NewsWrap for the week ending May 24th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #478, distributed 05-26-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Bjorn Skolander, Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Cindy Friedman and Brian Nunes.] A Brazilian man who killed 17 of his family members and neighbors in a single day was apparently driven in part by rumors that he was gay. In a three-page letter that named 25 people he planned to kill, Genildo Ferreira de Franca said he was writing "not to justify the wrong I have done but it is only in this way that I can ... challenge those who wanted to prove I was a homosexual." He had also said something similar to a neighbor. Although de Franca had been married twice and was described by his mother as a "womanizer", apparently other residents of the town of Sao Goncalo do Amarante talked about him being gay because he had not reacted to his wife's having an affair with another man. De Franca was also said to be still grief-stricken after his year-old son's death two years before. A former solder, de Franca carried two automatic weapons and a handgun and wore camouflage and a bullet-proof vest as he first killed his current wife and her parents, then his ex-wife, and then a series of other local residents he lured to an isolated spot and shot. Later he walked down the street apparently killing people at random. He was eventually gunned down by some 200 police officers. As campaigning in Mexico builds towards elections July 6, there are at least four openly gay and lesbian candidates who are pretty much assured of winning at least two seats in the national congress. Mexico City lesbian activist Patria Jimenez is essentially guaranteed a seat as #12 on the PRD [Party of the Democratic Revolution] list, since the party is expected to win 16 to 18 seats. Mexico City gay activist Francisco Robles is similarly likely to be seated by the Cardenista Party along with his lesbian running mate Nayeli Fuentes Vidal, who would serve as his substitute or assistant. Open Gay Roberto Ismael Espejo is running to represent the Guadalajara area. Meanwhile, the PAN [National Action Party] has slipped far down in the polls as the PRI [Institutional Revolutionary Party] and PRD have been engaging in smear tactics to stave off what looked to be their first real elections challenge in decades. On the one hand, PAN's most visible elected politician, Guadalajara mayor Cesar Coll Corrubias, has been portrayed as a raving homophobe, while the Boston "Globe" newspaper recently described him as "only slightly more conservative than New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani." On the other hand, PAN's candidate to become Mexico City's first elected mayor, Carlos Castillo Peraza, has been repeatedly suggested to be not only a religious extremist but also gay, with the Televisa TV network reporting rumors of his dressing up as a butterfly. Transsexual Mariel Munoz set a legal precedent in Argentina when she won official recognition as a female, and now she's setting a further precedent by running for a seat on the Buenos Aires City Council. She'll be appearing on the ballot in October as part of the slate of the ruling Peronist party. Until now, trannys in Buenos Aires have usually been heard from as victims of abusive police practices. In the U.S., two different settings in West Coast states raised questions about gay Republicans' status within their own party. In Oregon, openly gay Republican state Representative Chuck Carpenter was asked to leave his party by the chair and vice-chair of the Oregon Republican Party. In the same letter, they asked his gay-friendly colleague Jim Hill to leave as well, even though if both men had agreed, it would have meant the Republicans losing their majority control of the state House. Carpenter had to take strong action to bust his bill to protect gays and lesbians from workplace discrimination out of a House committee , and now his own party is keeping it off the Senate floor as well. In a moment of frustration, Carpenter had threatened to join the House Democrats in a blockade of Senate legislation until his bill was heard, but he had apologized for that threat before the party's central committee asked him to leave. Both Carpenter and the gay and lesbian Log Cabin Republicans wrote back taking issue with the party leaders' claim that job protections for gays and lesbians were contrary to the party platform. A U.S. federal appeals court this week denied an openly gay couple the opportunity to sue the Republican Central Committee of El Dorado County, California. Paul Johnson and Kevin Wadworth had first been publicly elected to the Central Committee in 1992 and were re-elected in 1994. But before they could serve their second term, a secret meeting of the committee dismissed them and gave them no opportunity to defend themselves. The Committee was supposedly reacting to the couple having leased their ranch for a Democratic