NewsWrap for the week ending June 29th, 1996 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #431, distributed 07-01-96) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Bill Stosine, Jason Lin, Greg Gordon, Ron Buckmire and Bjorn Skolander] The U.S. House and Senate this week made permanent the first federal legislation ever to use the words "gay", "lesbian" and "bisexual". The Hate Crimes Statistics Act was passed in 1990 to require the U.S. Department of Justice to collect statistics on bias-motivated crimes, including gay-bashings. Its original mandate expired in 1995, but this week it was made permanent and funded through the year 2002. The legislative action was part of the Church Arson Prevention Act, stimulated by well over one hundred attacks on U.S. religious centers in the last year-and-a-half. The gay-friendly Unitarian Universalist Church this week adopted a resolution supporting legal recognition of gay and lesbian marriages. The 200,000-member U.S. denomination made same-gender marriages its official policy at its annual General Assembly in Indianapolis, Indiana, although individual member churches will determine whether to endorse or host those weddings. It's the first major U.S. church where the membership, not just the leadership, has endorsed gay and lesbian marriages. But a Presbyterian lay elder in Ohio has been stripped of his ordination because he is gay. The Judicial Commission of the Cincinnati Presbytery, by a one-vote margin, overruled Hyde Park's Knox Presbyterian Church to order the unnamed elder's defrocking, in what a Presbytery official said was a "first" in the U.S. church. Another Knox elder had complained to the Comission about the gay man's ordination. Ordination of open gays and lesbians is expected to be the hot topic at the Annual Meeting of the Presbyterian Church USA taking place in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the coming week. The Hungarian Parliament's recent vote to grant legal recognition to gay and lesbian partnerships was blasted this week by the head of the nation's Reformed Church. Bishop Lorant Hegedus said, "The measure represents a declaration of libertinism, against Biblical truth ... we recognize the need for tolerance of homosexual tendencies, in line with the Christian faith, but we cannot accept a situation in which positive legislation is used to advance homosexual rights ... The Western-style permissiveness implied by this message carries great dangers for our post-atheist society." Iceland's first legal partnership registrations were celebrated by three gay and lesbian couples on June 27th at Reykjavik's City Hall. The national gay and lesbian organization Samtokin 78 sponsored a lavish reception, with Iceland's outgoing President Vigdis Finnbogadottir as guest of honor. Michigan Governor John Engler this week signed into law a measure denying legal recognition to gay and lesbian marriages. Michigan becomes the 15th U.S. state to refuse recognition to same-gender marriages performed in another state, in anticipation of the possibility of legal gay and lesbian marriages in Hawaii after a trial later this year. Last week, Delaware's bill against same-gender marriages was also signed into law. The Olympic Torch route was changed this week in South Carolina because of a Greenville County resolution calling homosexuality "incompatible with community standards". Although the Torch was carried by runners on an extensive tour through the independent city of Greenville, it traveled 17 miles through the rest of Greenville County inside a recreational vehicle. A Torch Relay spokesperson said, "The Olympic spirit is not about hatred. We had to reinforce that." The Torch route will altogether sidestep Cobb County, Georgia, which was the first to pass a similar resolution. This week it toured Spartanburg County, North Carolina, which had first passed and then rescinded an anti-gay resolution. Turkey's most successful film ever has become a topic of political debate as conservatives there see in it a suggestion that a historic figure was bisexual. "Istanbul Under My Wings" presents Sultan Murad IV constantly accompanied by a handsome young man, whom he pats on the head and speaks with in an intimate manner. The producers say they had no intention of portraying Murad as bisexual, and point to his numerous sex scenes with his harem women. But Turkey's largest political party, the Islamic Welfare Party, is disturbed that government funds supported the film, and Culture Minister Agah Oktay Guner is demanding those funds be returned to the government because the film insults Turkish history. According to at least one Turkish professor, homosexuality was widespread in Ottoman history. In Taiwan, the city of Taipei will be sponsorsing a 2-hour gay and lesbian radio show every weekday beginning July 1st, with openly gay and lesbian hosts fielding listener calls. According to a ctiy spokesperson, it will be the first official medium in the nation to focus exclusively on gay and lesbian topics, which were formerly taboo. Taiwan's first gay and lesbian magazine went on sale in June. June is also Lesbian & Gay Pride Month. Here are a few of the celebrations held across the U.S.: Iowa City gays and lesbians held their Pride March and Festival on June 16th, with more than 500 people attending. In Des Moines, Iowa about 200 people marched for Pride under a balloon rainbow on June 23rd. Boise, Idaho's 7th Annual Pride March and Rally on June 16th were attended by about 700 people, including a handful of protestors calling themselves "The Idaho Homophobe Association". The Association's unappointed president Pat Conner described his five years of heckling the event as "just a hobby". Portland, Oregon's Lesbian/Gay Pride Parade on June 22nd featured as Grand Marshall Chastity Bono, the lesbian daughter of California's Republican Congressmember and former entertainer Sonny Bono. Houston, Texas' Pride Parade on June 23rd included about 100 units and drew a crowd estimated at 50,000 despite rain. Candace Gingrich, the lesbian half-sister of U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, served as Grand Marshall. Los Angeles' 26th annual Christopher Street West Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade on June 23rd drew a crowd of 300,000 people, according to police estimates. Among the 100 or so marching units, for the first time, was a contingent of 15 transgendered people. While many in the parade carried signs calling for the "Freedom to Marry", there were also signs reading "Freedom to Vary", "It's About Freedom, Mary!" and "Freedom To Be Mary". In Germany, gays and lesbians greeted a visit by The Pope with satire. As a highlight of Berlin's Pride Festival in June, a noted Hamburg prostitute named Domenica acted as "Popess Domenica The First". She conferred sainthood on famed Berlin transvestite Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf, and read a mock encyclical declaring homosexuality to be a Church-approved method of birth control. And finally ... one of the more popular teams in the Volleyball Association of Thailand is composed entirely of male-to-female transgenders. Although they wear drag and have used hormones, they have not been surgically reassigned, and so they play in the men's league. No team member has ever been selected for Thailand's National Volleyball Team, but that's now harder than ever for the Volleyball Association to justify -- in late June, representing Northern Lampang Province at the National Games, the tranny team won the Men's Volleyball Gold Medal. Sources for this week's report: The Associated Press; The Chicago Tribune; Reuter News Service; Ecumenical News Service; Althydubladid/Iceland; The Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer; The Daily Iowan/Iowa City; The Des Moines Register; The Idaho Statesman; The Houston Chronicle; The Los Angeles Times; Rex Wockner International News; and a cyberpress release from The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.