“NewsWrap" for the week ending September 6, 2008 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,067, distributed 9-8-08) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Chris Wilson and DonnaAnn Ward The Australian government introduced legislation in Parliament this week to grant a number of rights to same-gender couples and their families, but stressed that they would not be equivalent to marriage. The Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd strongly supports legislation, passed in 2004 under the former Liberal government, defining marriage as exclusively heterosexual. But the Same-Sex Entitlements Bill will remove discrimination against same-gender couples in some 68 Commonwealth laws involving 19 different government departments. The areas covered include social security, Medicare, immigration, taxation, educational assistance, veterans’ benefits, and elder care. A bill to remove discrimination in government pensions or superannuation was introduced earlier this year, but ut it’s been stalled in the Senate. A report issued last year by the federal Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission made more than 50 recommendations urging the reforms. It heard from dozens of same-gender couples during a series of hearings it held across the country, and concluded that at least 20,000 Australian lesbigay couples experience systematic discrimination on a daily basis. In announcing its introducti on, Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the legislation “will not only remove discrimination against same-sex couples, [it will] also remove discrimination against their families, and most specifically their children.” McClelland said the government expects the legislation to be enacted by mid-2009. But some MPs have expressed concerns that passage would undermine the unique status of heterosexual marriage in the country. LGBT advocates generally greeted the news favorably, while chiding the government for refusing to consider full marriage equality. In the U.S., a New York judge this week rejected a challenge to Governor David Paterson’s executive order requiring all state agencies to recognize same-gender marriages legally performed elsewhere. Paterson had cited New York court rulings involving same-gender couples that those marriages should be recognized under state law. In throwing out the lawsuit, filed by the rightwing Alliance Defense Fund and a handful of Republican lawmakers, Justice Lucy A. Billings of the State Supreme Court in the Bronx wrote that a same-gender couple’s desire to wed represents "a personal expression of emotional devotion, support and interdependence and a public commitment... With that validity,” she wrote, “they expect equal treatment with other married couples." A contrary ruling, she said, would be "antithetical to family stability." This was the first trial court level decision on the issue. The plaintiffs say they’ll appeal. New=2 0York’s highest court has ruled that only the legislature can establish marriage equality in the state. But with nearby Massachusetts recently repealing an antiquated marriage law requiring residency, thousands of New York same-gender couples are expected to flock to the Bay State in the next few years to tie the knot. In California, the only other U.S. state with marriage equality – and no residency requirement polls continue to report that a slim majority plan to vote against Proposition 8, a November ballot measure that would amend the state constitution and reverse the state Supreme Court-ordered right of same-gender couples to marry. Meanwhile, in a poll of likely voters taken this week in Florida, which has a constitutional same-gender marriage ban on its November ballot, 57 percent favor the measure, while 36 percent oppose it. The state constitution requires a 60 percent majority to amend it. Opponents warn that the proposal is so broadly written that it would also prohibit civil unions, as well as domestic partner benefits currently offered in some jurisdictions. And in Arizona, the third U.S. state with a constitutional same-gender marriage ban on the ballot this November, its two Roman Catholic bishops have ordered a pastoral letter to be read in churches across the state this week supporting the measure. It says the amendment is “in alignment with our deeply held moral beliefs regarding marriage.” The Union for Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America also issued a statement to its Arizona congregations saying that the Torah and Jewish law “affirms marriage only between a man and woman.” Evangelical churches throughout Arizona are also urging the faithful to support the amendment. According to public opinion polls, most people in the state oppose marriage equality, but they don’t want to enshrine a ban in the constitution. In other news, 300 gay and lesbian police officers and staffers marched in the LGBT Pride parade in Manchester, England on August 23rd. They came from 16 police forces around the United Kingdom. Sgt. Julie Barnes-Frank, coordinator of the Greater Manchester Police's Lesbian and Gay Staff Affiliation, told the “Press Association” that it was a record number, and that “there's never been anything like it in the world." England's most southwesterly county, Cornwall, saw its first Pride parade on the same day in the city of Truro. Some 600 people marched, and the Gay Police Association flag flew from the Truro Police Station. And in Canada, about 1,200 marchers and 34,000 spectators turned out for the 19th Pride parade in Ottawa, Ontario the following day. The march made stops at the Parliament Buildings and the federal Supreme Court, both of which played a role in Canada's legalization of same-gender marriage. Capital Pride spokesman Julien Lavoie told the “Canadian Broadcasting Corporation” that "It's important for us to keep... celebrating those victor ies,” but noted that some inequalities remain. A late August article on the Web site of U.S.