“NewsWrap" for the week ending August 16, 2008 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,064, distributed 8-18-08) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Steve Levin and Mark Zecca Panama’s President Martín Torrijos Espino has signed a decree repealing a 1949 law that punished consensual adult sodomy with a 500 dollar fine or jail time. According to local media reports, the LGBT group New Men and Women of Panama and other human rights organizations had lobbied for the change. Also signed by Health Minister Rosario E. Turner, the decree said the law contravened the Panamanian Constitution and international human rights treaties that Panama has signed. It also conflicted with anti-discrimination policies of the Health Ministry’s sexually transmitted diseases programs. According to Amnesty International, 11 nations in Central America, South America and the Caribbean continue to outlaw consensual adult same-gender sex: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. All of those countries are former British colonies. Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has defended a new draft constitution for his country that grants same-gender couples the rights of marriage, according to a report in “El Telégrafo” newspaper. The document faces a popular vote on September 28th. "Jesus of Nazareth never preached hatred, homophobia or segregation,” Correa said during a speech in Monteverde. “What we are doing,” he continued, “is recognizing the dignity of all people without discrimination based on race, sex [or] sexual orientation." A poll released earlier this month found that 47 percent of the electorate plans to vote for the new constitution, while 31 percent said they’d reject it. A "yes" vote of more than 50 percent is required for passage. Not as many same-gender couples are taking advantage of the Czech Republic's registered-partnership law than when it first came into force 2 years ago, according to a recent report in the newspaper “Právo”. From July 1st, 2006, to the end of that year, 235 same-gender couples tied the knot, but only 105 couples have done so in the first half of this year. The report also said that the largest number of same-gender partnerships have been contracted in Prague; gay male couples have outnumbered lesbians; and there have been nine same-gender couple divorces. But the Australian Capital Territory's civil union law is being called a complete success 3 months after it took effect. Even though only 23 same-gender couples have registered so far, it exceeds the 15 that the government had expected by this time, according to territorial Attorney-General Simon Corbell. He predicted, with the onset of spring in Australia,=2 0that even more couples would unite. The Civil Partnerships Act was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly in May after the territory agreed to a stipulation against formal ceremonies. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Labor government said they would contravene a federal law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples. Territorial officials maintained that ceremonies were a matter of equality, but faced with an override, they removed the contentious clause. The Civil Partnerships Act gives same-gender couples most of the rights married couples enjoy under territorial law. A third of Australia's eight states and territories have varying laws providing some benefits to same-gender couples. The umbrella group behind a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-gender marriage in California, Proposition 8, has ended its fight over the wording that will appear on the November ballot. The so-called Protect Marriage Coalition said it made the decision this week after a state appeals court rejected their urgent appeal of a lower court ruling that upheld Attorney General Jerry Brown’s revised title and summary of the measure. Further appeals wouldn’t be heard in time to change the ballot wording before the November 4th vote. The measure was originally described as limiting marriage in California to a man and a woman. Brown changed the description to say that the proposed amendment would eliminate the right of same-gender couples to marry, and that it could result in California losing t ens of millions of dollars in tax revenues. Brown’s office said the original wording was written before the California Supreme Court struck down the state ban on same-gender marriage in May. Hundreds of lesbigay couples have since legally married there. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley had earlier ruled that, in light of the high court decision, the revised wording accurately summarized the impact of the proposition. Both sides of the issue have agreed that the revised language will make the measure more difficult to pass. Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes the amendment and has promised to campaign against it. Meanwhile, several pro-LGBT bills in California are awaiting Schwarzenegger’s signature. He’s refused to sign any new legislation until lawmakers pass a state budget, over which Democrats and Republicans have been bickering well past the date mandated for its passage. While the governor’s signature on any of the lesbigay-related measures is far from certain, the state’s leading LGBT rights group, Equality California, has celebrated recent passage of bills to strengthen the state’s sexual orientation-inclusive civil rights laws; to protect LGBT seniors, and LGBT children in foster care; to provide tax relief for same-gender couples; and to establish May 22nd his birthday as as a day to honor pioneering LGBT rights leader and assassinated San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. Rightwing opponents have reported ly been flooding Schwarzenegger’s office with calls and emails specifically demanding that he veto that measure. But Florida’s Republican Governor Charlie Crist has announced his support for a proposed constitutional amendment on that state’s November ballot that would ban any legal recognition of same-gender couples. The measure says, “Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.” Florida law already limits marriage to heterosexual couples, but supporters of the amendment worry that it could be overturned in court. Opponents warn that the language of the amendment is so broad that it would also eliminate domestic partnerships where they’re legal in the state. Those unions are also often favored by older opposite-gender couples because re-marriage could jeopardize Social Security and other benefits. Activists in the state of Pennsylvania last month successfully fought efforts to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot there to ban legal recognition of same-gender unions. A U.S. federal appeals court this week rejected an attempt by opponents of Oregon’s domestic partnership law to put a repeal initiative before that state’s voters this November. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the determination by Secretary of State Bill Bradbury that a conservative group had failed to gat her enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot. Oregon’s domestic partnership law allows same-gender couples, and heterosexual couples unable to marry, to form legally recognized unions, giving them hospital visitation rights and the right to make medical decisions for each other; to file joint state tax returns; and to have joint health insurance plans and take sick leave to care for their partner. It was passed by the legislature in 2007 after efforts to enact a marriage equality law were unsuccessful. Conservative groups immediately challenged the domestic partnership law in court, charging that it violated Oregon’s constitutional ban on same-gender marriage. After those legal efforts failed, they began circulating petitions to place a repeal measure on the ballot. About 2,500 same-gender couples have registered as domestic partners in the state since the law took effect. Elsewhere, LGBT people and their allies enjoyed Iceland’s 10th annual Pride Festival in downtown Reykjavik on August 9th. Police estimated the crowd at 30-to-40 thousand. One of the organizers, Heimir Már Pétursson, told local media that it was closer to a record 100,000, and that “the police can’t count, or they are counting wrong deliberately,” but also commended their quick response to a bomb threat during the Festival. Inflammatory anti-lesbigay remarks by an Irish Member of Parliament probably inspired more people than expected to celebrate Pri de in Belfast last week. An estimated 4,000 LGBT activists and their supporters marched in the parade, despite bad weather. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week rejected calls for a formal censure of Irish M.P. Iris Robinson, who likened homosexuality to the sexual abuse of children during a parliamentary debate, and then during a radio interview called homosexuality “disgusting, loathsome, nauseating, wicked, and vile.” She also claimed that gays and lesbians could be “cured” and become heterosexual. In addition to serving in the British Parliament, Robinson is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Brown’s spokespeople responded to more than 15,000 calls and postings to the Prime Ministerial Web site demanding action against Robinson by saying that there’s no constitutional authority for a Prime Minister to censure an M.P., and that “[Individual members] are accountable to their electorate for their own comments.” And finally, police in Berlin have been asked to investigate an Arabic language magazine for incitement following its publication of an article, titled “A Flesh-Eating Bacteria and Sexual Abnormality,” warning readers not to shake hands with gays because they could transmit such diseases. “One never knows what kind of bacteria and germs are found on them,” it said. The article included comments by people the magazine said were authorities on skin diseases, and was accompanied by graphic photographs of20various skin infections. The LGBT Association of Berlin-Brandenburg filed a complaint with police this week against the free publication, “al Salam,” which is available in restaurants and cafés throughout the city. Incitement against minorities, including gays and lesbians, is illegal in Germany. But similar allegations have not been prosecuted in the past because some have warned that such actions would infringe on religious freedoms. LGBT activists are calling on leaders of the country’s large Muslim community to condemn the article. It's time to go back to school! Get the latest trends and gadgets that make the grade on AOL Shopping.