“NewsWrap" for the 3 weeks ending January 10, 2009 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,085, distributed 1-12-09) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Sheri Lunn and Greg Gordon In a landmark ruling on December 22nd, the High Court of Uganda confirmed that LGBT people have constitutional rights. One the country’s leading activists, Victor Juliet Mukasa, and a friend visiting from Kenya, Yvonne Oyoo, had sued the attorney general following a 2005 raid at Mukasa's home. Documents were seized, and Oyoo was arrested and sexually harassed after being forced to undress to prove that she is a woman. Mukasa, active with the human rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda, was not home at the time. Justice Stella Arach-Amoko ruled that the raid violated the women’s constitutional rights to liberty, privacy, dignity, and protection from unlawful entry, unlawful search, unauthorized seizure and inhuman treatment. She awarded 5 thousand dollars to Oyoo for “arbitrary torture” and 2 thousand dollars in damages to Mukasa. They had waited 17 months for the verdict. This may have been the first time in the East African country that gays or lesbians have taken the authorities to court. Uganda's political and religious leaders repeatedly condemn homosexuality, and consensual adult sex between people of the same gender is punishable by up to life in pr ison there. Activists brave enough to speak out for equality are routinely threatened, harassed or attacked. Mukasa said after the ruling that "It is my dream... that justice will come to every human being in Uganda who is oppressed. This does not mark the end,” she said. “The struggle continues until every human being is free." But 9 men in Senegal, including a prominent gay rights activist, were convicted this week of committing homosexual acts and sentenced to 8 years in prison. Diadji Diuof, who heads an organization that provides gay men with condoms and HIV prevention information, was among the 9 arrested in December during an evening raid on his apartment in a suburb of Dakar. None were reportedly engaged in sexual activity, but authorities cited the condoms and lubricants found in the apartment standard tools in HIV prevention effoorts as proof that illegal sex had taken place. The judge addded 3 years to the maximum 5-year sentence for those convicted of “unnatural acts” because he said the men’s activities also constituted a criminal conspiracy. Joel Nana, the Cape Town-based Africa research and policy coordinator with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, told the “Associated Press” that "This is the first case that we've heard of in Senegal where people actually got sentenced." He condemned the harsh punishment, saying that "It is a strong message of hatred, a strong message of divis ion, when we know it is critical at this point to address HIV in these communities." The men’s attorney said they would appeal the sentences. And elsewhere in Africa, a group of Ethiopian Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox religious leaders meeting in Addis Ababa in late December called for a constitutional amendment to criminalize homosexuality. Ethiopia already has a law banning consensual adult same-gender sex, which is punishable by up to 3 years in prison. In a joint statement, the clerics demanded stronger laws, called homosexuality “the pinnacle of immorality,” and blamed gays for an increase in sexual attacks on children. The head of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Adune Paulos, said that gays and lesbians are "stupid, like animals," and that they need to be “given a lesson.” But 15 transgender activists from 9 East and Southern African countries met in Cape Town in mid-December in the first-ever gathering of its kind. The African Strategy Workshop, organized by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the South African group Gender DynamiX, attracted delegates from Botswana, Burundi, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The trans activists established priorities for future work, targeting education, access to health care including hormone treatment and gender--reassignment surgery and arbitrary arrests. South African Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Edwin Cam eron, who is openly gay and HIV-positive, was appointed on New Year's Day to the Constitutional Court by President Kgalema Motlanthe. He’ll be the world’s first openly gay and HIV-positive judge to sit on a nation’s highest court. The South African Lesbian and Gay Equality Project praised the appointment, noted that Cameron was “among the few lawyers who defended anti-apartheid activists against the old regime," and credited him with helping to pave the way for LGBT equality. South Africa's post-apartheid constitution was the first in the world to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. In the U.S., Portland, Oregon’s openly gay mayor Sam Adams was sworn in at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day. About 40 people witnessed the ceremony, including his mother and his longtime partner Peter Zuckerman. Adams has served in city government for several years, and was elected to the City Council in 2004. He captured 58 percent of the vote in the mayoral primary race last May, making a later run-off election unnecessary. Portland is now the largest city in the United States with an openly gay mayor. A lawyer for former U.S. Senator Larry Craig said this week that he won't ask the Minnesota Supreme Court to void Craig's conviction in an airport bathroom sex sting, and that all the legal wrangling over the case is over. The Idaho Republican, who decided not to seek reelection in November, was arrested in 2007=2 0by a police officer who was conducting an undercover operation against men cruising for gay sex at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The senator quietly pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a fine, but changed his mind after word of his arrest became public. He’s consistently insisted that it was all a misunderstanding and that he’s not gay. Meanwhile, tourist interest in the arrest site seems to be waning. One enthusiast even offered to buy the men’s room for 5,000 dollars, although he was rebuffed. Patrick Hogan, director of public affairs for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, said that "I think we'll all be glad when there's no special interest in that restroom." In other news, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on December 30th to invalidate Arkansas’ Act 1. That measure, approved by state voters in November, bans any unmarried person who lives with a partner from serving as an adoptive or foster parent. Since same-gender couples can’t legally marry in Arkansas, its proponents admitted that the proposal specifically targeted gay and lesbian couples. The suit argues that Act 1 violates federal and state constitutional rights to equal protection and due process. 29 people from a dozen families are participating in the case as plaintiffs. One is a grandmother who lives with her same-gender partner and is the only relative willing to adopt her grandchild, who’s now in Arkansas state care. Several married heterosexual couples are also plaintiffs. They previously had chosen friends or relatives who are coupled but not married to adopt their children in the event of the parents' deaths. Rita Sklar, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas, said that Act 1 "takes away parents' right to decide for themselves who will adopt their children if they die [and] it denies the many children in Arkansas state care a chance at the largest possible pool of potential foster and adoptive homes." State Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said during the election campaign that he opposed Act 1. But Chief Deputy Attorney General Justin Allen said this week that McDaniel’s office will defend it in court. In an important nationwide victory for same-gender parents, a U.S. federal district judge in Louisiana has ordered the state registrar to recognize the New York adoption of a baby boy by a same-gender couple. Lambda Legal represented Oren Adar and Mickey Smith, a gay couple whose adoption of their Louisiana-born son in 2006 was approved by a New York court. Smith later applied to get a new birth certificate for the child in Louisiana, in part to add his son to his health insurance coverage. But state law denies marriage to same-gender couples, and the office of State Registrar Darlene Smith told him that Louisiana does not recognize adoption by unmarried parents. Lambda's suit argued that Smith's action violated the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution,20under which judgments and orders issued by a court in one state must be recognized as legally binding by other states. U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey’s ruling in late December ordered the Registrar to issue a birth certificate showing the two men as the boy's parents. Lambda Senior Staff Attorney Ken Upton said the ruling "sends a strong message to state officials across the country that the Constitution requires them to respect the parent-child relationships established by adoption decrees regardless of the state where the decree is entered." And finally, Queen Elizabeth II announced on New Year's Eve that she will be knighting leading British AIDS activist Nick Partridge, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust. He’ll be among those "invested" later this year when Elizabeth traditionally lays a sword on his shoulders. And Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill has also been included in 2009's New Years Honours List. He’ll become an Officer in The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for “services to Equality and Diversity.” Perhaps the U.K.’s leading LGBT advocacy group, Stonewall celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. It formed in 1989 to fight the notorious Section 28, which banned the so-called “promotion” of homosexuality by public institutions, including schools. That law was finally repealed in 2003. Listen to 350+ music, sports, & news radio stations FREE while you browse.Start Listening Now!