-based “Newsweek” magazine called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Do Kill” described the many obstacles its reporters encountered in trying to prepare a story about gay people in Iraq. After weeks of inquiries, the magazine set up a meeting with Nadir, who helps run one of the "safe houses" for Iraqi gays that are funded by foreign activists. But the night before their meeting, Nadir was visited by the Mahdi militia, the armed wing of the organization led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and he called it off. The article noted that "Iraqi authorities scoffed at the subject wwhen not scolding a reporter for even asking about it.” No government official would agree to be interviewed, and, the report said, “the United Nations human-rights office, which has a big presence in Iraq, dodged the subject like a mine field." Gay men the magazine did manage to interview told of being thrown out of their homes and "savagely attacked" by religious extremists. Killing gays has become "honorable" in Iraq,” the article said, and “raping them is OK because it isn't considered a homosexual act only bbeing penetrated or providing oral sex is... Nobody wants to talk about gays in Iraq, much less who is killing them," the report concluded. "Changing Iraq's attitudes toward its gay minority may prove even harder than ending20the war.” Back in the U.S., the Republican Party capped its 4-day convention in St. Paul, Minnesota this week by officially nominating Senator John McCain of Arizona as its presidential candidate. That move was hardly a surprise, but McCain did jolt the pundits by picking little known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate. Her selection virtually overshadowed other media coverage of the convention. Palin has been Alaska’s governor for less than 2 years, and previously served as the Mayor of Wasilla, a small town of about 5-to-7-thousand people. Republican commentators have said, with straight faces, that she has experience in international affairs because Alaska’s most northwesterly border is close to Russia. Christian conservatives celebrated her selection. While it’s the first time the GOP has put a woman on the ticket, feminists were not exactly applauding. Palin opposes abortion, even when a birth would be the result of rape. She’s also supported the teaching of creationism, opposes gun control and “endangered species” protections, and has pushed for oil drilling in environmentally sensitive areas. She’s also embroiled in a state abuse of power scandal. Not surprisingly, Palin has a poor record on LGBT issues. She opposes hate crimes legislation, and supported the 1998 state constitutional amendment defining marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. An insert in the bul letin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has reportedly prayed since she was a child, advertised a mid-September conference in nearby Anchorage, sponsored by the notoriously anti-queer group Focus on the Family, which claims to help homosexuals go straight. Early in her administration, Governor Palin vetoed legislation to overturn a 2005 state Supreme Court ruling that ordered domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian state workers not because she supported those beneefits, but because her legal advisors told her it would be unconstitutional to deny them. She reiterated her opposition to the benefits in her reluctant veto message. The Republican Party platform was also not exactly queer-friendly. It calls for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as heterosexual only, and opposes gays and lesbians in the armed forces, claiming “the incompatibility of homosexuality with military service.” The platform also opposes what it calls “activist judges” rightwing code for an independent judiciary that may sommetimes issue relatively progressive rulings. While his running mate strongly supports it, McCain has opposed a so-called “federal marriage amendment,” but he’s on record in support of state constitutional amendments to ban same-gender marriage. Citing McCain’s opposition to the federal amendment, however, the national lesbigay Log Cabin Republicans has endorsed his candidacy. More about that in a moment. And finally,=2 0according to broadcast reports, the Virginia delegation to the Republican Convention didn’t have traditional guidebooks to help them navigate the host city this week. A campaign official from the state lieutenant governor's office canceled an order for 150 of them because they included 6-to-8 pages highlighting the city’s gay and lesbian nightspots. An official wrote to Rake Publishing, which distributed the guides, saying that "Having a section dedicated solely to GLBT will be a BIG problem for many of our folks... We simply can't hand them out." Some Republicans, however, apparently used their “gaydar” to find those nightspots without the guidebooks. Queer club owners in the St. Paul area reported better-than-usual business during the convention. Looking for spoilers and reviews on the new TV season? Get AOL's ultimate guide to fall TV.