder in February of 15-year-old fellow student Larry King in an Oxnard, California classroom, will be tried as an adult.  He faces 50 years to life in prison.
Several classmates20have said King would wear feminine attire, sometimes flirting with and angering other boys at the school. He was shot in the head during a morning computer class.  More than 20 other students were in the room at the time.  McInerney was arrested shortly thereafter.
His attorney fought to have the teen tried as a juvenile.  A conviction in juvenile court would have allowed him to go free at age 25.  A coalition of 27 LGBT rights groups had sided with McInerney’s lawyer and called on the district attorney not to prosecute McInerney as an adult.
But he’ll be formally arraigned � as an adult � on An August 7th.

  26-year-old physics student Ahmet Yildiz, dubbed “Turkey’s Gay Poster Boy” after he attended an international LGBT event in San Francisco last year, was shot to death late last week as he was leaving a café in Istanbul.  He tried to escape his attackers in his car, but lost control, crashed at the side of the road, and died shortly afterwards in the hospital.   Friends told reporters that he was a victim of Turkey’s first gay "honor killing."  Women have until now been the only known victims of such murders, usually by male relatives, for offending chauvinistic conservative social traditions, so Yildiz’s case may be unique.  Friends speculate that he was targeted after coming out as a gay man earlier this year.  “I never heard Ahmet have a friendly conversation with his parents," one close friend and neighbor told the “London Independent” newspaper.  "They would argue constantly, mostly about where he was, who he was with, [and] what he was doing,” he said.  “They wanted him to... see a doctor who could cure him, and get married."  Yildiz reportedly told a prosecutor five months ago that he had been receiving death threats, but no action was taken.  His boyfriend, who held a German passport, left the country soon after the shooting on the advice of the consulate.  Police claim to be investigating the case.  "He could have hidden who he was, but he wanted to live honestly," another friend told the newspaper. "When the death threats started, his boyfriend tried to persuade him to get out of Turkey.  But he stayed.  He was too brave."

  Thousands of LGBT activists from across Australia protested Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the country this week.
He’d been in Australia as part of World Youth Day, a mass gathering of adherents aimed at encouraging them to "celebrate their faith."
As pilgrims marched from Anzac Parade and Moore Park Road in Sydney on July 20th, thousands of protesters handed out condoms, and waved placards along the route with slogans like “Pope Go Homo.”
It was mostly peaceful, although a Catholic man was arrested for allegedly punching one of the protestors.  He was later released without charge.
New South Wales police officials had originally banned protes ters from attending World Youth Day events under the pretense that it was illegal to "annoy" the pilgrims.  The Australian Federal Court rejected that assertion.
Pope Benedict has since returned to Rome.

  A U.S. House panel on July 23rd heard from 5 witnesses in the first-ever Congressional hearing to consider the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”  The measure banning open gays and lesbians in the armed forces was adopted early in the Clinton administration.  Three of those testifying advocated repeal of the policy, but two others charged that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” wasn’t strong enough to prevent gays and lesbians from enlisting.
Captain Joan E. Darrah, a retired naval intelligence officer who served for 29 years, and Staff Sergeant Eric Alva, a retired marine who lost his leg as the first American injury of the Iraq War, testified about how the policy prevents qualified personnel from serving their country.
Retired heterosexual Major General Vance Coleman, an African-American who joined the Army in 1947 � one year before President Harry Truman deseggregated the military � also told the panel that "I know what it's liike to be treated like a second-class citizen."
But Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, testified with what “Washington Post” columnist Dana Milbank described as “an extraordinary exhibition of rage”.  She claimed that lesbians would take pictures of other servicewomen=2 0while they were showering, warned of “forcible sodomy,” that gay men would “spread HIV positivity” through the ranks, and that repealing the policy would allow personnel to cross-dress.
A member of the House panel, Democratic Representative Vic Snyder of Arkansas, called her statements "just bonkers" and "dumb."
Sergeant Major Brian Jones, a retired Army officer, warned that cramped wartime conditions often require "skin-to-skin contact" when soldiers must huddle to protect themselves from cold - a situation, he argued, in which "arousal" would be disastrous.
While those testifying against repeal seemed to generate more support in the committee for overturning “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, most analysts say there’s little chance that a Congressional vote will come this year, and that President Bush would likely veto a repeal measure if it passed.

  And finally, a court in Athens has rejected a lawsuit spearheaded by a male resident of Lesbos demanding that the term “lesbian” should only be legal to describe those who live on the Greek island.
The plaintiffs argued that Lesbos residents held sole claim to the word, and that its use in the context of female sexuality disgraced them around the world.  The suit also claimed that the name of the national LGBT group Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece “insults the identity” of the people of Lesbos.
The island is a popular holiday destination, especially for lesbians, becaus e it was home to the ancient poet Sappho, who passionately wrote about love between women.  Several residents testified during the trial, in fact, that the use of the word “lesbian” had brought recognition to the island and boosted its tourist economy.
The ruling not only threw out the lawsuit � the plaintiffs were alsoo ordered to pay court costs.  They told reporters, however, that they’re considering an appeal.



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