NewsWrap for the week ending November 16th, 1996 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #451, distributed 11-18-96) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Ron Buckmire, Bjorn Skolander, Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon] The Swedish Parliament is considering an array of legislation favorable to gays and lesbians, suggested by a number of different Members of Parliament from several different parties. A group of six leading MP's from the Social Democratic, Liberal and Centre parties joined together to propose a list of assorted items towards full equality for gays and lesbians. One of those MP's was the Centre Party's openly gay second vice president Andreas Carlgen. One of their proposals is a constitutional guarantee prohibiting discriminatory legislation, and another would expand the duties of the office of Ombudsman Against Ethnic Discrimination to also work against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Several of the group's proposals relate to same-gender relationships: the establishment of a convention among the Nordic countries to recognize each others' registered gay and lesbian partnerships; equal rights for cohabiting gay and lesbian couples; and the option to register domestic partnerships at Swedish embassies in other nations. The group also called for legislation against "incitement to hatred" of gays and lesbians. Two additional prohibitions against "incitement to hatred" were put forward in two parliamentary motions by 3 other Social Democratic Members of Parliament. Another anti-discrimination proposal specifically targets workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. One Liberal MP called for establishing a parliamentary committee to review the status of gay and lesbian parents and their children. On the AIDS front, a motion by the Conservative Party called for increased funding for community based organizations to work on prevention of HIV transmission, particularly for those groups targeting gay men. Openly gay author Hsu You-sheng celebrated Taiwan's first public same-gender wedding ceremony with his U.S. partner Gray Harriman in a downtown Taipei hotel this week. Mayor Chen Shui-bian, who had said some weeks ago that he would be there, did not attend, but he did send a letter of congratulations and one of his staff to read it to the more than 500 guests. Several other city officials attended, along with a former chair of the national opposition Democratic Progressive Party. One cable TV station gave the wedding live coverage and one of the state networks is producing a special about it. Response has generally been positive. The marriage has no legal standing, but the wedding had plenty of tradition, including an exchange of rings, vows, and a Chinese scholar's traditional garb for You-sheng. In the U.S., the enactment of DOMA -- the federal so-called Defense of Marriage Act -- and the completion of elections, have not ended the rush to deny legal recognition to same-gender marriages. The Texas legislature in its upcoming session will be considering an anti-marriage bill sponsored by Republican state Representative Warren Chisum. This week's Florida Baptist Convention determined to lobby for a similar bill in their state. The group Concerned Maine Families announced this week that they believe they've collected enough signatures to qualify an initiative for the 1997 ballot, which would deny legal recognition to same-gender marriages, whether performed inside or outside the state. Another ballot initiative may qualify in Oregon for 1998. Seventeen other states have already enacted laws to this effect, two governors of other states have issued executive orders, and of course the federal government enacted DOMA in September. All these actions were sparked by the possibility of same-gender marriages becoming legal in Hawaii. That process will not reach its conclusion for at least two years following a court ruling expected in the next few weeks. However, the present possibility of a new state constitutional convention in Hawaii -- currently mired in procedural questions following the November 5 elections -- opens a new avenue for prohibiting same-gender marriages before the judicial system could ever make them legally valid.121 - 238 But the 65,000-member Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania voted this week by a substantial margin in support of church ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples. The Diocese resolved to ask their denomination at its general convention in July to consider creating "a rite or rites for the blessing of committed relationships between persons of the same sex." Clergy in the diocese approved the proposal by a margin of about 5-2, while lay representatives of the diocese's 163 parishes affirmed it by a margin of about 3-2, after a heated but orderly debate. However, even with church approval, the blessed unions will still have no legal weight. The state of Pennsylvania is the latest to have enacted legislation specifically denying legal recognition to same-gender marriages, whether performed