~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NewsWrap for the week ending June 22nd, 1996 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #430, distributed 06-24-96) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Bill Stosine, Jason Lin, Greg Gordon, Ron Buckmire and Bjorn Skolander] The U.S. Supreme Court this week followed up on its recent decision striking down Colorado's anti-gay Amendment 2 by ordering a federal appeals court to reconsider Issue 3, a ballot initiative passed by Cincinnati, Ohio voters in 1993 to prohibit civil rights protections for gays and lesbians. While a trial court had struck down Issue 3, the appellate court reinstated the measure in 1995. The Supreme Court has now ordered that appellate court to reconsider, "in light of" the high court's own decision in "Romer vs. Evans", which found that the similar Colorado initiative violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. The Supreme Court justices all repeated their Amendment 2 positions in the Cincinnati case for another 6-to-3 decision. While the majority did not comment, Justice Antonin Scalia's dissenting opinion agreed with the Cincinnati City Attorney's argument that there is a meaningful distinction between the two initiatives -- that while Cincinnati voters were deciding for themselves to deny protections from discrimination to gays and lesbians, Colorado's statewide vote would have served to override local ordinances. Scalia wrote that the consequence of striking down Issue 3 "would be that nowhere in the country may the people decide, in democratic fashion, not to accord special protection to homosexuals." Although they had hoped the Supreme Court would itself strike down Issue 3, gay and lesbian activist attorneys are confident that the appellate court will have to do so. Canada's prohibition against discrimination based on sexual orientation won royal assent this week to finally become the law of the land. The Canadian representative of England's Queen Elizabeth approved the measure recently passed by the Canadian Parliament to extend The Canadian Human Rights Act to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination by the federal government and federally-regulated businesses, such as banking, travel and communications. Australia's Senate this week voted to establish a committee to review proposed legislation prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. The committee will report its findings to the Senate in March. But, despite international condemnation and a national privacy law, Australia's island state of Tasmania retains its law prescribing up to 25 years in prison for sex acts between consenting adult males. The Legislative Council, the upper house of Tasmania's Parliament, this week rejected, by a vote of 10-to-8, a measure to reform the sodomy law. It was the third time in five years that the Council rejected such reform. The lower house of the Tasmanian Parliament had passed the reform. The Legislative Council had previously also rejected a referendum to put the reform question before Tasmanian voters ... so activists must look to Australia's Supreme Court to strike down the law. The Legislative Council of the state of South Australia, by a one-vote margin, has approved a measure to recognize gay and lesbian domestic partners as equal to common-law heterosexual couples. The state's lower house, The House Of Assembly, will next consider the bill, which would allow the partners' property disputes to be judged in family court rather than civil courts. France's Socialist Party announced this week that it plans to introduce a measure in the national Parliament to establish legal domestic partnerships, known there as "social unions". The minority party believes same-gender couples should have rights equal to those of heterosexual couples for social and financial matters, including housing and inheritance. The U.S. campaign to reject the possibility of legal gay and lesbian marriages continues. Both houses of the North Carolina state legislature this week approved a bill to deny legal recognition to same-gender marriages. Unlike any other U.S. state, North Carolina's governor has no veto power, so North Carolina is now the 13th U.S. state to enact a law denying legal recognition to gay and lesbian marriages performed in another state. The Massachusetts State Senate this week voted to extend the state's hate crimes law to include homophobic violence as a basis for increased sentencing. The Massachusetts State House had already passed a different version of the same bill, so next a conference committee will have to work out the differences. Governor William Weld is expected to sign the bill in July. The Texas Supreme Court this week ruled unanimously that the state's Republican Party could exclude the gay and lesbian Log Cabin Republicans from this week's state party convention. Although the Republican Party of Texas had originally agreed to sell Log Cabin both an exhibit booth and an ad in the convention program, they later backed out, ostensibly because they perceived conflicts between the state party's platform and the goals of Log Cabin. Log Cabin filed a lawsuit, and last week a trial court issued a temporary order against the state party ... but the Republican Party of Texas appealed to the state Supreme Court, which voted unanimously to reverse the order. Log Cabin's booth, already set up at the convention site, was dismantled and removed. German gays and lesbians about to celebrate "Christopher Street Day" experienced some of what sparked that historic New York City uprising. On the eve of the first-ever gay and lesbian pride celebration in the state of Sachsen-Anhalt, police in Halle carried out Germany's biggest gay bar raid since the end of the Nazi regime. About 200 police in full riot gear entered the Zoom disco with guns drawn. They ordered the 70 patrons to lie down on the floor, and used their batons to enforce compliance. The patrons were handcuffed and forced to lie still for four hours, and some were strip searched. All of them were videotaped by police, and those without identification were taken to local police stations. Although police said the raid was an effort to arrest drug dealers, all they found was a single Ecstasy tablet. Local activists believe the raid was a calculated effort to suppress the newly-organized gay and lesbian movement in the area. Berlin's gay and lesbian pride celebration will include a protest of the action. Gays and lesbians around the world are demonstrating pride this month. In France, marches were held in Paris, Rennes, and Marseilles on June 22nd. All three events called for legal recognition of same-gender couples. The largest march was in Paris, with an estimated 80,000 participants -- 25% more than last year. Also on June 22nd, about 500 gays and lesbians marched through Manila in The Philippines. A marcher dressed as a Catholic cardinal drew particular attention from on-lookers, but the organizers, the group Reach Out, were demanding equal treatment and acceptance. Thousands more gays and lesbians have already begun the ten days of EuroPride festivities in Copenhagen, which opened with a concert on June 21st. 20,000 participants are expected. And finally ... the U.S. Southern Baptist Conference gained widespread media attention last week when it threatened to boycott Disney, largely because the entertainment giant had extended spousal benefits to the domestic partners of its gay and lesbian employees. Disney officials didn't blink, commenting only that they had to question any group that would deny anyone health benefits. Both economic analysts and Disney stockholders are convinced that such a boycott couldn't hurt the company. Some gays and lesbians, on the other hand, are supporting Disney rather avidly. At the beginning of June, some 25,000 of them visited Disney World in Orlando, Florida for the 6th annual "Gay Day" there, and bought hundreds of T-shirts celebrating a song from Disney's latest animated feature, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Quasimodo's anthem features a plea to fit in "like ordinary men who freely walk about", and is conveniently titled "Out There" [included in the broadcast: a generous excerpt from the song]. ------------*------------ Source for this week's report: Reuter News Service; The Associated Press; The Cincinnati Enquirer; Brother-Sister/Australia; The Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer; USA Today; Entertainment Weekly/U.S.; The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel; cyberpress releases from the U.S. Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund and Nassauer Plenum/Berlin; and the soundtrack from Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". ************************************************* A Worldwide Proclamation Of Pride issued this week by ILGA - The International Lesbian & Gay Association: Year after year, lesbian and gay associations around the world continue to work for equality before the law and society, against AIDS, and for solidarity with people living with HIV/AIDS. ILGA, a federation of 300 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups from 75 countries and over 100 supportive individuals and organizations, is united in a common goal of emancipation, and we have progressed in spite of many difficulties. This year, we celebrate: -the voices of lesbians rising loud and clear at the World Conference for Women in Beijing where the issue of sexual orientation was raised by many; -the international condemnation of President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's, treatment of lesbians and gays in his country; -the success of groups in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Russia who participated with ILGA in an anti-discrimination project funded by the European Union, the largest support that the EU has given to a lesbian/gay-specific project; -the recognition of same-gender couples in many countries, cities and provinces around the world. We denounce: -the lack of support and funding in Latin America for people living with HIV/AIDS as pointed out at the Panamerican AIDS Conference in Chile; -the continued situation in Nicaragua, Ecuador and Chile and many other countries where homosexuality is illegal; and the arbitrary police raids and detentions in LIma, Peru; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and La Paz, Bolivia during 1995 and 1996; -the lack of recognition of gays and lesbians killed in nazi concentration camps during the holocaust. Solidarity is our best tool for progress. Show your support for your local and national organizations! Show support for ILGA. For liberty, equality, health, and happiness. For our children and future generations. Lesbian and gay rights are human rights. Happy Pride Day! -Andy Quan, Coordinator ILGA - International Lesbian and Gay Association 81 Kolenmarkt, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium Phone/Fax +32-2-502-2471, E-mail: ilga@ilga.org ************************************************* 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. *************************************************