“NewsWrap"
A summary of some of the news in or affecting global LGBT communities
for the week ending November 17, 2012
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,286 distributed 11/19/12)
Written by Greg Gordon, produced by Steve Pride,
and reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and Christopher Gaal
Nigeria’s National Assembly approved legislation this week that
would throw LGBT people in jail just for being “out”, whether or
not they had engaged in same-gender sex. It also imprisons anyone
who fails to report homosexuals they know to the police. The
heavy-handed measure passed in Nigeria’s Senate last year.
The west-African nation already makes same-gender sex illegal, but
the new legislation punishes a gay or lesbian couple with up to 14
years in prison for trying to get married, or just for living
together. It also sends anyone who attempts to conduct a marriage
ceremony for a same-gender couple to jail for up to 10 years; even
wedding guests could be imprisoned. Under the new law, a samegender couple caught kissing or just holding hands in public would
face 10-year sentences.
The bill
is now being reviewed on a clause-by-clause basis, although there
does not seem to be a timetable for that process. It will
eventually return for a final vote in parliament before being sent
to President Goodluck Jonathan for his signature. Observers say
he’s likely to sign it, although international online campaigns
are urging him to veto it. Jonathan is also being pressured to
reject the bill by several Western governments. Lawmakers could
still override a veto.
Nigeria’s LGBT advocacy group Initiative for Equal Rights said
lawmakers are trying to score cheap political points because no
one has called for marriage equality in the highly religious
country, which is primarily Muslim in the north and predominantly
Christian in the south. The rights group also warned that passage
of the new legislation would encourage more violent assaults
against LGBT people.
Uganda is pressing ahead with its own draconian legislation,
condemned around the world as the “Kill The Gays Bill” because,
among many harsh provisions, it imposes the death penalty for what
it calls “aggravated homosexuality”. Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker
of Uganda’s Parliament, renewed her vows this week to push the
measure through the legislature before the end of the year,
telling the “Associated Press” that her people “are demanding it.”
Private, consensual adult gay sex is already illegal in Uganda.
But “cure”-peddling anti-gay U.S. evangelical Christians have made
several visits to the east African country in recent years, and an
M.P. with close ties to them said his “Anti-Homosexuality Bill”
was needed to protect Uganda’s poor children from being
“recruited” into the “lifestyle” by wealthy Western homosexuals.
While the bill does appear to be popular in Uganda, it also has
attracted widespread criticism abroad. Some European countries
have threatened to cut aid to both Uganda – and Nigeria – if their
respective bills become law.
But lawmakers in Uruguay began debating 29 separate articles in
a marriage equality bill this week. The South American country
established civil unions for gay and lesbian couples in 2007, but
the new legislation gives them all the rights and responsibilities
of marriage, including adoption. Despite strong opposition from
the Roman Catholic Church, the measure has the support of the
ruling Broad Front party. It’s sponsored by the country’s leading
LGBT rights group, Colectivo Ovejas Negras, or Black Sheep
Collective. Argentina became South America’s first country to
open civil marriage to lesbian and gay couples in 2010.
The French Cabinet has formally approved a marriage equality
bill. President François Hollande made it a cornerstone of his
campaign last year. But increasingly vocal opposition from
rightwing politicians and conservative religious groups, most
notably the Roman Catholic Church, may be eroding what has been
majority public support for the measure.
Hollande has called the proposal “progress for all of society.”
His Socialist Party has a majority in both houses of Parliament,
so the bill is still expected to pass sometime early next year.
Spain’s Constitutional Court – its highest court – upheld that
country’s marriage equality law last week. Justices voted 8-to-3
to dismiss the appeal originally filed by the conservative Popular
Party after Spain’s Parliament passed the marriage equality law
when it was under Socialist control in 2005. Popular Party
deputies contended that the Spanish constitution defines marriage
exclusively as the union of a man and woman. They regained power
late last year after the country floundered economically.
More than 22,000 civil marriages of same-gender couples have
already been celebrated in Spain.
But Slovakia's parliament overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to
recognize same-gender partnerships. The conservative ruling
government and right wing parties accused the measure’s sponsors
from the opposition Freedom and Solidarity Party of blasphemy, and
charged that its passage would undermine “family values”.
