Feb 20, 2004   | COMMENTS     

ROME (AP) — A law virtually banning the freezing of embryos and the use of sperm and egg donors and surrogate mothers, as well as barring gays and singles from receiving artificial procreation assistance, won final approval in Parliament last week. Catholics and lawmakers from both the right and left joined forces, and the bill was passed in the Chamber of Deputies in secret voting by 277 to 222, with three deputies abstaining. The Senate approved it in December. After the law is signed by Italy’s president and its text published in the government gazette, the legislation will go into force, effectively spelling the end of the country’s long-held reputation of the “Wild West” for artificial procreation. The Chamber president, Pier Ferdinando Casini, hailed the bill’s passage, saying lawmakers “courageously took up the responsibility of making a law on such delicate issue.” Fertility treatments will only be allowed for heterosexual couples — both married and couples who have been living together for some time. Doctors face sanctions for assisting single women to conceive as well as for helping gay couples.

Australian prime minister decries gay adoptions
MELBOURNE — Australian Prime Minister John Howard last week denounced gay adoptions, alleging that most Australians do not support them, the Herald Sun reported. His comments came as he defended new Liberal candidate Michael Ferguson, who campaigned last year against laws to allow gay couples to adopt children, the Sun reported. Some Liberals said Ferguson is too conservative to compete with left-leaning Labor incumbent Michelle O’Byrne, according to the Sun. But Howard praised Ferguson and voiced his opposition to gay adoption, the Sun reported. “I’m against gay adoption. I don’t support gay adoptions at all,” Howard told reporters, according to the Sun. “I respect people’s choices about their own lifestyles — that’s their right, and I don’t seek to discriminate against them — but I have a view that gay adoption goes against what the community regards as the traditional family formation, and that is a mother and a father. Therefore, I don’t support gay adoption and I regret attempts to achieve it in parts of Australia.”

Lords approve legislation to let transsexuals marry
LONDON (AP) — Legislation allowing transsexuals to obtain new birth certificates and marry in their adoptive gender received approval from Britain’s upper chamber of Parliament last week. The Gender Recognition Bill next goes to the House of Commons and is expected to come into force in 2005. Transsexuals seeking legal recognition of their new gender will have to provide evidence that they intend to live fully and permanently in that gender, but they will not have to undergo sex change surgery. The proposed gender recognition would be authorized by a panel of legal and medical experts. Registrars and other professionals involved would be under a legal obligation not to divulge the fact that a person had changed gender. However, under the proposed measures, churches would be allowed to ask a prospective marriage partner if he or she had changed gender. If they found the answer unsatisfactory, they could refuse to conduct the marriage. Sports governing bodies would also be allowed to make special rules for transsexual competitors.

Hate crimes show signs of increase in Sweden
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Hate crimes are on the rise in Sweden, but crimes with anti-Semitic undertones are becoming less frequent, an intelligence service said last week. According to SAPO, Sweden’s security police, hate crimes against gays doubled in the first half of 2003, while hate crimes against immigrants increased by 14 percent to 1,100. SAPO did not offer an explanation for the rise and said the results would be analyzed more carefully. The agency said there were 50 hate crimes against Jews in 2003, down from 60 a year earlier. SAPO analyst Michael Johnson said the drop came as a surprise. “We didn’t expect this, especially since there’s so much news of anti-Semitic crimes in Europe and elsewhere now,” he said. The analysis included crimes reported in the first six months of 2003 and serves as a basis for the annual report that will be released later this year.

Transsexual golfer first of her kind in competition
MELBOURNE — At the Australian Women’s Open next month, Mianne Bagger will be the first transsexual competitor in the world of golf, the Sunday Herald Sun reported. Born in Adelaide as a man, Bagger had a sex-change operation eight years ago, having spent a lifetime feeling “something wasn’t quite right,” the Sun reported. Bagger, 37, will be the first transgendered person to play in a professional women’s tourney, ...