“NewsWrap" for the week ending May 2, 2009 (As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #1,101, distributed 5-4-09) [Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley] Reported this week by John Torres and Michael LeBeau Johanna Sigurdardottir, the lesbian named interim prime minister of Iceland in February, led her leftist coalition to a resounding victory in national elections this week. An alliance of Sigurdardottir’s Social Democrats and Left Greens won an absolute majority of 52 percent of the seats in parliament. That’s a first for a left-wing government. The 66-year-old Sigurdardottir was appointed to head a caretaker government earlier this year after the global economic crisis reached Iceland, leading to a banking collapse and major street protests a rarity in Iceland against the conservative government of the Independence Party. The openly gay Per-Kristian Foss served briefly as interim Prime Minister of Norway in 2002. Sigurdardottir’s original appointment made her the first openly lesbian leader of a national government in modern times, and also her country’s first female prime minister. While her sexuality was of little concern to most Icelanders, several pundits didn’t think Sigurdardottir could win a general election. But the former flight attendant and union organizer had served in 2 parliaments since 1978, earning the highest public approval ratings o f any cabinet member. Her immense popularity for rejecting such trappings as a government limousine, and championing numerous social causes, apparently helped her win the election... though the hugely unpopular 18-year conservative government was certainly also a factor. Sigurdardottir, who insists on a private personal life, married her lesbian partner, well-known writer Jonina Leosdottir, in a 2002 civil ceremony. Sigurdardottir said her top priority is to bring Iceland into the European Union and adopt the euro. That idea has split Iceland’s population almost down the middle, and she’ll face opposition from the Left Greens in her own coalition government. But Burundi has become the latest African nation to outlaw homosexuality. The provision in the country’s new penal code makes private consensual adult homosexual acts a criminal offense, with up to 3 years in prison and heavy fines. The National Assembly reversed a Senate vote that had rejected the anti-gay provision, prompting thousands to join government-organized protest demonstrations. Under Burundi’s constitution, the National Assembly prevails in cases of conflict between the 2 houses of Parliament. President Pierre Nkurunziza quietly signed the legislation on April 22nd. The bill was part of a sweeping reform of the country’s criminal code that also bans capital punishment, protects women and children from all forms of violence - especially sexual violence - and toughens laws on genocide. Amnesty International’s Africa program director Erwin van der Borght said that the generally good news “is undermined by the government’s decision to criminalize homosexuality, in violation of Burundi’s obligations under international and regional human rights law. It also flies in the face of Burundi’s constitution, which guarantees the right to privacy.” Human Rights Watch and dozens of other groups have also condemned the move. Health organizations in Burundi have said that the new law will limit the effectiveness of their work to curb HIV/AIDS. Elsewhere on the continent, the 9 gay AIDS educators in Senegal who were freed from prison last week, after an appeals court overturned their 8-year sentences following convictions for “indecent and unnatural acts” and criminal conspiracy, are being threatened with death. Radio stations and newspapers in the country are urging people to attack them, with one station calling on listeners to hunt down and kill anyone suspected of “being a homosexual.” One of the African country’s largest Islamic groups issued statements describing gays as “vicious” and “perverts” and accused them of spreading AIDS even though the recently-released men were in facct HIV outreach workers who focused on educating men who have sex with men about safe sex pract ices. Amnesty International called on the government to protect all gay men in the country, and to repeal laws that criminalize consensual adult same-gender sex with up to 5 years in prison. Hungary's parliament, however, has approved a registered partners law for same-gender couples. The measure passed 199-to-159, with support from the governing Socialist Party and the Alliance of Free Democrats. The country’s Constitutional Court struck down a previous partnership law open to both same-gender and heterosexual couples just before it was to take effect on January 1st. The Court said that the law granting marriage-like rights to registered heterosexual couples violated the special protection given to marriage by the Hungarian Constitution. It was uncertain, after the Constitutional Court ruling, if parliament would pass a law that only applied to gay and