inside or outside the state. Illinois' Republican Governor Jim Edgar this week issued an executive order to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation in all state agencies. Existing state policy had already prohibited bias in recruitment, hiring and promotions of state workers on the grounds of six specified categories and the catch-all "any other non-merit factor." Edgar's November 8 order clarifies "that any other non-merit factor includes, but is not limited to, sexual orientation." Illinois' human rights law does not include sexual orientation as a class protected from discrimination. Two past attempts to amend that law never made it to the floor of the state Senate, but the Illinois Federation for Human Rights plans to try again in the coming legislative session, and Edgar has expressed willingness to sign such a bill should it reach his desk. In a dramatic turnaround, the loudest homophobe of the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Bob Dornan of California's 46th District, may have lost the seat he's held for 18 years to a gay-friendly Democrat who's never before held public office, Loretta Sanchez. Ballots counted immediately following the November 5th elections had Dornan leading Sanchez by little more than 200 votes... but when absentee ballots for the 46th district had been counted, Sanchez was in the lead by 765 votes, of the more than 90,000 cast. Perhaps 3,000 more ballots requiring verification still remain to be counted, and the final figure won't be certified by the County until November 26... but the news was enough to send the entire national Democratic leadership into spasms of delight, and it may have caused a few private sighs of relief among the Republicans as well. Dornan, on the other hand, said that if he lost, it would be because of Democrats maneuvering for non-citizens to cast votes, and that he would demand a Congressional investigation to prove it. As David Smith of the gay and lesbian Human Rights Campaign remarked, "Dornan is losing with the same grace and temperament that marked his 18 years in Congress." A Michigan jury selected second-degree murder from an array of possible charges in convicting Jonathan Schmitz this week for killing open gay Scott Amedure. The case became notorious because the murder came three days after the victim had confessed his "secret crush" on his killer as both taped a segment of the nationally syndicated Jenny Jones TV talk show in March 1995. A sentencing hearing for Schmitz has been scheduled for December 4. He could receive anywhere from 8 years to life in prison, although most second-degree murder convicts in Michigan serve less than 20 years. An additional 2 years will be added for the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Schmitz' attorney has said he'll appeal if his client receives more than the minimum sentence. The British Broadcasting Corporation this week published what it's touting as the "most comprehensive code of ethics in broadcasting": the third edition and first update in three years of the BBC Producer Guidelines. The new guidelines acknowledge that, "gay and lesbian people make up a significant minority, entitled to be served and treated fairly by the BBC" -- but that recognition does not come without a cautionary note. With regard to lesbian and gay sexuality, the guidelines remind producers that they "should be mindful that a significant part of the audience is critical of any depiction of homosexual acts." And finally ... "Escape from A Wonderful Life", a satirical retelling of the Jimmy Stewart holiday classic using the original film footage, has gone up the chimney. Among other twists on the original story, Stewart's "George Bailey" character was to try to avoid marrying the Donna Reed role by claiming to be a gay man. The production had been planned by the Comedy Central cable TV network, and lawyers had been ready to go head-to-head with attorneys for Republic Pictures, the owner of the original classic ... but then it was discovered that entertainment giant Viacom had a sizable stake in both parties involved. Viacom declared there would be no lawsuits and that an "amicable" agreement would be reached. It was announced this week that Comedy Central is amicably abandoning the project. ----------------*------------------ Sources for this week's report included: The Associated Press; Reuters; United Press International; MSNBC; The Houston (Texas) Chronicle; The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel; The Los Angeles Times; The San Diego Union-Tribune; The London (England) Daily Telegraph; Variety; The (U.S.) Congressional Quarterly; The State Journal Register (Illinois); The Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Inquirer; The Detroit Free Press; The Detroit News; The New York Times; Cable News Network; Court TV (U.S.); The Herald-Sun (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia); and cyberpress releases from RFSL, the Swedish Federation for Gay & Lesbian Rights; The British Broadcasting Co.; The Human Rights Campaign (U.S.); and The Illinois Federation of Human Rights.