NewsWrap for the week ending January 25th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #461, distributed 01-27-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Ron Buckmire, Graham Underhill, Suzzy Byrne, Bjorn Skolander, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Lucia Chappelle and Jerry Trowbridge.] ILGA, the International Lesbian And Gay Association, has called for a boycott of Romanian wine in protest of anti-gay laws there. Although boycott is a strategy which ILGA has rarely used, they have carefully targeted what they believe to be Romania's "most visible consumer export". Since a single company, Vinexport, is responsible for 80 percent of Romania's wine exports, ILGA's boycott coordinator Ziad Dajani believes that company is "in a unique position to represent to the government the impact of international outrage at the country's treatment of gays, lesbians and bisexuals." Among the leading importers of Romanian wine are Australia, Britain, Canada, Holland, Sweden, and the United States. As a condition of entering the Council of Europe in 1993, Romania had agreed to decriminalize private homosexual acts between consenting adults. While some reform was finally achieved in 1996, Romanian gays and lesbians believe that the continuing criminal penalties for acts causing a "public scandal" can still be used against them on the flimsiest of grounds. Worse yet, criminal penalties continue for any form of organizing, publishing or even gathering of lesbians and gays. Generally tolerant Thailand will begin in March to deny open gays and lesbians enrollment in the nation's teachers colleges. The more prestigious category of universities had already been practicing a similar ban. Thailand's Education Minister Sukavit Rangsitphol denies that the ban represents any violation of human rights, saying, "The ruling is only aimed at banning people with improper personalities from being models for youngsters." While there has been protest from gay and lesbian groups in Thailand, the Education Minister insists he will stand firm. He was encouraged in his position by a public opinion poll apparently carried out for this purpose. However, the Secretary-General of Thailand's National Education Commission opposes the ban, saying that children must learn how to associate with people of different sexual orientations, and to deny them the opportunity is to damage their futures. Gays and lesbians are a visible percentage of Thailand's teachers and scholars, as well as of its recent national leadership. The headline-grabbing Florida custody case won by the father, a convicted murderer -- rather than the mother, an open lesbian -- ended this week with the sudden death of Mary Ward. Susan Gage has the story ... Susan Gage: Her attorney says that Mary Ward died of a heart attack at her home in Pensacola. Charlene Carress had represented Mary Ward during the appeal of a trial judge's decision to award custody of Mary's 12-year-old daughter Cassey to her ex-husband John, a decision based largely on Mary's lesbianism. The First District Court of Appeal upheld that ruling this summer. Carress says that there had been no indication that Mary was in poor health, but she says Mary was feeling stressed as the case lingered on appeal: Charlene Carress: Mary was a really good woman, a very hopeful person ... but it was extremely stressful for her to wait for this decision, to be in a situation where she felt that her abilities as a mother had been questioned, and that was very unfair. My co-counsel, Kate Kendall, spoke with her last week, and Mary said again how difficult it had been for her to wait, and Kate tried to reassure her that it was worth it, that things would more than likely come out in the end, so that she could be with her daughter again. Susan: As far as the case goes, it's likely that the custody portion is over, but there is a slim chance that the domestic violence aspect of the case, that John Ward had a record of murdering his first wife, could go forward. Mary Ward is survived by her partner, Marjorie Wright, and four children. She was 47 years old. Mary Ward [from a rare press conference last year]: I've tried to raise my daughter to be the best person that she can be. I cannot understand why my sexual orientation should make any difference in the love and good upbringing I give Cassey ... I deserve to have my daughter back, and she deserves to come home. Susan: For This Way Out, this is Susan Gage in Tallahassee. The tragic murder of the son of U.S. entertainer Bill Cosby had a peripheral impact on gays and lesbians. Actor/producer/comic Cosby had been scheduled to serve this week as the headliner host of a grand Carnegie Hall concert to benefit New York City's Gay Men's Health Crisis, the oldest and largest AIDS organization in the United States. Stepping in to substitute was the hottest star of 1996, comic/actress/talkshow host Rosie O'Donnell. She said of Cosby, "Our love and affection go to his family in this time of need." Cosby's own message, read to the crowd by renowned TV news anchor Barbara Walters, said, "Like a bullet fired from a gun, the AIDS virus cannot be called back -- yet. Hope needs help." In an ironic twist, the Conservative member of the British Parliament who was accused of a homosexual affair with a man then under-age has kept his job, while the alleged "victim" has lost his. Gay activist Paul Stone recently sold to a tabloid the story of his alleged affair at age 18 with gay-friendly Tory