NewsWrap for the week ending April 19th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #473, distributed 04-21-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Graham Underhill, Tom Ramsey, Martin Rice, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon; anchored by Cindy Friedman and Brian Nunes.] The Hawai'i state legislature's House-Senate conference committee has finally agreed on a compromise between the two chambers' versions of a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay and lesbian marriages and a bill to establish some rights for domestic partners. The constitutional amendment, which will go before the state's voters in November 1998, will read, "The Legislature shall have the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples." That amendment is designed to empower the lawmakers to overrule the state Supreme Court's 1993 finding, that denying equal marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples violates the state constitution's ban on gender-based discrimination. When the conference committee had seemingly reached a hopeless impasse a week ago, the right-wing religious opponents of gay and lesbian marriages actually began lobbying in favor of the domestic partners rights they have vigorously opposed in Hawai'i and elsewhere, rather than allow same-gender marriages to become legal. The conference committee agreed on a limited number of marriage-like rights for what they call "reciprocal beneficiaries", who can be any two people who are not married. Those rights will include spousal health benefits for state employees effective July 1st, but will not include state taxation benefits. Next the compromise measures will be returned to the floors of the House and Senate, where they are expected to easily win approval. A Canadian human rights tribunal has ruled that the federal government must define the word "spouse" to include gay and lesbian partners, in its collective bargaining agreement with federal employees. The government had previously been ordered by another tribunal to extend spousal benefits to its employees' same-gender partners, but sought to create a separate category for them. A spokesperson for the largest union of federal employees, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said, "If you are recognized living as a couple, then you don't have to make any different effort, or write something or prove something. You are a person living with another person." One lesbian couple saw the finding as meaning the difference between second-class citizenship and equality. It is not yet known if the government will appeal the ruling. A lesbian filed suit in federal court in Pennsylvania this week to place the words "beloved life partner" on her deceased partner's headstone. Although the late Cynthia Friedman took every possible legal step to give her partner Sherry Barone power over her posthumous affairs, her parents object to her chosen epitaph, and the Har Jehuda Cemetery is unwilling to go against them without an additional court order. The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is supporting Barone's case, says it's a prime example of why gays and lesbians need legal marriages. The Archbishop of Canterbury has been speaking out against homophobia for nearly a year, but he's now made a firm statement of the Church of England's positions against same-gender marriage and against openly sexually active gay and lesbian clergy. Doctor George Carey's remarks were made in an interview for a television documentary. He said, "We are saying very clearly to people in the Church that practising homosexuality is not to be condoned in the priesthood. Homosexuals, of course, can be ordained. Homosexuals are people loved by God, have gifts to offer, but the discipline of the Church has not changed. If people think that we're living in limbo now and the church can't make up its mind, they've got it absolutely wrong. The discipline of the Church is that we recognize two lifestyles. One is marriage and the other is celibacy, and there can't be anything in between, and we don't recognize same-sex marriages. We stand firmly there." He makes it very clear that the Church of England will never give its official blessings to same-gender marriages, even though a network of clergy across Britain have been privately blessing gay and lesbian union ceremonies for years. The Patriarch of Romania's Orthodox Church included a denunciation of homosexuality in his Easter message to be read to all congregations, which includes the large majority of the Romanian population. Under pressure from the Council of Europe, Romania finally reformed its sodomy statute last year to the degree that private acts between consenting adults can be prosecuted only if they "create a public scandal". In his Easter message, Patriarch Teoctist criticizes the Parliament for that move, and says, "Our church intervened to the legislative authorities to prevent legalization of such abnormality." He referred to homosexuality as "unnatural sins and debauchery" and called it one of the scourges of Romania. Tasmania has moved closer than ever before to reform of Australia's last sodomy statute, but the latest reports we have leave the outcome very much in question. This week, the Legislative Council, the Upper House of the Tasmanian Parliament, for the first time ever gave reform its approval in principle by a vote of 9 to 7. On four previous occasions, the Council has rejected reform, most recently last year by a vote of 10 to 8. Both the members who changed their positions from last year retain their reservations about homosexuality but hope to end the widespread bitterness the conflict has created. But two other members have introduced amendments at least as onerous as the sodomy law itself, one simply transferring the prison sentence of more than twenty years from homosexual acts to the so-called "promotion" of homosexuality. Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group leaders Rodney Croome and Nick Toonen said they would actively lobby against the reform bill if the amendments were approved. If the legislative results fail to satisfy them, their legal challenge to the sodomy law is still pending before the Australian High Court in a case the state has now publicly admitted it cannot win. Tasmanian Attorney General Ray Groom announced this week his intention to issue a consent decree in the case, admitting that a federal sexual privacy statute makes private sex acts between consenting adult males in Tasmania no longer criminal. In another peculiar twist, authorities are now investigating the matter of erotic gay photos which were faxed to the lawmakers as part of lobbying by opponents of reform. In Argentina, the offices of a gay and lesbian group in San Salvador de Jujuy have been raided for a second time, and 10 of its members arrested. The group Comunidad Homosexual de Jujuy had previously been raided in November. Earlier this month, plainclothes police entered by force in the early morning hours with the support of military personnel, and carted off everyone present to the police station for a so-called identity check. The group has called on the international community to write letters of protest against their assaults by police. Chile has been sparked to widespread protest against the military draft by the murder of a young recruit, but military leaders have tried to blame his gruesome killing on a gang of gay servicemembers. General Emilio Timmerman called the theory that Pedro Soto Tapia was slain to prevent him from "outing" his colleagues "the most concrete motive that we have found." Although four recruits were arrested in the case, the confessions they made after extensive interrogation are widely believed to have been coerced. Congressmember Nelson Avila of the governing Party for the Democracy said, "It's absurd and offensive to believe the military's thesis that this crime is the work of a mob of homosexuals... Why are they saying it's a bunch of gays? Because they want to sweep the whole thing under the rug." Soto's family believe that although he may have been sexually abused, he was not gay. Much-loved U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey was told by some members of her own staff this week that she would burn in hell for her support of now-openly lesbian comic Ellen DeGeneres and her sitcom character "Ellen". Winfrey plays the role of the therapist the "Ellen" lead character will come out to as a lesbian in the notorious episode airing April 30th. Winfrey said there would be no repercussions for the staff members because she respected their opinions. Those opinions are shared by many of those who have written what Winfrey said were "bins" of letters to her, many of which accuse her of "promoting" homosexuality and assail her professed Christianity. One member of her audience this week could barely hold back tears at Winfrey's choice, but the host said her faith was one of loving others, not judging them. Winfrey made it clear that she believes God made DeGeneres a lesbian. And finally ... singer k.d. lang was invested this week as an officer of the Order of Canada, a national honor representing merit and achievement. She wore a black tail coat to Government House for the occasion and said she was "excited, flattered and honored." Along with a medal resembling a snowflake which bears the crown and the maple leaf, the honor allows lang to write the letters "OC" following her name. The decidedly lower-case singer said she thought her "biggest dilemma" would be "figuring out whether the 'OC' is lower case." ----------*------------ Sources for this week's report included: The Age (Melbourne, AUS); The Associated Press; The Australian; The Australian Broadcastaing Corp.; The Honolulu Advertiser; The Honolulu Star Bulletin; The London Times; The Mercury (Hobart, AUS); The New York Times; The Philadelphia Inquirer; The Press Association (England); Reuters; The Sydney Morning Herald; The Westside Observer (Perth, AUS); and cyberpress releases from the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and Equal Marriage Rights - Hawaii.