“NewsWrap" for the week ending February 28, 2009 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,092, distributed 3-2-09) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and Leigh Moore An international statement condemning violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation failed to win approval this week by participating nations of the Durban Review Conference. It’s being held in April in Geneva to assess the implementation of the Durban Declaration, established in 2001 at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance. U-N-Watch-dot-org reported support for the statement came from the European Union, New Zealand, the United States, and most of South America. But South Africa, on behalf of the African Group, said that adding sexual orientation "goes beyond the framework of the 2001 Durban Declaration." The United States' support of the 45-page document did contrast the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The U.S. opposed a joint statement in December in the United Nations General Assembly that for the first time specifically addressed homophobia and LGBT rights. Sixty-six of the 192 member countries, including the entire European Union, Brazil, Cuba, Central African Republic, Israel, and Japan urged fellow member countries to decriminalize homosexuality. The U.S. joined China, Russia, and virtually eve ry Arab nation in opposition at that time. The Vatican has opposed all global declarations in support of LGBT rights including these 2 most recent efforts at the U.N becauseuse, Roman Catholic doctrine says, acting on same-gender attraction is a behavior and not an orientation. Updating a story we reported 2 weeks ago, controversy continues at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in the Australian city of Brisbane. Father Peter Kennedy was fired by Archbishop John Bathersby for allowing women to preach, and for vocally welcoming LGBT worshippers and blessing same-gender couples. Father Kennedy refuses to vacate the church as ordered, but agreed to meet with the Archdiocese after it proposed former High Court Judge Ian Callinan as a mediator, although details have not been disclosed. The so-called “rebel priest” told reporters that he expected up to 3 thousand people at services on March 1st, some coming from considerable distance to show their support. "Every bishop should put a parish under an edict,” he said, “because the place comes alive. It has further revitalized the community it really has." A Roman Catholic priest who also serves in the Brazilian congress has been temporarily suspended from his priestly duties for supporting the free distribution of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. According to a report by the “Associated Press,” the Reverend Luiz Couto had ministered in the northeastern state of Paraiba. Archdiocese spokesman Eisenhower de Albuquerque said the Church took the action because of Couto’s public stance “in favor of the use of condoms, his support of gay marriage and his opposition to priestly celibacy.” A spokesperson for Reverend Couto said the priest is not a marriage equality advocate, but does oppose “discrimination against homosexuals.” Raving homophobic U.S. pastor Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley were banned from entering the United Kingdom last week. The "God Hates Fags" clan from the tiny Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas had announced plans to picket a performance of “The Laramie Project,” a play about the gay-bashing murder of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard, at a school arts center in Basingstoke, Hampshire. Phelps and his small, mostly-family followers infamously picketed Shepard’s funeral with signs such as “Matthew in Hell.” "Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behavior by inciting hatred against a number of communities,” said a U.K. Border Agency spokesperson. “We will continue to stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country." A single, unidentified demonstrator did show up to picket the play, but the BBC reported that he was chased off by about 50 counter-protesters. The Phelps clan also notoriously picket funerals of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan because, the y say, it’s God’s retribution for America’s acceptance of homosexuality. They had threatened to come to Australia to demonstrate at memorials for those killed by the recent horrific bushfires, but didn’t show up. They did make it to the Academy Awards in Hollywood. We’ll have more about that during our wide-ranging Oscars coverage later in the program. Elsewhere, a conservative Christian group has told a parliamentary inquiry in the Australian state of New South Wales that gays and lesbians are using children to pursue their so-called “agenda”. The Australian Christian Lobby told the Standing Committee of Law and Justice's inquiry into adoption by same gender couples, "Not content with having discrimination removed, (gays and lesbians) are now pursuing symbolic gains and holding up children as trophies for their own agenda." Under current New South Wales state law, a single lesbian or gay person can adopt a child, but her or his partner is not legally recognized as the other parent. A Jamaican lawmaker made headlines in the Caribbean country last week by claiming that the police force has been “over-run by homosexuals.” Under pressure from his Jamaican Labour Party, M.P. Ernest Smith apologized for that charge, but stood by his other comments that the nation’s leading LGBT rights group, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-sexuals and Gays, should be outlawed. It seems to be increasingly more of a=2 0political risk these days to make offensively homophobic comments in the United States, however. Utah Republican State Senator Chris Buttars was removed from 2 committee chairmanships by his embarrassed party after making inflammatory comments to a documentary filmmaker. He called gays and lesbians immoral, "the greatest threat to America," and compared them to Muslim extremists. “Sodom and Gomorrah was localized,” he said. “This is worldwide." A series of 5 LGBT rights-related measures were, nevertheless, all defeated in the GOP-dominated Utah Senate last week. But a Colorado lawmaker’s comments equating gays and lesbians with murderers did not derail passage of a domestic partners bill in that state’s Senate this week. The measure would provide limited rights to registered couples, whether same-gender or heterosexual, to share health benefits, make medical decisions for an incapacitated partner, and to leave property to a partner. During debate on the bill, Republican state Senator Scott Renfroe quoted from the Bible and called homosexuality an “offense to God... We are taking sins and making them to be legally OK. That is wrong,” he said. “I’m not saying this is the only sin out there. We have murder... We don’t make laws making murder legal.” There were no reports that fellow Republicans had taken any disciplinary action against Renfroe for his remarks, although human rights groups and other lawmakers condemn ed them, including Colorado’s first openly-lesbigay state senator, Democrat Jennifer Veiga, who sponsored the bill. During debate, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Brandon Shaffer called the fair treatment of gay and lesbian citizens "the civil rights issue of our day." A similar bill has already passed in the state House. The 2 bills must now be reconciled and gain final approval in both legislative bodies. Renfroe told “The Greeley Tribune” this week that “I apologize if my use of words did upset people, I guess. I probably could have been more eloquent.” New Mexico’s state Senate rejected a similar domestic partner registry this week. Ten Democrats joined all 15 Republicans to defeat the measure by a 25-to-17 vote. Continuing to blur the separation of church and state mandated by the U.S. Constitution, Roman Catholic bishops in New Mexico had urged their congregations to lobby Senators to oppose the bill. A bill to add gays and lesbians to the state’s Human Rights Act, sponsored by Indiana’s only openly lesbigay lawmaker Nicole LeFavour, was defeated in a state Senate committee this week. Republican Senator Russ Fulcher told the committee that “I’m not interested in giving special rights... based on behavior.” LeFavour, who reportedly left the hearing in tears, has vowed to try again next year. A Hawai’i Senate committee deadlocked 3-to-3 this week on a civil unions bill that would grant virtually all the state rights of marriage except the name to same-gender couples. But a rarely invoked provision of the Hawai’i Constitution can force a full Senate vote if more than one-third of its members approve. At least 18 of the state’s 25 Senators are on record in support of the bill. It’s already passed in the state House, but Republican Governor Linda Lingle, whose signature would be required to make the bill law, has not stated her position on the measure. And finally, a Scottish lesbian couple will be given fertility treatment by a National Health Service office in Glasgow after they sued the local health authority for denying services to them. Caroline Harris and Julie McMullan had asked the Court of Session in Edinburgh for 20,000 pounds in compensation. A consultant told them last July that they did not "fit the criteria" for IVF services because they are “biologically incapable of conceiving” and therefore “would not be eligible for NHS funded treatment." The health board denied that it had discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation, but issued a statement this week acknowledging the recent passage of the U.K. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 and Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007. The board said, in part, that it had “reconsidered its position... and has now decided to offer treatment to this couple."