NewsWrap for the week ending January 28, 2006 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #931, distributed 1-30-06) [Written this week by Jon Beaupré and Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill and Rex Wockner] Reported this week by Jon Beaupré and Sheri Lunn The United Nations' Economic and Social Council this week denied consultative status to the International Lesbian and Gay Association - or ILGA - and to the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians. The two groups' applications were summarily dismissed without a hearing. There are almost 3,000 non-governmental organizations with such status, enabling them to distribute documents to meetings of the Council. Queer organizations can't seem to shake the pedophilia connection in the world body. Several years ago ILGA ejected from membership the North American Man/Boy Love Association, whose affiliation was thought to be the reason ILGA's previous consultative status application was denied. Nevertheless, charges of supporting pedophilia continue to dog queer groups' efforts to join any UN dialogue on GLBT rights issues. In a reversal of the Bush Administration's previous support, the United States joined Cameroon, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Senegal, Sudan, and Zimbabwe in rejecting the latest bids. Voting in favor of holding hearings were Chilé, France, Germany, Peru, and Romania. German delegate Martin Thümmel said about the denial of ILGA's application that, "those delegations that claim that this organization is supporting pedophilia are using this as a pretext in order to shirk the real issue of sexual orientation." Said Matt Foreman, executive director of the U.S. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, "It is an absolute outrage that the United States has chosen to align itself with tyrants — all in a sickening effort to smother voiices of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around the world." His was among some 40 organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the U.S. Human Rights Campaign, and the San Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission to send a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice demanding an explanation from the Bush administration for its policy reversal. Canadians ended 12 years of Liberal Party rule in federal elections this week, responding to Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper's promises of a corruption-free government, a crackdown on crime, and lower taxes. Harper's campaign also called for repealing marriage equality with another vote in Parliament on what had been considered by many to be a settled issue. The Conservatives fell short by about 30 votes of a legislative majority, however, so Harper will have to rely on the support of at least one opposition party to get anything done. Prime Minister Paul Martin immediately announced that he will step down as Liberal Party leader. He led the successful effort to legislate marriage equality in Parliament last year following the Canadian Supreme Court's order to do so, but his administration was clouded for months by corruption scandals. Some queer activists had issued dire warnings that a Conservative win would be disastrous for GLBT people. Several political pundits, however, are predicting a fairly quick move toward revisiting the marriage equality issue in Parliament to satisfy right wing elements among Harper's base, but that there's probably not enough legislative support for repeal. "This Way Out" correspondent Heather Kitching in Vancouver, B.C. will have more next week on the impact of Harper's win on GLBT communities in Canada. The firestorm over blood donations by gay men in South Africa has the country’s Human Rights Commission weighing in on behalf of those who want to donate. The blood ban has prompted new protests recently from queer rights groups, and the Commission this week issued a statement saying it believes a ban should not be in place. Commissioner Leon Wessels said that until there is solid evidence pointing to HIV/AIDS prevalence in South Africa’s gay communities there was no reason to bar them from giving blood. Studies from the United Nations and the World Health Organization indicate that the majority of those who have HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are women, many of whom contracted the disease from their husbands. Wessels was joined by many other activist groups who insist that exclusions from blood donations should be made on the basis of scientific evidence, and not on social pressures. Wessels suggested that since previous efforts to change the policy had not gone far, activists may need to call on the courts. The South African National Blood Service also issued a press release this week disputing claims by the controversial Gay & Lesbian Alliance that it had organized the donation of more than 600 pints of blood by gay men to protest the ban. Spokespersons for the blood service charged that it was statistically impossible that the group had been responsible for such donations, as there was no increase in donations during the claimed period, nor could donations be traced back to any member of the group. