NewsWrap for the week ending June 7th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #480, distributed 06-09-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Steffan Jensen, Martin Rice, Graham Underhill, Bill Woods, Susan Gage, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Brian Nunes and Cindy Friedman] The European Commission on Human Rights has given the British government a September deadline for explaining its blanket ban on military service by gays and lesbians. The Commission has taken up the cases of four former servicemembers discharged for being gay or lesbian. They claim their military experiences of discrimination, degrading treatment, and loss of privacy and free expression violate the European Convention on Human Rights. If the Commission is not satisfied with the British government's defense, their cases will go on to the European Court on Human Rights. The situation is forcing Britain's new Labour government to take a stand on the issue, when Labour has been backpedalling rapidly from its campaign promises to gays and lesbians in favor of appeasing military officials and more conservative party members. Both of Canada's openly gay Members of Parliament were returned to office with easy wins in national elections this week. Svend Robinson of the New Democratic Party topped 5 other candidates to continue his 18-year parliamentary career despite a concerted effort by the ruling Liberal Party to defeat him. Real Menard of the Bloc Quebecois, who came out as a gay man in 1994, also came in well ahead of his opponents. Overall, the somewhat gay-friendly Liberal government of Jean Chretien retained control despite losing a number of seats. Perhaps most significant for gays and lesbians is the reactionary Reform Party, whose members include several vocal homophobes, replacing the fairly gay-friendly Bloc Quebecois as the Official Opposition party. The national group Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere, or EGALE, was frustrated in its efforts to develop a campaign "report card" on the parties when only the New Democratic Party actually filled out EGALE's questionnaire. A concerted lobbying effort by Denmark's national gay and lesbian organization, LBL, couldn't stop one of the world's most gay-friendly countries from restricting assisted insemination services to heterosexual couples only. After the restriction was added to the bill on its second reading, the group supported three amendments: one to delete the restriction altogether, one to restrict only in vitro fertilization while leaving other artificial insemination services available to all women, and one to allow lesbians assisted insemination in cases where the donor was identified. All three were defeated, leaving Danish lesbians without assisted insemination services of any kind after September, whether through public or private hospitals or clinics. However, there is no prohibition against do-it-yourself "turkey baster" inseminations. In Israel, a Haifa magistrate this week recognized a lesbian couple as a "family" so it could issue a restraining order against domestic violence. The couple had previously signed a legal contract to certify that their relationship had the elements constituting a family, but now they're splitting up and officially dividing their assets. One had asked for a court order to stop the other from repeatedly coming to her home drunk and threatening her. Based on a 1994 Israeli Supreme Court decision recognizing two gay men as a "couple", the court complied. South Africa's National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality is seeking a declaration from the Cape High Court to strike down 60 older laws which discriminate against lesbians and gays. The Coalition believes they violate the new national constitution, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. The targeted statutes range from a ban on same-sex dancing to a prohibition against gay male sex acts. Although the South African Department of Justice has been investigating other forms of bias, it has not been examining homophobia. The Coalition is concerned not only with the welfare of South African gays and lesbians, but also with the prospect of providing asylum in South Africa for those fleeing homophobia elsewhere in the region. The man who successfully defended the right of U.S. states to criminalize private sexual behavior this week announced he'd committed one of those victimless crimes himself. Michael Bowers, for 16 years Georgia's state Attorney General, won a victory for the state's sodomy law in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986. He resigned his post at the end of May in order to run for governor with the Republican Party, with his "Mr. Clean" image his main attraction. This week, he announced having engaged in an adulterous affair over a period of ten years, beginning when the woman was an employee in his office and was still married to someone else. Every one of those adulterous acts could have been prosecuted as a misdemeanor in Georgia. Just days before, a federal appeals court had confirmed that Bowers acted within the law in 1991 when he withdrew the offer of a job in the Attorney General's office after learning that lawyer Robin Shahar planned a private religious commitment ceremony with her long-time lesbian partner. He had argued that her apparent