NewsWrap for the week ending November 2nd, 1996 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #449, distributed 11-04-96) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Ron Buckmire, Kevin Jensen, Graham Underhill, Mark Proffitt, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon] Russian activists are alarmed by reports that Chechnya may enact a sodomy law carrying a death penalty. Reports from both Russian and Chechen media say that Chechnya's new penal code is being designed to enforce an extreme Islamic morality that prescribes death for homosexual acts. In a joint statement this week, activists Roman Kalinin and Eugenia Debranskaya, spokespeople for Moscow's gay and lesbian Triangle Center, said, "We know that many European countries and European and Russian democratic organizations supported the Chechnian separatists in their fight against the Russian army. We did it, too. Now, it is obvious that the price of peace will be paid by thousands of lives of non-orthodox Chechnian citizens, our brothers and sisters." Triangle and ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, are planning an international protest campaign. The death of an openly gay man in Michigan at the hands of a non-gay man made headlines this week when a nationally-syndicated talk show host was called as a trial witness. The defense claims Jonathan Schmitz' on-camera humiliation at being identified as the "secret crush" of his openly gay acquaintance Scott Amedure created a state of diminished capacity that made the killing 3 days later something less than the first degree murder he's charged with. Talk show host Jenny Jones was called to discuss the deception the defense says was involved in bringing Schmitz on the show, but she evidenced almost complete ignorance about the off-the-air aspects of her own show. Schmitz' attorney has said that homophobia has nothing to do with the case, but it's hard to imagine that the defense would lay the same kind of blame on the talk show if Schmitz' secret admirer had been the woman he apparently expected. They also blame Schmitz' problems with alcohol, mental illness and a thyroid condition. Local activists have not hesitated to call the killing a gay-bashing. Czech psychiatrist Kurt Freund, who looked for ways to bring scientific objectivity into the study of human sexuality and helped to change his colleagues' view of homosexuality, died by his own hand at the age of 82 on October 23 while suffering from advanced lung cancer. Freund created an early device to precisely measure male arousal, which he used to study individuals' responses to assorted photographs. Under Communist rule in the period after World War II, he worked with men who had been arrested for sodomy. In the course of that work, he became convinced that homosexuality was not an illness, could not be altered and did not require treatment. He played an active role in seeking the repeal of then-Czechoslovakia's sodomy laws, until Russia quashed the 1968 Czech rebellion and Freund fled to Canada. His work was a significant factor in influencing the American Psychiatric Association to officially remove homosexuality from its list of disorders in 1973, recognizing that it was possible to be gay or lesbian and be a healthy adult. The results of New Zealand's election of October 12 became official October 29 after the final tally of absentee ballots. Those so-called "special votes" did not change the outcome for the nation's first openly gay Member of Parliament, Chris Carter. He fell a heart-breaking 138 votes short of retaining his Waipareira seat in the closest race in the country, the only one pitting three sitting MP's against each other. Tim Barnett of the Labour Party will be the only open gay in the Parliament as a first-time MP for Christchurch Central. A number of other open gays lost their bids by sizable margins. The virulently anti-gay Christian Coalition remained well below the 5% of the party vote required for representation in the Parliament. Negotiations continue among the various parties, none of which is close to a majority, as to what coalition will manage to form a government. There's one place in the world where men are actually being encouraged to marry each other: the Central Penitentiary in Tegucigalpa in Honduras, according to a Reuters report. 8 couples have exchanged vows in prison weddings in the six months since the campaign began, signing pledges of fidelity. The plan is to promote exclusive sexual relationships as a means to prevent AIDS, which has been the leading cause of death within the prison population, killing 65 inmates to date. The prison doctor believes the couples have kept their pledges, even though the marriages carry no weight whatsoever outside the prison walls. Honduras has the highest rate of AIDS of any Central American country. A new poll documents increasing acceptance in the U.S. for gay and lesbian parents. The telephone survey of more than 900 adults in mid-October was released by "Newsweek" magazine in conjunction with its November 4 edition, which features gay and lesbian families, and shows co-parents Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher on the cover. Survey participants answered yes, no or undecided on two key questions: whether they believed gays and lesbians could be equally good parents as heterosexuals, and whether they believed same-gender couples should have adoption rights. Even though 57% believed gays and lesbians could be good parents, only 36% supported adoption rights for couples. The registrar of voters for Santa Clara County, California announced this week that the Santa Clara County Taxpayers' Association had gathered enough valid signatures to force a referendum on a domestic partners registry the County Board of Supervisors approved in August. This prevents the registry from going into effect and leaves the Board with three choices: repeal the legislation, place the question before the voters on the 1998 primary ballot, or spend over a million dollars to hold a special election on the question next year. Opponents of the registry, mostly members of local evangelical churches, were very vocal while the Board considered the measure and began their repeal petition drive immediately following the vote. Those same churches succeeded with a 1980 county referendum that overturned a Board measure prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. The giant U.S.-based chemical manufacturer DuPont announced this week that their 1997 Tour DuPont bicycle race will be taking a new route to protest a South Carolina county's anti-gay resolution. The bike race, considered to be one of the world's top five, will be taking its 5,000 participants away from what used to be one of their favorite stops -- along with the one-to-two million dollars they would spend there. You may recall Greenville County from earlier this year, when the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games refused to display the Olympic torch there. The Greenville County Council stood firm then behind their resolution condemning what they call "the homosexual lifestyle". They actually reaffirmed it in May, and they don't seem particularly moved now by DuPont's choice. The company finds that resolution to be in conflict with its own policy against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Open gay Rudy Galindo, the 1996 U.S. Men's Figure Skating champ, was not a winner this week in his first professional competition. Galindo signed several contracts and announced he was turning professional in September, and had been training hard ever since for his pro debut at the U.S. Professional Figure Skating Championships in Albany, New York. He says he "psyched himself out", becoming so nervous that he struggled with his jumps. It's no shame to come in fourth behind world and former Olympic champions, but Galindo was disturbed and disappointed. His weak performance means he will not be a participant in the World Professional Championship in December. However, the made-for-TV movie of his life will be airing soon. Britain's Rugby Union Federation has granted full official membership to Europe's first gay-only rugby club, Surrey's King's Cross Steelers. Club chair Rob Hayward, a former Member of Parliament, was confident from the first that the application would be approved. Formed in a pub a year ago, the club's membership is quite diverse socially, but they had little trouble agreeing on their team colors, green and blue. They've had no trouble finding opponents, although some other team's players had to overcome private worries about possible AIDS transmission. Thus far, the Steelers have lost all 3 matches they've played. And finally, the press naturally turned for comment on the Steelers to openly gay Australian rugger Ian Roberts. While he encouraged gays to play the game, he suggested that integrated teams might be more beneficial than exclusively gay ones. He said, "By mixing with them and playing football with them, I was able to establish their respect as a person ... I take offense at the old locker room argument which assumes a man cannot, in any circumstances, control his urges. Any self-respecting human being can respect the rights and ways of another human being. The idea, then, that gays can convert, or want, heterosexual guys, is ludicrous. We want to play the game, not the field." --------------------*-------------------- Sources for this week's report included: Reuter News Service; The Associated Press; The Electronic Telegraph/London; The San Francisco Chronicle; The Herald Sun/Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; The New York Times; Newsweek; Court TV; The Detroit Free Press; Cable News Network; The Detroit News; The Philadelphia Daily News; Queer News Aotearoa/New Zealand; The Pink Paper/London; and cyberpress releases from DuPont; The International Lesbian & Gay Association; The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission; Clarke Institute/Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Triangle/Detroit, Michigan.