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance is largely discredited and derided, even within GLBT communities in South Africa. In New Zealand, it's a ban on donations of another kind that has riled queer activists. A man in Wellington ­ who has remained anonymous -- says he was discriminated against when the Fertility Associates sperm bank rejected him as a donor simply because he is gay. He had decided to donate sperm after hearing recent reports about a shortage of donors, and was shocked when the clinic informed him that they could not accept a donation from him. Dr. Richard Fisher of Fertility Associates noted that Australian regulations, aimed in part at stopping the spread of HIV, control the licensing of sperm banks in both Australia and New Zealand. He said he's requested a review of the policy on several occasions because he believes that technology has sufficiently advanced to protect recipients of such donations from HIV infection. But he says the Reproductive Technologies Accreditation Committee had not changed its policy requiring all donors to be heterosexual. Fisher added, however, that his company did accept donations from gay men with the explicit consent of the recipient. Wellington attorney Tony Ellis, who chairs the Council for Civil Liberties, said considering that the donated sperm is tested, the regulations are based on an irrational homophobic fear. New Zealand's Human Rights Commission said that it would pursue the Wellington man's complaint as a dispute resolution matter. About 150 African-American religious leaders from across the country met in Atlanta, Georgia this week to combat what they say is widespread prejudice against gay men and lesbians within Black churches. The unprecedented event was organized by the D.C.-based National Black Justice Coalition, an advocacy group for gay men and lesbians. While African Americans in general are seen as supporting liberal candidates for public office and a broadly progressive agenda, homosexuality -- especially within historically Black churches -- has been a divisive issue. At the conference, one time Democratic presidential candidate the Reverend Al Sharpton lamented the increase in the number of Black voters who sided with President Bush in the 2004 election. He charged that Republicans had successfully emphasized homophobic issues to distract voters from Bush's failures in healthcare, combating poverty, and the war in Iraq. "So they did what they always do," Sharpton said, "... and reached for the bigotry against gay and lesbian people." The Reverend Timothy McDonald, pastor of the First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta, said of his decision to host the conference, "This is a learning experience, and it has not been without costs. Have we gotten nasty phone calls? Yes. Do I have the marks to show for it? Yes. But I think Jesus took some unpopular stances, too." Organizers of the conference said attendees need to meet with clergy members, friends and family to begin a discussion of homosexuality at their churches, but that change is expected to be slow. And finally, two U.S. states went in opposite directions on queer equality issues this week. The Virginia legislature overwhelmingly voted to place on the ballot a proposed amendment to the commonwealth's constitution that would define marriage as exclusively heterosexual. It would also ban recognition of any forms of legal unions contracted elsewhere that "approximate the design, qualities, significance or effects of marriage". Critics warn that the measure is so broadly worded that it could undermine contracts affecting unmarried people, including heterosexuals. Among the examples cited were insurance and joint ownership of property. Proponents claim that even though Virginia already outlaws same gender marriage, the amendment is necessary to preemptively counter possible future court rulings in their favor. State anti-marriage amendments will also be on the ballot this year in South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and South Dakota. However, while it took 3 decades, queers in the state of Washington are finally getting protections against employment and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The most recent effort failed by one vote in the state Senate during its last legislative session, but it won by 2 votes this week, and was approved by a 61-to-37 margin in less than 5 minutes in the state House. Well over half the states in the U.S. still do not grant their GLBT citizens such basic anti-bias protections, nor does the federal government. Speaking to a packed and jubilant crowd at the Washington state Capitol in Olympia, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire pledged to sign the bill and to continue to fight discrimination both in and out of office. Religious conservatives have threatened boycotts against some of the state's biggest companies that supported the bill, including Boeing, Nike, Hewlett-Packard, and -- in a turn-around from its much-criticized "neutral" stance last year -- Microsoft. The legislative balance tipped earlier this month when a staunch opponent, Senator Bill Finkbeiner of Kirkland, said that he would join most Democrats to vote in favor of the bill. He was the only Republican to do so, while 2 Democrats opposed it. "What the debate is about is whether it's okay to be gay or lesbian in the state," Finkbeiner told his colleagues. "People don't choose this. People don't choose who they love. The heart chooses."