flouting of the state's sodomy law would damage the credibility and efficiency of the Law Department. Bowers admitted to having been a hypocrite and to "feeling funny" about fighting the Shahar case, but he felt he'd had no other legal choice. Thus far, the Georgia Republican Party, from its chair to its religious conservatives, are lining up solidly behind Bowers' gubernatorial candidacy despite his announcement. New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen this week signed into law a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, and credit. New Hampshire is now the 11th state in the U.S. protecting the civil rights of lesbians and gays, and makes New England the first region of the country in which all the states offer such protections. Overall, less than one-quarter of U.S. citizens live where sexual orientation discrimination is prohibited. Hawai'i's Governor Ben Cayetano announced that he will sign a domestic partners bill into law. So-called "reciprocal beneficiaries" can be any two unmarried people who live together, including blood relatives. By registering with the state, they will gain some 50 marriage-like rights and benefits. No other state has even established a domestic partners registry, much less extended substantial rights to unmarried couples. The legislature passed the bill in tandem with a proposed amendment to the state constitution intended to deny legal marriage -- and its 300-odd rights and benefits -- to gay and lesbian couples. Cayetano called the reciprocal beneficiaries measure "a major step forward". Another gay-friendly governor, Colorado's Roy Romer, this week vetoed for the second year a bill to deny marriage licenses to same-gender couples within the state and to deny recognition to legal gay and lesbian marriages another state might someday perform. Last year, Romer became the first U.S. governor to veto such a bill, and only Washington's Gary Locke has followed suit. Romer said, "The only real effect of this bill is to target gay and lesbian people and to exclude and stigmatize this group in our society." Meanwhile, Minnesota became the latest state to reject legal gay and lesbian marriages as Governor Arne Carlson signed the bill into law. More than half the U.S. states are now prepared to ignore any legal same-gender marriages performed elsewhere in the country, even though none currently exist. U.S. President Clinton this week took aim at hate crimes in his weekly radio broadcast, making repeated references to gays and lesbians among the victims of bias-motivated assaults and discrimination. The President announced plans for a major meeting in November to determine ways to combat hate crimes. Two stories this week remind us that gays and lesbians are not the only victims of homophobia. In Santa Fe Springs, California, a factory worker opened fire on his colleagues while yelling, "I am not gay!". Daniel Marsden killed two and wounded four before killing himself. In one report, a co-worker said Marsden had recently come out to some employees, but regardless, he appeared to believe he was being ridiculed behind his back. On a lighter note, top-rated TV talkshow host Oprah Winfrey felt compelled to issue a statement saying, "I am not in the closet. I am not coming out. I am not gay". Between Oprah's appearance on the coming out episode of the "Ellen" sitcom, her support for its now openly-lesbian star Ellen DeGeneres, and an item by gossip columnist Liz Smith predicting the coming out of an unnamed longtime TV icon and "role model to millions", Winfrey had been deluged with questions. Smith apologized for Winfrey "getting grief". And finally ... in Australia, the New South Wales Police Service is for the first time reaching out specifically to gays and lesbians in its current recruitment drive. The ads they've placed in the gay and lesbian press make their main selling point the uniform. Their ad in the "Sydney Star Observer" headlined, "A career opportunity for gay men that doesn't put you in a straight jacket", pictures a leather jacket. Their ad in "Lesbians on the Loose" magazine reads, "Join the NSW Police. We guarantee you'll get sensible shoes." --------*---------- Sources for this week's report included: The Associated Press; The Atlanta Journal Constitution; The Augusta (GA) Chronicle; The Australian Broadcasting Corp.; BBC Radio 5 Live's "Out This Week"; Canadian Press; CANOE (Canada); The Cape Argus (Capetown, South Africa); The Chicago Tribune; The Denver Post; Dow Jones News Service; The Garden Island (Kauai, Hawai'i); Ha'aretz (Israel); The Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia); The Honolulu Star Bulletin; The Jerusalem Post; The London Times; Reuters News Service; The St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press; Southam Newspapers (Canada); The Toronto Globe & Mail; The Toronto Star; United Press International; Variety; The Washington Post; and cyberpress releases from The American Civil Liberties Union; The Hawai'i Gay Marriage Project - GLEA Foundation; Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund (U.S.); LBL (Denmark's national gay & lesbian organization); The (U.S.) National Gay & Lesbian Task Force; The Society for the Protection of Personal Rights of Gay Men, Lesbians and Bisexuals in Israel; The State of Colorado Executive Chambers; and Stonewall (Great Britain).