NewsWrap for the week ending March 1st, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #466, distributed 03-03-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Susan Gage, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Ron Buckmire, Rex Wockner, Graham Underhill, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Jean Freer and Greg Gordon.] Zimbabwe was rocked this week by court testimony that Canaan Banana, the nation's first president after it gained independence, coerced sex with the men of his palace guard. The testimony came in the trial of police officer Jefta Dube, who admits that in September 1995 he shot to death another constable, Patrick Mashure, after Mashure caught Dube relieving himself and said, "Hey, you homosexual and wife of Banana, why are you urinating there?" The judge sentenced Dube to only 10 years for the killing in the belief that he had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his rape and 3 years of sexual harassment by Banana before Dube was finally transferred to another post. Banana is a professor of theology and an ordained minister, and served as the country's non-executive president from 1980 through 1987. For more than 20 years he's been a leading senior member of current President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and a close ally of mugabe himself. The killing occurred shortly after Mugabe began his continuing campaign of viciously homophobic rhetoric, describing gays and lesbians as animals, undeserving of rights, and a threat to society. It's clear that a number of top officials in the government, armed forces and ZANU-PF were aware at the time of the sexual harassment Banana practiced in the presidential residence, suggesting strongly that Mugabe himself must have known as well. Because of Banana's position, no action was taken at the time, but now police authorities are beginning an investigation at the direction of the judge in Dube's trial, which took place under a news reporting blackout. That veil was lifted at the time of the sentencing, and the sensational revelations were reported in Zimbabwe's government-run media, although very briefly. Australia's High Court will be hearing a legal challenge to Tasmania's sodomy law, as a result of a ruling that court made this week. The Court affirmed unanimously that two gay activists have legal standing to bring the law before the Court, despite their having never actually been charged under it. In fact, on one occasion activists Rodney Croome and Nick Toonen actually went to a police station and "confessed" to their past and future homosexual acts, but could not convince officers to arrest them. The pair have been attacking Australia's last sodomy law by every legal means for a number of years now, including winning a ruling against it from an international court. The global pressure led the Australian national government to pass a privacy law which is generally believed to prevent successful prosecution under the state sodomy statute, but the High Court affirmed the right of gay men to know their legal status with more certainty. Although very rarely enforced, Tasmania's law provides for sentences of more than 20 years for private sex acts between consenting adult males. The gay and lesbian legal aid group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network -- or SLDN -- this week issued a report on the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" U.S. military policy. It documents in detail, often using the military's own statistics, that the Department of Defense has continued to discharge not less, but ever more servicemembers on grounds of homosexuality, each year since the institution of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". What was really different this year was the extensive media coverage of SLDN's report, including a direct response from the new Secretary Of Defense William Cohen. Speaking of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and SLDN's condemnation of it he said, "I don't think you can call it a dismal failure." He promised to enforce the policy, including punishing its violators, but admitted that he had yet to thoroughly review the report. The Pentagon was also not ready to comment, but promised a careful review. For the 12 months ending February 1997, SLDN reported 850 homosexuality discharges, at an estimated cost to the public of 25 million dollars. That represented an increase of almost one-fifth from the previous 12 months and of more than two-fifths since the first year the policy was in effect. About 30 percent of those discharges were women, even though women make up only 13 percent of active duty personnel. Servicewomen have often charged that "outing" is used as a threat against them when they reject sexual advances or harassment from servicemen. A Florida lesbian this week appealed a decision that gave custody of her children to her husband, a man so troubled with mental illness and violence that he burned his own house down. The Packards' case is not the first before the First Circuit Court Of Appeals in which a lesbian lost custody because of her sexual orientation. Susan Gage reports: Susan Gage: Two judges in northwest Florida had an opportunity to evaluate Julie and Brian Packard as parents in separate custody hearings and both judges took note of Mrs. Packard's lesbianism in their decisions to place the Packards' two daughters in the custody of their father. Jason Cappell, attorney for Julie Packard, told the First Circuit Court of Appeals panel his client's sexual orientation should not be a consideration: Jason Cappell: There has never been any dispute that my client is a lesbian. There's never been any dispute that my client has a mate. What there is plenty of dispute about is whether any of that has anything to do with the children's health, and I would submit that it does not. Susan: But Ted Stokes, attorney for Mr. Packard, said there is evidence that the mother's sexual orientation was causing problems for her children: Ted Stokes: They didn't have these psychological problems before until the mother essentially, you know, moved her girlfriend in, moved the father out and moved the girlfriend in. Susan: It's unknown when the First Circuit Court of Appeals will issue a ruling in this case. For This Way Out, this is Susan Gage in Tallahassee. Despite a massive effort, authorities appear to be no closer to solving the February 21st bombing of a lesbian nightclub in Atlanta, Georgia -- but the Otherside Lounge did reopen a week later. In addition to extra police patrols arranged by Atlanta's gay-friendly mayor Bill Campbell, the Otherside hired its own security guards for the re-opening ... and as one patron commented, it was probably the safest place in town that night. With tremendous media fanfare, as many as 100 federal agents have joined local and state police in investigating the bombing, because it appears to be closely related to the January bombing of a local family planning clinic, and may also be related to the fatal bombing during the Olympics. Although two groups have claimed responsibility in the nightclub and family planning clinic bombings, authorities are highly skeptical of both claims. Gay and lesbian business owners were joined by Mayor Campbell in posting a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. The U.S. Centers For Disease Control this week reported the first significant drop in deaths from AIDS since the epidemic began in 1981. The report for the first half of 1996 found 22,000 deaths, down 13 percent from the same period the previous year. Deaths decreased in all geographic regions, ranging from a 16 percent drop in the west to an 8 percent drop in the south. Deaths also decreased in all racial groups, but among African-American men by only 2 percent, compared to more than 20 percent among white men. African-Americans were the largest racial group among people with AIDS for the first time, at more than 40 percent. Deaths among women actually increased substantially, as they made up a larger proportion of all AIDS cases than ever before at one-fifth, reflecting increased infections through heterosexual transmission. There are, of course, an ever-growing number of people living with the disease. Although the rate of increase of new cases continues to slow, there are now more than 223,000 U.S. people over the age of 13 living with AIDS . That's 65 percent more than just 3 years before. The death rate is very likely to decrease even further, since the new CDC report covers a period before protease inhibitors came into widespread use. The current drop is attributed largely to other combination drug therapies. More than 10,000 Spanish lesbians and gays marched through Madrid in late February in what's believed to be their largest demonstration since the 1970's. The event was coordinated by more than 40 organizations around the country. The leading reason for the demonstration was two measures now before the Congress of Deputies to establish legal domestic partnerships, which could provide the most extensive rights of any in Europe. While all the political parties except one support the idea, the hold-out is the ruling Partido Popular, which has a large enough majority to dismiss the bills. It's taken years of lobbying to bring domestic partners proposals this far, and their dismissal would mean years' more delay. Activists have called for an international letter-writing campaign to demand Partido Popular's support for legal partnerships. And finally ... [Glinda from "The Wizard Of Oz": "It's alright, you may all come out!"] ... It finally seems to be a done deal -- in a decision said to have been approved at the highest levels of the ABC-TV network and its parent company, the Walt Disney Company -- "Ellen" will film that long-anticipated episode in the coming week in which the title character of the sitcom comes out as a lesbian. In the special episode, "Ellen Morgan", played by series star Ellen Degeneres -- whose own sexual orientation has been the subject of speculation for years -- falls in love with another woman, then discloses her sexual orientation to her friends and her latest therapist, played in a cameo by actress/producer/talk show diva Oprah Winfrey. While there are secondary gay or lesbian characters on several U.S. TV shows, "Ellen" will become prime time's first to feature an openly lesbian lead character. The coming out episode is scheduled to air on April 30th, the first day of the May ratings sweeps. ------------*------------ Sources for this week's report included: The Associated Press; The Atlanta Constitution; The Australian Broadcasting Co,; The BBC; CNN; The Independent (London); The London Times; The Los Angeles Times; MSNBC; Nando Times; The New York Times; Reuters; The San Francisco Chronicle; The San Francisco Examiner; The Sydney Morning Herald; The Union News Tribune (San Diego); United Press International; USA Today; The Washington Post; Echo Magazine (Arizona); and cyberpress releases from COGAM; The (U.S.) Human Rights Campaign; The International Lesbian and Gay Association; The (U.S.) National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.