************************************************* The week of 05/20/96 on T H I S W A Y O U T the international gay & lesbian radio magazine * In NewsWrap: The Uniting Church of Australia explores positive sexual values, the Episcopal Church in the U.S. grapples with lesbigay ordination, and the Church of England's former Archbishop of Canterbury admits to ordaining queer priests ... The U.S. Congress considers dumb and DOMA legislation ... condemnation of "the homosexual lifestyle" comes and goes with the Olympic torch ... and several other stories ... [anchored by Cindy Friedman and Brian Nunes]. * They may look outrageous, but the measure of the pride and liberation spread by The Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence is no joke. In London, Rebecca Sandles and Helen Jones report on how the gospel of this "dis-order" has roller-skated from San Francisco to England. * Harvey Milk, whose election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and subsequent assassination were pivotal events in the movement for gay and lesbian liberation, would have been 66 years old this May 22nd. For those who weren't around, and those who need to remember the impact of his life and death, This Way Out presents this birthday salute, featuring excerpts from an interview conducted shortly after Milk took the oath of office in early 1978, and reactions to his murder in November of that year. ==========================*============================= =NewsWrap= for the week ending May 18th, 1996 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #425, distributed 05-20-96) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Bill Stosine, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon, and Ron Buckmire] Australia's Uniting Church has drafted a discussion paper on sexuality which supports ordination of gay and lesbian clergy. The report entitled "A Journey Into Sexuality" is the result of four years of research, and the Church will vote on its final version in July 1997. Taking "the view that sexuality is an integral part of the human person," the paper says that "though it may include genital activity, sexuality is much broader and may involve many different forms of awareness and expression." While recognizing that some biblical texts say homosexuality is a sin, the report says, "There is no legitimate reason for rejecting homosexuality or homosexual relationships", and that the Church should support gay and lesbian relationships if they are "right relationships", "characterized by the love, caring and compassion embodied in Jesus Christ" and containing "the key elements" of "honesty, trust and commitment." The paper goes on to say, "We believe the critical moral issue that faces the Church in the field of sexuality is not homosexuality but the unjust treatment of people and their devaluation as sexual-spiritual persons." Regarding ordination, the Uniting Church task force authoring the paper said it "found no evidence that a person who is homosexual is less fit for ministry, or that a homosexual minister damages the credibility of the ministry, any more than anyone else. To reject a person from the ministry because that person is a homosexual is a rejection of their personhood." The paper also supported same-gender marriages, as well as divorce and sex outside of marriage. The Uniting Church is Australia's third-largest Christian denomination, after Catholicism and the Church of England. Retired U.S. Episcopal bishop Walter Righter had been charged with heresy by his fellow bishops for having ordained an openly active gay man. This week, after three months of deliberations, a ruling was issued saying, "The court finds that there is no core doctrine prohibiting the ordination of a non-celibate, homosexual person living in a faithful and committed sexual relationship with a person of the same sex." Only one member of the eight-bishop panel dissented from the ruling, but two others specified that no bishop should perform ordinations of openly active gays and lesbians until the Church had formally voted to approve them. The bishops who charged Righter with heresy do have the option of appealing to a higher Church court, and the almost 2-1/2-million-member U.S. Episcopal Church is likely to act on the matter when it convenes in 1997. And the world leader of the British cousin of the U.S. Episcopal church, The Church of England former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Robert Runcie, this week told the media that his Church's policy against ordination of openly active gays and lesbians is "ludicrous". He admitted that he himself had sometimes knowingly ordained homosexually active clergy. Runcie, who retired in 1991, said he'd refused to ordain anyone who "told me they were a practicing homosexual", but that "on the other hand, there have been times in my ministry when I have acted in a 'don't want to know' way and 'why should I inquire?' way, and I never liked the prospect of inquiring into what happened in a man's bedroom unless he's prepared to tell me." Gays and lesbians were a hot topic in the U.S. House of Representatives this week. By a 2-to-1 margin, the full House passed a 1997 Defense Authorization Bill including a return to the pre-1992 outright ban on military service by open gays and lesbians and a requirement to discharge military personnel testing positive for HIV. Those items were included thanks to the House's leading homophobe, Republican Robert Dornan of California. It's only been a month since his HIV ban was deleted from a 1996 defense spending measure by a House-Senate conference committee, and it's possible that could happen again, since the Senate version of the current bill does not include the dornan provisions. U.S. President Bill Clinton has indicated he might veto the measure, but would do so based on its increasing funding he'd planned to cut back rather than on the anti-gay- and-lesbian or HIV provisions. A personal attack by Dornan led openly gay Republican Congressmember Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin to use the unusual "point of personal privilege" procedure to defend himself on the House floor this week. At the instigation of The Family Research Council, Dornan last week published in The Congressional Record charges that an AIDS benefit held in two federal buildings with Gunderson's sponsorship featured illegal drugs and illicit sex. Gunderson denied the charges and said no evidence had been presented. Security personnel who worked at the event confirm Gunderson's version, and even The Family Research Council's own videotape of the event fails to show anything more shocking than men dancing together with their shirts off. Also this week, a U.S. House subcommittee heard testimony on the so-called Defense of