fund-raiser, but the Committee's own Vice-Chairman at the time had done the same thing on many occasions without repercussions. Johnson and Wadworth believe their ouster was an act of homophobia, especially since one Republican who was a member of the state Assembly at the time was known to have sworn to "get rid of those faggots". But the federal appeals court found that no government authority had been abused by individuals acting in their private capacity, and cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling indicating that the political parties were free to run themselves "without any interference from the state." That ruling seemed to uphold the Committee's attorney's contention that even if the ouster had been bias-motivated, it was nonetheless legal. Johnson and Wadworth intend to continue to pursue the case, either in the state courts or in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic National Committee has announced that it will be extending spousal benefits to the same-gender partners of its gay and lesbian employees, effective July 3rd. The couples have to have lived together for 12 consecutive months. The DNC employs about 150 people. Britain's High Court has approved a child's adoption by a lesbian who lives with her partner, despite the biological mother's objections. Although only married couples are allowed to adopt jointly, the judge found there was nothing in the adoption statute to preclude adoption based on a prospective parent's sexual orientation or same-gender relationship. The child is believed to be the first in England and Wales to be adopted into the home of a same-gender couple, although a court in Scotland had previously allowed an adoption by a gay man who lives with his partner. The only other U.K. legal case saw an English judge approve adoption by a single lesbian in 1993. Pakistan saw its first public whipping in two years this week after Afridi tribal elders sentenced two males who'd been found together in a public toilet. 38-year-old Mohammad Zaman received 75 lashes and 14-year-old Fahimullah received 32 lashes, while hundreds of tribesmen looked on and cheered. The group Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, or GALZ, says their office was visited this week by a police inspector who said their leaders were going to be arrested. He said he'd come to the office to find out "if gay people are operating here", which is no small thing in a country where even private acts between consenting adult males are punishable by 7-to-14 years in prison. Although seven GALZ members tried to keep him out, the police officer forced his way in and spent 20 minutes interrogating one young woman. The officer said he would return, but had not come back by the end of that day. GALZ has struggled with both the authorities and the general public in its efforts to display in the last two annual Zimbabwe International Book Fairs. A gay-themed film gave Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. "Happy Together" follows the ups and down of a pair of gay men who emigrate from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires. The movie poster for "Happy Together" was banned in Hong Kong, and there's some question as to whether Wong Kar-Wai would be able to make another gay-themed picture when China takes over again. Mainland China stopped two of its own directors of attending, one for having made the gay-themed film "East Palace, West Palace". And finally ... "Ellen", ABC-TV's sitcom whose lead character came out as a lesbian April 30th, has been renewed for the coming season and will air Wednesdays at 9:30pm. The show's prospects there look good, since its competition on the other major networks is the second half of a newsmagazine and a brand-new sitcom. "Ellen"s final episode was ranked #17 for its week, and while that's a slip from the #1 and #10 rankings of the first two "out" episodes, it was good enough to be ABC's second-ranked show ... and it's a far cry from the 37th position "Ellen" averaged this year in the closet. The buildup to the coming out episode was so intense that newly-out star Ellen DeGeneres was one of the ten celebrities Americans were found most likely to recognize in a recent survey -- she was familiar to 62%, about ten times as many people as exiting Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed. ---------*---------- Sources for this week's report included: Agence France Presse; The Associated Press; The Boston Globe; Kyodo News Service; The London Times; The New York Times; News of Mexico City; New York Newsday; The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR); Reuters; The Sacramento Bee; Ultimate TV; United Press International; Variety; The Washington Post; and cyberpress releases from ABC; Castillo Peraza website; CBS Newsmagazine; The Human Rights Campaign; The Midwestern Higher Education Commission; Log Cabin Republicans; NBC; Stonewall (London); and Wang & Gluck (publicists for "Happy Together").