“NewsWrap" for the week ending February 14, 2009 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,090, distributed 2-16-09) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Rick Watts and Greg Gordon It’s not all that often that an LGBT rights group sues its country’s President. But Moscow Pride filed suit this week against Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the European Court of Human Rights for failing to mediate its long-running rights dispute with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. The activists appealed to a Russian court last year asking Medvedev to intervene in the continuing refusal of Mayor Luzhkov to grant permits for peaceful LGBT Pride demonstrations. Russian law requires the President to reply to appeals within a 30-day period. A Moscow court ruled in July, however, that Medvedev is immune from prosecution. This week’s complaint against Medvedev was the seventh rights-related filing in the EuroCourt by Moscow Pride. The sixth, submitted earlier this month, specifically addressed the ban of a demonstration on May 17, 2008 -- the International Day Against Homophobia -- during which protesters planned to demand that Mayor Luzhkov be prosecuted for systematically and unlawfully blocking all LGBT Pride events. Moscow Pride says the city's various bans violate provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing freedom of assembly and protectio ns from discrimination. The group is seeking 100,000 euros in damages. Luzhkov has called Pride events "satanic," and said that the bans prevent gay "propaganda" from contributing to the spread of HIV and AIDS. Cases before the European Court of Human Rights generally proceed rather slowly. It could be more than a year before any of the lawsuits is heard. A survey released by Ireland's Health Ministry has found that almost one-fifth of LGBT people have tried to kill themselves because of abuse and isolation related to their sexual identity. Eighty percent of respondents reported homophobic verbal abuse, 58 percent said they'd been bullied in school, 40 percent reported threats of physical violence, and 25 percent said they'd been beaten up for being gay. The study was done by University College Dublin's School of Education and Trinity College's Children's Research Centre. Britain’s “PinkNews.com” reported this week that an Iranian lesbian has been granted refugee status after a 3-year battle with the U.K.'s asylum system. Now 42-year-old Pegah Emambakhsh escaped from Iran after her partner was arrested, tortured, and subsequently sentenced to death by stoning. Her father was also arrested, interrogated and tortured for information on her whereabouts. She repeatedly said that her sexual orientation and her past life in Iran would have led to her execution if she were forced to return=2 0home. According to the British LGBT rights group Outrage, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is qualitatively more homophobic than almost any other state on earth." A gay male couple who also escaped from Iran in 2005 to avoid arrest and possible execution has won asylum in Canada. 32-year-old Ali and 25-year-old Mohammad arrived in Toronto this week. Their surnames were withheld to protect family members still in Iran. According to a report in the “Toronto Sun,” the couple originally fled to India, where they sought help from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to relocate in Canada. Arsham Parsi, of Iranian Queer Railroad, told the newspaper that the Commission made an “urgent and high priority” plea at the Canadian embassy in New Delhi for their resettlement. Iranian Queer Railroad, modeled after the Underground Railroad that helped slaves from the U.S. South escape to the North in the mid 19th Century, says it has helped more than 60 LGBT Iranian refugees resettle in more welcoming locales. “It took [Ali and Mohammad] 3 years to get here,” Parsi said. “Canada is a gay-friendly country and they will be successful here.” The Uniting American Families Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week by New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler. It would allow gays and lesbians in relationships with foreign partners to sponsor them for residency in the country. Current immigration law only allows heterosexual sponsorship. Nadler has been fighting for the legislation for the past 8 years. “In 2009,” he said, “we should be ready as a society to acknowledge that stable American families come in all varieties.” The measure, formerly called the Permanent Partners Immigration Act, had 118 cosponsors in the House last year. Nadler said he’s confident of increasing that number in the new Congress. The Senate version, with an initial 10 co-sponsors, is spearheaded by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy. But he said that immigration reform in general, a political hot potato during the last years of the George W. Bush presidency, suggests an uphill fight for any immigration-related measure. Rachel Tiven of the group Immigration Equality told a media teleconference this week that the estimated 36,000 bi-national lesbigay couples living in the U.S. under current law force the foreign partner to jump through hoops to get a limited series of temporary visas, or to live in the country illegally, ever-fearful of deportation. Many couples who want to stay together eventually have to leave the U.S. altogether. At least 16 countries currently allow residents to sponsor their same-gender partners for legal immigration, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South20Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Same-gender couples are observing the annual Freedom to Marry Week across the U.S. in a variety of ways. Many showed up at county clerk offices this week to request marriage licenses they knew would be denied. In New York City, activists wore signs that said “Just Not Married.” Banners held by couples outside the marriage bureau in downtown Las Vegas read “Don’t hate my love.” Couples also sough licenses in Orlando, Florida, San Diego and Fresno, California, Austin, Texas, and Omaha, Nebraska. Rejected couples in Richmond and Charlottesville mocked their state’s marketing slogan “Virginia Is For Lovers.” Several couples were also turned away from marriage license bureaus in Salt Lake City, Utah. One couple said they didn’t feel like they were walking out of the clerk’s office empty-handed. They’re planning a commitment ceremony in California this April, and as one of them said, "Whether the state shows up or not is up to them. But our family, our friends and God will be there." And a sign outside the Allentown, Pennsylvania City Hall, where a few couples tried to get licenses, read “Can we vote on your marriage now?” Several same-gender couples who got hitched in San Francisco in 2004 when Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized marriage licenses for them celebrated the20event’s 5th anniversary with a ceremony in the City Hall Rotunda as part of Freedom To Marry Week. While the state Supreme Court invalidated those marriages, many of those couples wed again during the 5 months last year after the same Court made them legal. The voter-approved Proposition 8, which revoked the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling, is being challenged as unconstitutional in that Court, as are the validity of some 18,000 same-gender marriages legally conducted from mid-June until that November 4th vote. Dozens of people in Beverly Hills attended a ceremony on the steps of the courthouse to celebrate the renewal of wedding vows by Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, the first same-gender couple in Southern California to legally marry and in that same place last June. “It’s not about marriage,” Tyler said. “Now it’s about the Constitution.” Dozens of equality activists gathered outside the Maine House and Senate to distribute Valentine's Day cards urging support for a recently introduced bill to legalize same-gender marriage in that state. Hundreds rallied in the Minnesota state capital of St. Paul and in the Rhode Island capital of Providence to support marriage equality bills progressing through their respective legislatures. Meanwhile, Hawaii’s House of Representatives voted 33-to-17 this week for a civil unions bill that would grant20same-gender couples almost all the rights of marriage but the name. The legislation now goes to the state Senate Judiciary Committee, where the vote is reportedly split among 6 senators, with one undecided. A tie vote would kill the measure for the year. And finally, Pride was celebrated recently under the summertime sun in 2 Southern hemisphere locales. In the Australian state of Victoria, Police Chief Christine Nixon joined about 4,000 celebrants along St. Kilda’s Fitzroy Street in the city’s 14th annual Pride parade. She drew considerable criticism when she first joined the annual march in 2002, but her continued support for LGBT people probably made her the most popular participant this year. She was led by Victoria Police’s bagpipe band, with a contingent of about 30 uniformed officers behind her. About 100 groups and other state officials also marched in the parade. And New Zealand Prime Minister John Key danced with drag queens during Auckland’s 10th annual Big Gay Out this week, an event originally designed to provide a safe space for LGBT people and to promote AIDS awareness. The Prime Minister also tried his hand at some of the carnival games at the festival, where people also beat the hot sun by gliding on a lubricant-enhanced water slip ‘n’ slide, and were then hosed off by members of the New Zealand Fire Service. Opposition leader Phil Goff, Green Party M.P. Kevin Hague, and Auckland Mayor John Banks also reportedly joined in the celebration. About 8,000 partygoers watched the P.M. boogie on stage with drag duo Buffy and Bimbo, who also offered him “a massage to remember”... which Mr. Key politely declined.