lesbian couples, but the new measure does just that. It includes most of the rights of marriage except the name, but does not include adoption or assisted reproduction. President László Sólyom was expected to sign the measure, which would go into effect 2 months thereafter. A gender-neutral civil marriage law took effect in Sweden on May 1st, allowing same-gender couples to legally marry in that country. Civil unions granting gay and lesbian couples the same legal status as married couples had been allowed under Swedish law since 1995. Parliament, concluding that separate was not equal, voted overwhelmingly to upgrade civil unions to full marriage earlier this year. The Lutheran Church, which was the state church until 2000, and counts almost 3 in 4 Swedes as members, has blessed civil unions. While it supported the new law, the Church will not formally decide whether to sanction same-gender marriage ceremonies until October. At least 360 same-gender couples applied for marriage licenses in Iowa on April 27th, the first day the U.S. state Supreme Court’s matrimonial equality ruling went into effect. Judges waived the standard 3-day waiting period for some couples after they got their licenses, allowing them to marry that day. Iowa has no residency requirement, and the “Des Moines Register” reported that at least 26 marriage licenses were issued to same-gender couples from neighboring states, such as Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin, although they won’t be recognized in their home states. The U.S. federal government does not recognize the legal unions of same-gender couples in any state. Opponents of the Iowa high court ruling delivered petitions urging county recorders not to issue licenses to lesbian and gay couples, but there were no reports of any officials doing that, and no major protest demonstrations. State agencies had informed county recorders the previous week that they could be removed from their positions if they=2 0 didn't follow the law and issue the licenses. The Iowa legislature adjourned on April 26th without considering any measure that would allow a public vote on constitutionally reversing the marriage equality ruling. The earliest that complicated process could take place under state law would be in 2012. Iowa is the third state, after Massachusetts and Connecticut, to open civil marriage to gay and lesbian couples. They’ll be joined by Vermont in September. Meanwhile, the New Hampshire Senate somewhat unexpectedly passed a marriage equality bill this week. A 3-to-2 committee vote had recommended against passage. But the full Senate approved the bill by a 13-to-11 margin after an amendment was added to allow religious institutions to refuse to marry same-gender couples. The state House passed similar legislation by a 186-to-179 vote in March, but without that provision. As of this report Democratic Governor John Lynch has not signaled if he will sign or veto the measure after the relatively minor differences are resolved in the 2 legislative bodies. He’s previously expressed support for the state’s existing civil unions law and his belief that marriage should remain exclusively heterosexual. Unlike Vermont, where legislators overrode a veto by Republican Governor Jim Douglas, there do not appear to be enough votes in New Hampshire’s legislature to do that. Maine’s Senate also approved a marriage equality bill this week, by a vote of 21-to-14, and after an amendment to require a statewide referendum on the issue was defeated. It moves next to the state House. If it passes there, Democratic Governor James Baldacci recently told well-known blogger Pam, of “Pam’s House Blend,” that “I was opposed to this for a long time, but people evolve, people change as time goes by.” If marriage equality is enacted in Maine, opponents have vowed to initiate a petition drive to place the issue before the voters. New Mexico will provide retirement health insurance to the domestic partners of state workers under an agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union, which had filed a lawsuit demanding that action. It charged that New Mexico’s different treatment of gay and lesbian employees was a violation of the state constitution’s equal protection guarantees. Both same-gender and heterosexual employees and their domestic partners will be covered. And finally, “Agence France Presse” reported this week that monks in Thailand will be teaching proper etiquette to gay Buddhist novices to help curb what they call “flamboyant” behavior, including wearing lipstick and overly tightening their saffron robes. Officials cited numerous reports of new monks plucking their eyebrows, walking with an exaggerated swing of the hips, and carrying handba gs, which they said were damaging the reputation of the conservative Buddhist faith. They said that while monks who had sex in their sleeping quarters would be thrown out, homosexuality itself was not banned. “Otherwise,” said a senior Buddhist monk, “more than half of them would be defrocked.”