Slovakia’s center-right government created a committee in October
to “study” LGBT issues – a move that in itself was sharply
criticized by the Christian Democrats and the country's Conference
of Bishops.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Supreme Court has pushed back the date it
plans to consider cases involving California’s marriage equalitybanning Proposition 8; and DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act,
which denies federal recognition and benefits to legally married
same-gender couples. The high court had originally said it would
vote on whether or not to hear one or more of those cases during
its conference on November 20th, with an announcement on November
26th after the Thanksgiving holiday. According to a press release
this week from the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which
spearheaded the legal challenge to Proposition 8, justices will
now consider those cases during their conference on November 30th,
with an announcement due on December 3rd. The decision to hear a
case requires the votes of at least four of the nine Justices.
The counting has continued in a few locales since the November
6th U.S. elections. In a closely contested race that was not
settled until 6 days later, Democratic former Arizona state
Senator Kyrsten Sinema was elected to represent a Phoenix-area
district in the U.S. House of Representatives. She becomes the
first “out” bisexual member of Congress.
At least five “out” gay or lesbian Democrats also won House seats,
and Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay person
elected to the U.S. Senate.
Seattle area Democrat Ed Murray was chosen by his peers this
week to be Majority Leader of the Washington state Senate. He’ll
be only the second “out” state Senate leader in U.S. history. The
pioneering Allan Spear led the Minnesota state Senate from 1992 to
2000.
Four “out” legislators will lead their respective lower houses:
Speaker John Pérez in the California Assembly, and House Speakers
Gordon Fox in Rhode Island, Mark Ferrandino in Colorado, and Tina
Kotek in Oregon.
Newly re-elected President Barack Obama this week nominated
William Thomas to a judgeship on the U.S. Court for the Southern
District of Florida. If he’s confirmed to the lifetime position,
Thomas would become the first openly gay African-American man on a
federal court. African-American lesbian Deborah Batts became the
nation’s first “out” federal judge overall when she was appointed
by President Bill Clinton in 1994 to serve as a federal judge on
the Southern District Court of New York.
Thomas joins two previously announced “out” judicial nominees,
Pamela Ki Mai Chen and Michael McShane. Each awaits confirmation
by the Senate, which has already confirmed three other openly gay
or lesbian judges nominated by the President. One other
nomination was withdrawn.
In other news, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit
this week against a Utah school district for removing a picture
book featuring a family headed by two lesbian mothers from the
shelves of its elementary school libraries. According to the
“Salt Lake Tribune”, students in the Davis School District can
only read the book, “In Our Mothers' House” by Patricia Polacco,
if they have a signed permission slip from their parents. Polacco
is an award-winning author and illustrator of several other books
for young children.
Tina Weber, a mother of three in Davis schools and the only named
plaintiff in the class action lawsuit against the district, told
the “Tribune” that, "I don't believe it's for anybody else to tell
me how to raise my family." She described “In Our Mothers' House”
as "just a sweet story about a mixed family that learns to love
each other."
A spokesman for the school district said it was still reviewing
the specifics of the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, a school district in Austin, Texas cancelled ten
scheduled performances of “And Then Came Tango”, a play based on
the two male penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo who made
international headlines when they adopted an abandoned egg and
raised the chick together. The district called the play
“inappropriate” for school age children.
Playwright Emily Freeman, a graduate student at the University of
Texas, said the play is simply about different families, including
“a young girl and her single mom, a zookeeper and the animals he
tends, and two male penguins and their adopted egg. As these
family structures are threatened in the play, we learn the power
of voicing your opinions and standing up for your beliefs, no
matter who you are."
A spokesman for the conservative group Texas Values supports the
school district. Jonathan Saenz told the “Austin-American
Statesman” that the play “tries to push and promote a different
marriage definition, which... leads students to ask questions
about it, and... leads to the discussion of sex."
But finally, another pair of gay penguins – this time
in Denmark – have become the latest proud adoptive
parents of an orphaned chick.
It's believed to be the
first time two male King penguins living in captivity
have become dads together.
Keepers at the Odense Zoo
first tested the penguin pair’s parenting skills with a
ball, and then tried giving them the abandoned egg.
The chick hatched last month, and zoologist Nina
Christensen told the “Toronto Star” that their family
behavior is the same as if the parents were male and
female.
Same-gender penguin pairs have also been given abandoned
eggs to hatch and nurture in Spain, Germany, and
CNigeria’s National Assembly approved legislation
this week that would throw LGBT people in jail just
for being “out”, whether or not they had engaged in
same-gender sex.
It also imprisons anyone who fails
to report homosexuals they know to the police.
The
heavy-handed measure passed in Nigeria’s Senate last
year.
The
west-African nation already makes same-gender sex
illegal, but the new legislation punishes a gay or
lesbian couple with up to 14 years in prison for
trying to get married, or just for living together.
It also sends anyone who attempts to conduct a
marriage ceremony for a same-gender couple to jail
for up to 10 years; even wedding guests could be
imprisoned.
Under the new law, a same-gender couple
caught kissing or just holding hands in public would
face 10-year sentences.
The bill is now being reviewed on a clause-by-clause
basis, although there does not seem to be a
timetable for that process.
It will eventually
return for a final vote in parliament before being
sent to President Goodluck Jonathan for his
signature.
Observers say he’s likely to sign it,
although international online campaigns are urging
him to veto it.
Jonathan is also being pressured to
reject the bill by several Western governments.
Lawmakers could still override a veto.
[a little more next page...]
= 2 =
Nigeria’s LGBT advocacy group Initiative for Equal
Rights said lawmakers are trying to score cheap
political points because no one has called for
marriage equality in the highly religious country,
which is primarily Muslim in the north and
predominantly Christian in the south.
The rights
group also warned that passage of the new
legislation would encourage more violent assaults
against LGBT people.
= 3 =
[CG]
Uganda is pressing ahead with its own
draconian legislation, condemned around the world as
the “Kill The Gays Bill” because, among many harsh
provisions, it imposes the death penalty for what it
calls “aggravated homosexuality”.
Rebecca Kadaga,
the Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, renewed her vows
this week to push the measure through the
legislature before the end of the year, telling the
“Associated Press” that her people “are demanding
it.”
Private, consensual
adult gay sex is already illegal in Uganda.
But
“cure”-peddling anti-gay U.S. evangelical Christians
have made several visits to the east African country
in recent years, and an M.P. with close ties to them
said his “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” was needed to
protect Uganda’s poor children from being
“recruited” into the “lifestyle” by wealthy Western
homosexuals.
While the bill does appear to be popular in Uganda,
it also has attracted widespread criticism abroad.
Some European countries have threatened to cut aid
to both Uganda – and Nigeria – if their respective
bills become law.
= 4 =
[TKP]
But lawmakers in Uruguay began debating 29
separate articles in a marriage equality bill this
week.
The South American country established civil
unions for gay and lesbian couples in 2007, but the
new legislation gives them all the rights and
responsibilities of marriage, including adoption.
Despite strong opposition from the Roman Catholic
Church, the measure has the support of the ruling
Broad Front party.
It’s sponsored by the country’s
leading LGBT rights group, Colectivo Ovejas Negras, or
Black Sheep Collective.
Argentina became South
America’s first country to open civil marriage to
lesbian and gay couples in 2010.
[CG]
The French Cabinet has formally approved a
marriage equality bill.
President François Hollande
made it a cornerstone of his campaign last year.
But increasingly vocal opposition from rightwing
politicians and conservative religious groups, most
notably the Roman Catholic Church, may be eroding
what has been majority public support for the
measure.
Hollande has called the proposal “progress for all
of society.”
His Socialist Party has a majority in
both houses of Parliament, so the bill is still
expected to pass sometime early next year.
= 5 =
[TKP]
Spain’s Constitutional Court – its highest
court – upheld that country’s marriage equality law
last week.
Justices voted 8-to-3 to dismiss the
appeal originally filed by the conservative Popular
Party after Spain’s Parliament passed the marriage
equality law when it was under Socialist control in
2005.
Popular Party deputies contended that the
Spanish constitution defines marriage exclusively as
the union of a man and woman.
They regained power
late last year after the country floundered
economically.
More than 22,000 civil marriages of same-gender
couples have already been celebrated in Spain.
[CG]
But Slovakia's parliament overwhelmingly rejected
a proposal to recognize same-gender partnerships.
The
conservative ruling government and right wing parties
accused the measure’s sponsors from the opposition
Freedom and Solidarity Party of blasphemy, and charged
that its passage would undermine “family values”.
Slovakia’s center-right government created a committee
in October to “study” LGBT issues – a move that in
itself was sharply criticized by the Christian
Democrats and the country's Conference of Bishops.
= 6 =
[TKP]
Elsewhere, the U.S. Supreme Court has pushed
back the date it plans to consider cases involving
California’s marriage equality-banning Proposition 8;
and DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies
federal recognition and benefits to legally married
same-gender couples.
