NewsWrap for the week ending April 26th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #474, distributed 04-28-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Cindy Friedman and Brian Nunes.] U.S. President Bill Clinton this week joined in the re-introduction of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, which would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. Clinton issued a strong written statement saying that job discrimination is wrong and that ENDA marked the next step in the nation's struggle with bigotry. However, although he held a White House meeting of the bill's leading legislative sponsors and representatives of its chief lobbying grouup, the national gay and lesbian advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign, the President neither listed it on his calendar of public appearances nor allowed any reporters to attend. A White House aide said the exclusion of reporters was meant to prevent the distraction of questions on other issues. In September, ENDA became the first gay and lesbian civil rights measure ever to be discussed on the floor of either federal legislative chamber, and was defeated in the Senate by a single vote. Openly gay Congressmember Barney Frank said that although he was confident the bill would become law, he would not "bet the farm" on its passage in the current session. Although ENDA exempts the military, religious organizations and small businesses from its provisions, and specifically rejects any form of numerical quotas, the anti-gay Family Research Council is planning a major campaign against it. If the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, and some other U.S. anti-gay organizations appear to be finding more media visibility lately, it may be in anticipation of the chance to outshine the Christian Coalition as the leading conservative spokesgroup. This week, Ralph Reed, who's served as executive director of the Coalition since its founding 8 years ago, announced that he would be stepping down at the end of August to run his own political consulting business, Century Strategies. In the words of one critic, he was "the angelic face on the Christian Coalition's extreme agenda." Reed made the Coalition a force to be reckoned with in U.S. politics and a powerful media presence. In his announcement, he counted the enactment of the anti-gay so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" as one of the leading achievements of his tenure with the Coalition. Now, he's free to participate more actively in the process of political campaigns, without the restrictions of the Coalition's non-profit status. Along with a massive national membership and even more massive budget, he leaves the Coalition facing 16 counts of Federal Elections Campaign violations. While the Coalition is unlikely to find such an extraordinary representative again, Reed may have an even greater impact in successfully helping to elect still more conservative candidates. The Vatican's semi-official newspaper has tried to take as positive a tone as possible in a series of articles on homosexuality and Christianity. The 14-part series in "L'Osservatore Romano" by Jean-Louis Brugues of the International Theological Commission concluded this week with the idea that gays and lesbians could achieve holiness and perhaps even sainthood -- as long as they did not engage in what was referred to as "genital practices". Although those "practices" are still considered "sinful" by the Roman Catholic Church, the article condemned both violence against and contempt for gays and lesbians. It even pointed out that some priests need to get over their homophobia. Brugues wrote, "God loves all of us as we are, with our limits, our peculiarities, which can become paths to holiness." It was a tough week for Dr. George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, following the broadcast of his firm statements that the Church of England will ordain only sexually abstinent gays and lesbians and will never recognize same-gender marriages. The day of the broadcast, ten members of the London direct action group OutRage! ambushed him in his own garden at Lambeth Castle, having climbed the walls and hidden in the bushes until he appeared. They surrounded him, bearing posters that read, "Stop Crucifying Queers". It was an embarrassing moment for the Archbishop, who was showing around an international group of visiting clergy. OutRage! members said Carey had refused to meet with representatives of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and that his remarks would contribute to the victimization of gays and lesbians within the Church. They left peacefully after 10 minutes at Carey's request. But that peace didn't last long. The next night, a respected senior theologian of the Church of England, former Bishop of Salisbury Dr. John Baker, gave a major address rejecting the Church's positions on gay and lesbian clergy and marriages. Baker admits he's changed his mind since he helped develop the Church's current policies as part of a task force in 1991. He said, "Blessing can flow from adult homosexual relations. They can work with God for good." He said of homosexually active