Marriage Act only a week after its introduction. The bill known as DOMA is a national version of measures considered in 34 U.S. States this year and made law in 8, to deny legal recognition to gay and lesbian marriages performed in another state. All that activity has been a reaction to the possibility of gay and lesbian marriages becoming legal in Hawaii following a legal case to be heard there later this year. In addition to allowing any state to ignore another state's marriages or marriage-like treatment of same-gender relationships, DOMA would restrict the definitions of "marriage" and "spouse" to legally-married heterosexual couples only for purposes of all federal regulations. It's intended to somehow override the U.S. Constitution's "full faith and credit" contract among the states to honor each other's legal proceedings. It's also believed to be the first time in history that a federal effort has been made to interfere in the states' rights to regulate marriages. State legislators from Colorado, Hawaii, and Michigan testified in support of DOMA, along with conservative Los Angeles radio talk show host Dennis Praeger and law professor Hadley Arkes. State legislators from Iowa and Nebraska testified against DOMA, as did openly gay former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan and the mother of a lesbian daughter. Openly gay Democrat Barney Frank of Massachusetts, a member of the subcommittee, also spoke against DOMA. There's been considerable speculation as to whether President Clinton would sign or veto DOMA if it passed the House and Senate. A presidential spokesperson suggested this week that even though Clinton views DOMA as an election year political maneuver, he would likely sign it into law based on his desire to "strengthen families" and his stated personal opposition to legal gay and lesbian marriages. Two years ago, when commissioners of Georgia's Cobb County passed a resolution condemning what they called "the homosexual lifestyle", another Georgia County, Wayne County, was quick to follow suit. Cobb County reaffirmed its resolution even when it meant losing first an Olympic volleyball venue and then a visit from the Olympic torch relay. But the Wayne County Commission make-up has changed in the interim, and despite a hearing room packed with homophobic constituents, the Commission last week voted 3-to-2 to repeal their resolution rather than chance losing their visit from the Olympic torch. And this week, the controversy moved out of Georgia and into South Carolina, where the Spartanburg County Council on May 13th unanimously approved a homophobic resolution identical to Cobb County's. The item had not been on the Council's meeting agenda and was passed without discussion, partly in defiance of the Olympic organizers having re-routed the torch out of Cobb. An Olympics spokesperson appeared to be waffling on the question, telling media, "We can't be the social arbiters of the world." Even so, some Spartanburg councilmembers felt they'd been misled, one believing he'd been supporting his state assembly's bill against same-gender marriages, another unwilling to risk losing Spartanburg's place on the torch route. U.S.A. Gymnastics began to plan to move their training camp out of Spartanburg County, and the County Council decided to reconsider. On May 17th, the Spartanburg County Council voted to rescind the resolution it had passed less than a week before. In keeping with the new South African constitution's ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation, this week the South African Parliament adopted a policy prohibiting discrimination against gays, lesbians and women in the military. Said Parliamentary Defense Committee member Ian Phillips, "The Defense Force now has to implement it whether they like it or not. We will keep an eye on them." And finally ... British-born David Harrad has been living for four years with his lover, Brazilian gay activist Tony Reis. Despite their efforts to obtain Brazilian residency for Harrad based on his marriage-like relationship with Reis, Harrad has only been able to stay in the country with a series of six-month visas. The publicity surrounding their case brought Harrad numerous offers of marriage from Brazilian women, including a pregnant woman who promised to testify that he'd fathered her child, but Harrad never considered any of those proposals for a minute. When Brazil ordered him to leave by May 15th or be extradited, though, he received a proposal he couldn't refuse. On Mother's Day, the 38-year-old Harrad was married to 66-year-old Maria da Conceicao dos Reis, his lover's mother. Said Maria, "It was the least I could do for my son's happiness. I sent him to a psychiatrist when he was 14 and I found out he was gay. Now I'm paying him back for that embarrassment." Said Harrad, "Nobody can talk badly about mothers or mothers-in-law around me. That's for sure." And next ... Tony Reis and Harrad plan to challenge Brazilian law again by adopting a child. Sources for this week's report: Reuter News Service; The New York Times; U.S.A. Today; The Associated Press; The Los Angeles Times; The Washington Post; The State/Columbia, South Carolina; The Herald-Journal/Spartanburg, South Carolina; and press releases from The Human Rights Campaign and Log Cabin Republicans. ************************************************* Some THIS WAY OUT operating expenses are funded by grants from The C.P. Estes Guadalupe Foundation, The Gill Foundation, The Kicking Assets Fund Of The Tides Foundation, and by individual donations from listeners worldwide. Special thanks to Uncommon Clout Visa cardholders who have designated THIS WAY OUT as one of several nonprofits to receive a percentage of their chargecard purchases. THIS WAY OUT is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit under the corporate name of OVERNIGHT PRODUCTIONS, INC. -------------------------------------------------------- THIS WAY OUT airs on over 85 public/community radio stations throughout the U.S. and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Denmark, Sweden, and on Costa Rica-based global shortwave station Radio For Peace International (RFPI). For a complete Station Carriage List and/or more information, write to THIS WAY OUT at P.O. Box 38327, Los Angeles, CA 90038-0327, U.S.A., or e-mail your request to TWOradio@aol.com. ---------*----------- For a current list of participating stations and lots of other information about THIS WAY OUT (including audiocassette subscription information), please visit our continually-updated WORLD WIDE WEB home page. Find it on the Queer Resources Directory ... Our page is at: http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/media/radio/thiswayout *************************************************