"NewsWrap"
for the week ending September 16, 2006
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #964, distributed 9-18-06)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley, and 
Graham Underhill]


Reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and Kareem Ferguson


  Uruguay is on the verge of becoming the first country in South America to 
legally recognize gay and lesbian couples.
New legislation by the ruling leftist coalition of President Tabare Vasquez 
has already passed the Senate, and is expected to pass easily in the Chamber of 
Deputies.
The measure to create a civil unions registry would grant same-gender and 
unmarried heterosexual couples who have been together for at least five years all 
the rights of marriage.  LGBT advocacy groups in the country say they will 
still continue to push for full marriage equality.
Supporters of the civil unions measure argue that judges have been unsure how 
to rule in a number of cases involving same-gender couples because the 
country does not now legally recognize them, particularly in areas of adoption, 
pensions and inheritance.
In a region often dominated by the queer-unfriendly Roman Catholic Church, 
civil unions registries have already been established in neighboring Brazil in 
the city of Buenos Aires and the state of Rio Grande do Sol.  Similar 
legislation is expected to be introduced later this year in the Chiléan Congress.


  But a queer rights organization in South Africa is expressing concern about 
a civil partnerships bill there.  The LGBT advocacy group OUT says the 
proposed legislation falls short of last December's Constitutional Court order that 
same-gender unions be given legal status equal to married heterosexual 
couples.  In its ruling, the high court gave Parliament a year to amend the country's 
marriage law, mandating that "...whatever legislative remedy is chosen must 
be as generous and accepting towards same-sex couples as it is to heterosexual 
couples, both in terms of the intangibles as well as the tangibles involved... 
In a context of patterns of deep past discrimination and continuing 
homophobia, appropriate sensitivity must be shown to providing a remedy that is truly 
and manifestly respectful of the dignity of same-sex couples."
But according to a statement issued by Fikile Vilakazi, OUT's advocacy 
officer, the civil partnerships bill now before Parliament "will mean the 
administration of a separate legal structure for same sex couples.  This sends out a 
message that gay and lesbian people are second class citizens.  The civil 
partnership option should be provided in addition to marriage, not as a replacement 
to it."  Meanwhile, the Marriage Alliance of South Africa has been sponsoring 
marches in Cape Town, Durban and other cities to protest giving any legal 
rights to gay and lesbian couples.  It's uncertain what form the final version of 
the mandated legislation will take in the world's first country to 
constitutionally ban sexual orientation discrimination.  South Africa's Parliament has a 
few more months to comply with the Constitutional Court order.


  A recent federal court decision in Australia requires same gender couples 
who break up to pay capital gains taxes on landholdings they divide when the 
relationship ends.
A lesbian couple split up after 11 years together.  After division of their 
joint assets, one woman ended up with the family home, and the other got an 
investment property.
But when the couple tried to transfer the ownership of the investment 
property, it triggered a massive capital gains tax bill of about 20,000 dollars for 
each woman, and the resulting court case.  A heterosexual couple in the same 
situation would not have to pay any capital gains tax until such time as the 
property was sold.
Australia's Administrative Appeals Tribunal found that only heterosexual 
couples qualify for capital gains tax relief.  The judge found that while changes 
in 1990 to the tax law defined heterosexual de facto couples as "spouses," it 
didn't include same gender relationships.  "Put in other words," he said, "it 
is clear enough that the legislature was prepared to go so far but no 
further... There will undoubtedly be many who consider that the definition of spouse 
should include persons of the same sex, and the tribunal itself has some 
sympathy with this point of view," he added, "but it is not the law at this time."
The women's lawyer called it "a discriminatory decision," and said they're 
considering an appeal.



  Thirteen alleged lesbians were outed by the Ugandan newspaper "Red Pepper" 
late last week.  They included two boutique owners, a basketball player, and 
the daughters of a former M.P. and a prominent Sheik.
Under the headline, "Kampala's notorious lesbians unearthed," "Red Pepper" 
urged its readers to provide it with information about any lesbians they know.  
"To rid our motherland of the deadly vice," the tabloid said, "we are 
committed to exposing all the lesbos in the city."
One Ugandan lesbian activist told reporters that "I know that some women are 
definitely going to lose what they have -- jobs, homes, families, and friends."
"Red Pepper" outed 45 alleged gay and bisexual men last month. According to 
Uganda's Gay And Lesbian Alliance, unidentified men in army uniforms assaulted 
one of the outed gay men.  He was taken to a police station and forced to 
"confess" to being gay.  Another young man on the "Red Pepper" list was thrown out 
of the house by his parents.  His mother guessed that he had sought refuge 
with a gay couple he knows, and gave police their address.  They were arrested 
on homosexuality charges, subsequently released on bail, and are now in hiding.