clergy, "If homosexuality is simply a fact about themselves which many people have to live with, and our moral duty as Christians is to make use of it in ways that conduce to spiritual good and not to evil, then the obvious duty of a priest is to give example and guidance in using it well." He went on to say, "I cannot see that married heterosexual clergy have a right to deny their homosexual brothers and sisters the potential spiritual blessing of a sexual relationship when they themselves enjoy that blessing." He called for Church ceremonies for both gay and lesbian unions and same-gender divorces. Carey encouraged respect for Baker's opinion, while noting it departed significantly from the Church of England's current teaching. Zimbabwe celebrated the 17th anniversary of its independence April 18th with its first president notably absent. What's more, Canaan Banana was not even invited for the occasion, despite more than 20 years of working hand-in-glove with current President Robert Mugabe. Former President Banana is currently under investigation for having sexually assaulted and sexually harassed the men of his own palace guard during his seven years as president in the 1980's. Current President Mugabe has been vocal in expressing his profound disgust for gays and lesbians, despite international protest. Zhang Yuan, director of the acclaimed gay-themed film "East Palace, West Palace", may also be notably absent when his movie is screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. The government of China expressed its unhappiness with the film by withdrawing his passport when he returned there April 10th, and has not indicated any intention to allow him to attend the festival. The film's title refers to public toilets on either side of Beijing's Tianenmen Square, where a young gay man is harassed and arrested by a city policeman. Also missing this week: prosecutions in New South Wales' Wood Commission's long-running investigation of police corruption and pedophelia. The Australian state's Supreme Court threw out ten of the Commission's search warrants, and so cast doubt on what may be all of its hundreds of other warrants with identical wording. The Commission became a target for gay and lesbian protest when it extended its investigation into incidents in the 1970's in what was Sydney's only gay bar at the time, because some teenagers had been present there. The Commission became still more notorious when its work led a noted judge to take his own life, one of a number of deaths by suicide and apparent accident which have plagued the investigation. The European Court of Human Rights this week denied a female-to-male transsexual paternity of his female partner's children by artificial insemination. Unlike most other industrialized nations, trannys in Britain are not allowed to change their birth certificates or to marry someone of their birth gender. Chromosomal males who are infertile are automatically granted fatherhood of their wives' children. Stephen Whittle tried to register as the father of Sarah Rutherford's daughter, to adopt her and to obtain a court order granting him parental responsibility, but was rejected at every turn. He claimed British law discriminated against him and interfered with his family life in violation of Europe's human rights guarantees. But although the Court recognized Whittle's relationship with Rutherford as "permanent and stable", it chose to allow Britain discretion to deal with an area of law that's currently in flux, on the grounds that changes might lead to unforeseen consequences for the children and the nation. Hindus in India this week celebrated an annual ceremony of the "hijra", male-to-female trannys who are often demeaned as prostitutes and beggars but are also seen as having special powers to remove bad luck and mediate disputes. At the Koothandavar festival, the trannys, colorfully dressed as female brides, are ceremonially married by priests to a male deity, and there is much joyous dancing, singing and feasting under the full moon. But the god is already dying, and the next day he is dead. The god is burned in effigy on a funeral pyre, and the hijra grieve loudly and profoundly. Dressed in widow's white, they return to their homes. 25,000 people attended this year's celebration in Koovagam. And finally ... one member of Tasmania's Legislative Council had an interesting way of phrasing his objections as the Council considers reform of Australia's last sodomy law. He said, "The way we're going, legalizing this and legalizing that -- we might as well legalize bestiality and go the whole hog." --------*--------- Sources for this week's report included: The Associated Press; The Globe & Mail (Toronto); The London Times; The Mirror (London); The New York Times; The Panafrican News Agency; The Press Association (Britain); Reuters; The San Francisco Examiner; The Sunday Tasmanian (Hobart); The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald; The Telegraph (London); United Press International; USA Today; Variety; The Washington Post; and cyberpress releases from the Christian Coalition; Family Research Council; Human Rights Campaign; Right Wing Watch Online; and The White House.