The high court had originally
said it would vote on whether or not to hear one or
more of those cases during its conference on November
20th, with an announcement on November 26th after the
Thanksgiving holiday.
According to a press release
this week from the American Foundation for Equal
Rights, which spearheaded the legal challenge to
Proposition 8, justices will now consider those cases
during their conference on November 30th, with an
announcement due on December 3rd.
The decision to
hear a case requires the votes of at least four of the
nine Justices.
[CG]
The counting has continued in a few locales
since the November 6th U.S. elections.
In a closely
contested race that was not settled until 6 days
later, Democratic former Arizona state Senator Kyrsten
Sinema was elected to represent a Phoenix-area
district in the U.S. House of Representatives.
She
becomes the first “out” bisexual member of Congress.
At least five “out” gay or lesbian Democrats also won
House seats, and Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin became the
first openly gay person elected to the U.S. Senate.
= 7 =
[TKP]
Seattle area Democrat Ed Murray was chosen by
his peers this week to be Majority Leader of the
Washington state Senate.
He’ll be only the second
“out” state Senate leader in U.S. history.
The
pioneering Allan Spear led the Minnesota state Senate
from 1992 to 2000.
Four “out”
legislators will lead their respective lower houses:
Speaker John Pérez in the California Assembly, and
House Speakers Gordon Fox in Rhode Island, Mark
Ferrandino in Colorado, and Tina Kotek in Oregon.
[CG]
Newly re-elected President Barack Obama this
week nominated William Thomas to a judgeship on the
U.S. Court for the Southern District of Florida.
If
he’s confirmed to the lifetime position, Thomas
would become the first openly gay African-American
man on a federal court.
African-American lesbian
Deborah Batts became the nation’s first “out”
federal judge overall when she was appointed by
President Bill Clinton in 1994 to serve as a federal
judge on the Southern District Court of New York.
Thomas joins two previously announced “out” judicial
nominees, Pamela Ki Mai Chen and Michael McShane.
Each awaits confirmation by the Senate, which has
already confirmed three other openly gay or lesbian
judges nominated by the President.
One other
nomination was withdrawn.
= 8 =
[TKP]
In other news, the American Civil Liberties
Union filed suit this week against a Utah school
district for removing a picture book featuring a
family headed by two lesbian mothers from the
shelves of its elementary school libraries.
According to the “Salt Lake Tribune”, students in
the Davis School District can only read the book,
“In Our Mothers' House” by Patricia Polacco, if they
have a signed permission slip from their parents.
Polacco is an award-winning author and illustrator
of several other books for young children.
Tina Weber, a mother of three in Davis schools and
the only named plaintiff in the class action lawsuit
against the district, told the “Tribune” that, "I
don't believe it's for anybody else to tell me how
to raise my family."
She described “In Our Mothers'
House” as "just a sweet story about a mixed family
that learns to love each other."
A spokesman for the school district said it was
still reviewing the specifics of the lawsuit.
= 9 =
[CG]
Meanwhile, a school district in Austin, Texas
cancelled ten scheduled performances of “And Then
Came Tango”, a play based on the two male penguins
at New York’s Central Park Zoo who made
international headlines when they adopted an
abandoned egg and raised the chick together.
The
district called the play “inappropriate” for school
age children.
Playwright Emily Freeman, a graduate student at the
University of Texas, said the play is simply about
different families, including “a young girl and her
single mom, a zookeeper and the animals he tends,
and two male penguins and their adopted egg.
As
these family structures are threatened in the play,
we learn the power of voicing your opinions and
standing up for your beliefs, no matter who you
are."
A
spokesman for the conservative group Texas Values
supports the school district.
Jonathan Saenz told
the “Austin-American Statesman” that the play “tries
to push and promote a different marriage definition,
which... leads students to ask questions about it,
and... leads to the discussion of sex."
= 10 =
[TKP]
But finally, another pair of gay penguins –
this time in Denmark – have become the latest proud
adoptive parents of an orphaned chick.
It's
believed to be the first time two male King penguins
living in captivity have become dads together.
Keepers at the Odense [oh-RIN-seh] Zoo first tested
the penguin pair’s parenting skills with a ball, and
then tried giving them the abandoned egg.
The chick hatched last month, and zoologist Nina
Christensen told the “Toronto Star” that their
family behavior is the same as if the parents were
male and female.
Same-gender penguin pairs have also been given
abandoned eggs to hatch and nurture in Spain,
Germany, and China.
hina.