  There have been a series of government-backed attacks on Ugandan LGBTI 
people in the last year, including a police raid on the home of Victor Juliet 
Mukasa, the lesbian leader of the country's LGBTI movement.
Homosexual activity is punishable in Uganda by life in prison under laws 
originally introduced by the British colonial administration in the nineteenth 
century.
Activists there consider the continued outings to be an open invitation to 
the police and queer-bashers, and they fear increased state and vigilante 
persecution.
"Red Pepper" is reportedly owned by the half-brother of the President of 
Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, whom British activist Peter Tatchell calls "a homophobic 
tyrant who tramples on democracy and human rights."  Amnesty International and 
Human Rights Watch have been among the global rights groups condemning the 
outings.


  Nepal's queer community, who helped oust the regime of unpopular King 
Gyanendra, is now being targeted by the new government they helped put in power, 
according to a report this week by the "Indo-Asian News Service."  The new 
government pledged to uphold democracy and human rights, but has started what 
Nepal's most prominent queer rights group Blue Diamond Society calls a "cleansing 
drive" against obviously-gay men and transsexuals -- or metis -- in the 
capital, Katmandu.  Blue Diamond's president Sunil Pant says arbitrary arrests began 
about a month ago.  Metis are being jailed and beaten by police, and are often 
forced to falsely confess to having sex in public.  They're being prevented 
from moving around freely in the capital, says Pant, and "They have low 
literacy levels, no money, and almost no professional skills."
In Nepal's conservative society, where a son is valued much more than a 
daughter, gays and lesbians are regarded as freaks, and homosexuality is a 
punishable offence.  However, with the support of Blue Diamond, Nepal's first public 
gay wedding was defiantly celebrated earlier this year.
Activists have been urging the new government to end homophobic laws and 
incorporate LGBT rights in a new constitution now being drafted.


   The National Latino Congreso, the largest gathering of Hispanic community 
activists in the U.S. since 1977, approved a resolution during a 3-day meeting 
this week in Los Angeles calling for full lesbian, gay, bisexual and 
transgender equality and civil rights protections.
The resolution also calls for, among other things, support for Latino/Latina 
LGBT people who want to openly serve their country in the military; for 
legislation that would enable LGBT Latinos/Latinas to sponsor the immigration of 
their partners living in other countries; giving LGBT Latinos/Latinas the choice 
to legally marry; and rejection of efforts to exclude LGBT people from the 
larger Latino/Latina United States familia.
"Passage of this resolution represents not only a historic moment," said 
resolution co-author Marlon Morales of the National Latino Coalition for Justice, 
"but in practical terms assures that Latino policy-makers have a mandate to 
consider how their future policies and legislation will contribute to securing 
full human and civil rights for LGBT Latinos."  Activist groups such as 
Bienestar, Equality California, and Lambda Legal also helped spearhead passage of the 
resolution.


  And finally, lesbian tennis legend Martina Navratilova, a month shy of her 
50th birthday, closed out her professional career this week in fitting fashion 
with a mixed doubles championship at the U.S. Open.  Teaming with Bob Bryan 
to crown her competitive career, it was Navratilova's 59th Grand Slam title.
She left the sport in 1994 after winning 167 singles titles, including six 
straight at Wimbledon from 1982 to 1987.  She returned for doubles in 2000, and 
insisted before this week's tournament that it would be her last.  "This is 
definite.  Not allegedly," she said.  "This is a closed chapter.  It's past 
midnight.  It's past my bedtime."  Navratilova said she thought she could have 
played another five years at a top level, telling reporters, "I'm quitting 
because I want to, not because I have to."
Recalling her first pro victory at a tournament in Orlando, Florida in 1974, 
Navratilova said, "I didn't have anyone to hug, because I didn't know anyone.  
I hugged a light pole next to the umpire's chair."
Navratilova defected from then Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia during the 
U.S. Open in 1975.  She began a gradual public coming out process a few years 
later, capped by her featured speech at the 1993 National March on Washington for 
LGBT Rights.
Bryan and Navratilova won 150,000 dollars for this year's U.S. Open doubles 
victory.  When they were presented with the ceremonial check, Bryan handed it 
to Navratilova.  "All yours," he said.