MP Jerry Hayes, which Stone says took place in 1991 when Britain's age of consent for gay sex was 21. Hayes has not only kept his seat in Parliament, but has been reconfirmed as his district's Conservative candidate for reelection. Stone, meanwhile, has lost his job as an accounting trainee with the Saffrey Champness firm because, they say, they "could no longer have the level of trust in Mr. Stone that's required for the handling of confidential information." And Stone can't even cry in his beer about it -- he's been banned from his local gay pub. At the inaugural for U.S. President Bill Clinton's second term this past week, there were gays and lesbians dancing, singing, playing instruments, and even performing in a cheerleading squad ... but others observed the event with solemnity and anger. While among gays and lesbians only the staunchest Republicans failed to greet Clinton's first inauguration with high hopes, his performance of the last four years failed to confirm those great expectations. Nonetheless, there were still parties all weekend to benefit various organizations, including the first all-lesbian Women's Inagural Gala and the Grand Triangle Ball with 1500 gays and lesbians in attendance. The Gay Men's Chorus Of Washington, D.C. performed as part of a concert series in connection with the inauguration. The Lesbian & Gay Bands Of America were officially selected to perform on the parade route before and after the swearing-in. The 175-member Band was accompanied by an 8-member gay and lesbian flag corps and the professional Cheer San Francisco troupe of 15 gay men. The inaugural parade itself included 50 panels from the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, carried by local volunteers behind the banner, "The Quilt: Building A Bridge To End AIDS". The disaffected joined Mel White of the gay-affirming Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches for what he called a "People's Inaugural Celebration: A 24-Hour Fast & Prayer Vigil For Justice", beginning on the eve of the inauguration. The one-day prayer fast led off a "Justice Candle" vigil he says will last through the end of Clinton's second term, to remind the president in a peaceful way of all that remains to be done to establish equal citizenship for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people, and to help people with AIDS. Another familiar presence at the inauguration was Kansas' most obsessed homophobe, Fred Phelps. His Westboro Baptist Church, comprised almost entirely of his own family, was there with the now-familiar message they've carried around the U.S. and to the funerals of people with AIDS: "God Hates Fags". But one party Phelps proved unable to crash this week was the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected his appeal of a court order establishing a "buffer zone" between what he calls his "ministry of public religious pickets" and a Topeka church that has dared to criticize his methods. Almost overshadowed by the inaugural was the official U.S. celebration of the Martin Luther King, Junior National Holiday. It featured an African-American lesbian and gay man as parade Grand Marshals In Atlanta, Georgia. National Black Gay & Lesbian Leadership Forum Executive Director Keith Boykin and sexuality expert Dr. Sylvia Rhue marched side by side with the late civil rights leaders' widow Coretta Scott King, who has herself consistently spoken out in support of full equality for lesbians and gays. At the climactic rally, Rhue and Boykin addressed the crowd of thousands, with Boykin saying, "None of us is free as long as lesbians and gays can be legally fired from their jobs in 41 states in the nation." And finally ... at the Triangle Ball, the biggest of the various gay and lesbian events held this week in connection with the inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton, it was Candace Gingrich's task to introduce a song about her more famous half-brother, Speaker of the House Of Representatives Newt Gingrich. The song is part of the Gay Off-Broadway musical "Howard Crabtree's 'When Pigs Fly'". Candace told the crowd of her surprise at the number of gays and lesbians around the country who supported the political actions of her Republican brother, and said, "but in all those positive statements, no one had gone as far in their feelings for Newt as this song demonstrates. It's the first time I've heard a love song written to my brother." One of those loving lyrics -- all the more timely in the face of Newt's recent reprimand and 6-figure fine for ethics violations -- goes, "Newt/I think you're cute/You Speaker of that House of ill repute." -----------*-------------- Sources for this week's report included: The Associated Press; Business Wire; Cable News Network; Court TV; Cox News Service; The Electronic Telegraph (London); The Hutchinson News (Kansas); The Nation; The New York Daily News; The New York Times; The Philadelphia Inquirer; Reuter News Service; The Salina Journal (Kansas); The San Francisco Examiner; United Press International; USA Today; The Washington (DC) Post; The Washington (DC) Times; The Washington (DC) Blade; "Out This Week" (BBC Radio 5); and cyberpress releases from ACT UP/Washington, DC; the Lesbian & Gay Bands of America; Reverend Mel White/Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches; Women's Inaugural Gala; the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA); and the (U.S.) National Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum.