“NewsWrap" for the week ending October 4, 2008 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,071, distributed 10-6-08) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Michael LeBeau and John Torres Voters in the South American nation of Ecuador overwhelmingly approved a new constitution this week that guarantees civil rights for gays and lesbians and establishes civil unions for same-gender couples, giving them virtually all the rights of marriage. The nation’s 20th constitution also helps leftist President Rafael Correa consolidate power and run for two more consecutive terms. He’s a former economics minister and has made the economy a central issue during the first 2 years of his presidency. The new constitution also guarantees free education through college, and pensions for stay-at-home mothers. Those provisions build on popular programs already established by Correa to provide low-interest loans for small businesses, building material for first-time homeowners, and free seeds for growing crops. Opponents worry that Correa’s expanded authority will lead to actions similar to those of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. But the Ecuadorian leader has reportedly maintained considerable political distance from Chavez, and has no plans to consolidate his powers as much as Chavez has aggressively done. But Portugal’s Prime Minister José Sócrates has rejected proposals t o legalize same-gender unions. Two measures to do that are scheduled for debate in Parliament this month. Unlike his Socialist counterpart, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who spearheaded marriage equality in neighboring Spain, Sócrates told the Portuguese Parliament that “Homosexual unions are not on the political agenda,” repeating what he said 3 years ago during his election campaign. The issue has created sharp divisions among the country’s progressive political parties. Greens M.P. Heloísa Apolónia, who’s sponsoring one of 2 same-gender union proposals, told local media that “This country, when it waits for the Socialists to promote equality, is always put on hold.” Roman Catholic officials have rejected the first choice of the French government to be the country’s ambassador to the Vatican because he’s gay. Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delforge, a career diplomat, is in a civil union with his same-gender partner. The Roman Catholic Church, of course, opposes LGBT rights, and any attempts to protect or legally recognize lesbigay relationships. According to a report by “Agence France Presse,” another candidate was rejected because he’s divorced. That apparently didn’t stop Pope Benedict XVI, when he visited Paris last month, from warmly greeting President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni. Sarkozy divorced his first wife to marry Bruni. France's ambassador to Moscow will take the Vatican post. But openly gay lawyer and former Olympic fencer Sir Terence Etherton became a member of England's and Wales' second highest court in late September. The 58-year-old Etherton was sworn in as one of 36 judges who serve on the Court of Appeal. He’s the first openly gay Lord Justice of Appeal, and was formally recommended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Etherton told the “Independent” newspaper that his appointment “shows that diversity in sexuality is not a bar to preferment up to the highest levels of the judiciary." Elsewhere in Europe, the Athens Pride Committee staged a demonstration in front of the Greek Parliament this week in support of the mayor of the Aegean island of Tilos and the two same-gender couples he married in June. They’re all in trouble with the Court of First Instance on the island of Rhodes especially the mayor. Prosecutors want to nulliffy the marriages and convict Mayor Anastasios Aliferis of breach of duty, punishable by imprisonment for up to 5 years. Greece's marriage law doesn't specifically prohibit marriage between people of the same gender. But the nation's top public prosecutor, Giorgos Sanidas, has said that a constitutional article relating to family issues implies that marriage is only between a man and a woman. A court in Rome last week ordered a trial for the two men arrested outside the ancient Coliseum in July 2007 and charged with committing lewd public acts. D efense lawyers for the men, identified only by their first names in media reports, Michele and Roberto, say that it was just a kiss. The arresting officers claim that the two were engaging in oral sex. The defense team has unsuccessfully sought video footage from nearby security cameras to show that the charges are unwarranted. The prosecuting magistrate claims that the lighting was poor, and that the issue was “too complex” to be judicially relevant. Aurelio Mancuso, who leads one of Italy’s major LGBT rights groups, Arcigay, told reporters that "Homosexuality is being punished, not an obscene act." The trial is scheduled to begin in February. The defendants face up to 3 years in prison if they’re convicted. Police in Uganda arrested two high-profile activists, described as "male-to-female transgender gay," and brutally detained them for a week in mid-September, according to a report by the U.S.-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, or IGLHRC. Georgina Oundo and Brenda Kiiza were taken into custody at Oundo's home near Kampala and held at the Nabweru village police station. IGLHRC says they were beaten, kicked, denied food, and pressured to reveal names and addresses of other LGBT activists. Human Rights Watch has charged that police also copied the activists' cell-phone address books. Oundo and Kiiza have been accused of spreading homosexuality, although IGLRHC says no such crime exists in the African nation. But consensual adult gay sex is illegal in Uganda, and punishable by up to life in prison. Police say that their investigation remains open, and that they’ll seek additional evidence to bring the activists before a court. In the past 5 years, nearly a dozen people have been arrested on charges related to homosexuality in Uganda. Meanwhile, some people apparently believe it’s still acceptable to call for the deaths of gays and lesbians in Australia and Caanada. The Anti-Discrimination Tribunal in the Australian state of Queensland found Ron Owen, the publisher of an ultra-rightwing pro-militia magazine called “Lock Stock & Barrel,” guilty of inciting hatred against homosexuals for displaying a bumper sticker on his car, parked outside government offices near Brisbane, that said “Gay Rights? Under God’s law the only rights gays have is the right to die.” Several local lesbians took Owen to the Tribunal, which awarded damages to two of them of 5 thousand dollars, and a third with 2500 dollars. Tribunal member Darryl Rangiah’s 77-page decision also ordered Owen, a former local elected official, to publish a written apology. "Ron Owen is entitled to... publicly express his homophobic views," he wrote. "That much is required in a society that values freedom of thought and expression. However,” Rangiah concluded, “there are limits." Owen has vowed to appeal the ruling. And David Popescu, who’s running for=2 0a seat in the Canadian parliament, told a “candidates forum” held for students at Sudbury Secondary School in the province of Ontario that homosexuals should be executed. Police are investigating his remarks under Canada’s hate crime law, which makes it a federal offense to promote hatred or incite violence against minorities, including gays and lesbians. Popescu acknowledged making the comments in an interview with the “Sudbury Star” newspaper. “A young man asked me what I think of homosexual marriages, and I said I think homosexuals should be executed,” he said. “My whole reason for running is the Bible, and the Bible couldn’t be more clear on that point.” Canadians go to the polls on October 14th to elect a new government. A gay and lesbian film festival scheduled to open in the Russian city of St. Petersburg this week was shut down before it could begin after fire inspectors claimed that the two venues hosting it were unsafe. The scheduled 4-day festival, called Side by Side, was to show 17 feature films and 5 shorts in two nightclubs, The Place and Sochi, each popular with students, artists and ex-pats. A number of filmmakers from the U.S. and Europe, including John Cameron Mitchell, best known for “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “Shortbus,” were also scheduled to make personal appearances during the screenings. Organizers had moved the festival to the two nightclubs a month e arlier, after the original venue terminated their contract for what they called “technical reasons”. Irina Sergeyeva, one of the three organizers of the festival, told the “St. Petersburg Times” that they were “indignant, upset and distressed,” and implied that local officials had orchestrated the shutdown. And finally, a much-anticipated film chronicling the life of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, from openly gay director Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn in the title role, is scheduled to be released in December. But California’s Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill, written by openly gay Assemblyman Mark Leno of San Francisco, that would have designated May 22nd, Milk’s birthday, as a statewide “day of significance.” Schwarzenegger has signed several pieces of pro-LGBT legislation during his tenure, but vetoed two marriage equality bills passed by the legislature. He is, nevertheless, publicly opposing a November ballot measure to revoke that right ordered by the state Supreme Court in May. Harvey Milk was one of the first openly gay men in the U.S. to be elected to public office, as a San Francisco Supervisor, in 1977. He and then-Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a disgruntled rightwing former Supervisor, in 1978. By refusing to sign the bill honoring Milk, Schwarzenegger apparently bowed to rightwing groups that had mounted a massive “contact the governor” campaign against it. In his veto message, Schwarzenegger said that Milk “should continue to be recognized at the local level.” McCain or Obama? Stay updated on coverage of the Presidential race while you browse - Download Now!