NewsWrap for the week ending June 21st, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #482, distributed 06-23-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Graham Underhill, Susan Gage, Bjorn Skolander, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Brian Nunes and Cindy Friedman] This week's Amsterdam Summit to revise Europe's constitutional treaty provided what one gay activist called "a new weapon" in the struggle for equality. A new clause was added to empower the Council of Europe to take "appropriate action to combat discrimination" based on eight protected categories, including sexual orientation. That could offer new opportunities to enforce a separate, more general article requiring respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in all the member countries of the European Union. It's not easy to invoke the authority to punish a nation's human rights violations: first a proposal must originate in the European Commission, and then it must receive unanimous approval from the Council of Europe in consultation with the European Parliament. The new clause could be valuable in protecting the rights of gays and lesbians, even though it falls short of the outright ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation that activists had hoped for. Singapore's government has refused an application for official registration by the gay group People Like Us. Despite the group's repeated requests and attempts to appeal through other departments, they have been given no reason for the rejection. Without the official registration, the group is considered an "unlawful society", making membership or even attendance at meetings into criminal acts punishable by up to $3,000 and 3 years in jail. Human rights violations under apartheid were spotlighted this week as South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission turned its attention to medical abuses, including attempts to "reprogram" young gay soldiers through aversion therapy. The Cape Town-based Health and Human Rights Project found that during the 1970's, the psychiatrists at a military hospital near Pretoria would administer painful electric shocks to the soldiers as they looked at pictures of naked men and were encouraged to fantasize. The shocks were increased in intensity until the men literally screamed. At that point, the shocks stopped as a Playboy centerfold replaced the male nude and the psychiatrist described the female image in glowing terms. Although the subjects consented to receiving these sessions, the Health and Human Rights Project believes the treatment was abusive because, at ages 18 to 24 years, the men were struggling to come to terms with their sexuality. A Mexican politician believed to be gay was found murdered this week. Green Ecology Party leader Delfino Martinez Galvez, described by Acapulco police as "known for his love of alcoholic beverages and for being a homosexual", was found shot in the face, lying in a bathtub at his party's offices in Ometepec in the state of Guerrero. While tensions between other parties have definitely been mounting as July 6th elections approach, police have not yet identified either a motive or a suspect. Florida's Dade County commission this week rejected proposed civil rights protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation, almost exactly 20 years after a similar measure passed by the commission was repealed by voters in a celebrated campaign. This week, before a room packed with hundreds of religious right activists who prayed, sang and even spoke in tongues, the commission killed the measure 7-to-5 on its first reading without public debate. Most of the opposing commissioners cited religious objections. In 1977, the successful campaign to repeal gay and lesbian civil rights in Dade County was spearheaded by singer Anita Bryant in the first highly-publicized anti-gay campaign by an organized religious right in the U.S. Although it led to similar right-wing efforts across the country, it also galvanized gays and lesbians into a new level of public political activism. Some feel it was even more significant to gay and lesbian organizing than the legendary New York City Stonewall uprising, which is now celebrated in June pride events around the world. In Canada, Quebec's Tribunal on Human Rights has ruled that, "a person cannot, based on the freedom of religion ... infringe on the equality rights of others, notably by discriminating against homosexuals." Three years ago, gay couple Bernard Dube and Christian Gosselin answered a newspaper ad hoping to rent a house. When they met with the landlord to sign a lease, he asked "Are you faggots?" and said, "I don't rent to faggots." The couple's filing with the human rights commission was taken to court, where the landlord claimed his freedom of religion gave him the right to discriminate. In early June, Judge Simon Brossard ruled that, "in refusing tenants whose lifestyles contravened his religious convictions, the defendant infringed on their fundamental rights to sign a lease without being discriminated against based on sexual orientation." The landlord was ordered to pay the couple a total of $4,000 in moral and exemplary damages. In Israel this week, a rabbi officiated at a lesbian couple's commitment ceremony in Tel Aviv. Although Rabbi Yoel-Ariel is part of the Reform branch of Judaism, the women's ceremony included elements of the Orthodox wedding ritual: a wedding canopy, the signing of a traditional wedding contract, and the exchange of vows and rings. Instead of the traditional breaking of a glass by the groom, each of the women broke a glass. They both wore evening dresses and carried bouquets. Israel's Progressive rabbinate has been debating gay and lesbian weddings for years without settling on a policy. It was Yoel-Ariel's first lesbian or gay wedding, but he told a mainstream newspaper that he believes "there is a need to give traditional religious status" to Jewish same-gender couples. Employee benefits for same-gender couples was a leading reason in the Southern Baptist Convention's decision this week to boycott the Walt Disney Company. The largest Protestant religious denomination in the U.S. with almost 16-million members, the Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly to boycott the widest possible range of products and services offered by the entertainment giant's 100 or so entities. Spokespeople said the Southern Baptists felt a special sense of betrayal at what they viewed as Disney's "anti-family" activities because of the company's previously pristine "family" image. Along with the domestic partner benefits, they objected to the portrayal of a gay clergymember in the movie "Priest", the coming-out of comic Ellen DeGeneres and her sitcom character "Ellen", the gathering of gays and lesbians at Disneyworld for "Gay Days" which are not even sponsored by the park, and what some perceived to be a gay relationship between two critters in "The Lion King". Disney refused comment except to profess pride in its products and to note that it produces more family entertainment than any other corporation. The stock market barely blinked. The Southern Baptists' annual meeting had received intensive media coverage even before it began, and soon after the vote the most famous member of the denomination was asked if he would be joining the boycott. U.S. President Bill Clinton, who has taken considerable abuse from some Southern Baptist churches himself, answered simply, "No". In both Portugal and Brazil, activists are lobbying hard in anticipation of parliamentary votes on legislation to recognize domestic partnerships. In both cases, supportive leftist politicians are facing intense opposition from the Catholic Church. Portugal's Socialist Members of Parliament believe their best strategy is to try to pass a bill to establish registries for unmarried heterosexual couples only, and then to amend it later to add gay and lesbian couples. Brazil's registered partnership proposal, which would be the first outside of Europe and one of the strongest in the world, has been bumped from the schedule several times in the face of more pressing political business, but may come to a vote in the coming week. In both countries, activists are calling on the international community to write to the respective prime minister and the leaders of political parties in support of legal rights for gay and lesbian couples. Finland's proposed Bill on Recognized Partnership was passed out of the Committee of Law this week with a recommendation that the government prepare a measure to give equal recognition to gay and lesbian couples. Parliamentary debate is expected in August or September to require the government to follow through on that request. Congratulations are due to openly gay Los Angeles performance artist and poet Luis Alfaro and New York City AIDS activist Michael Harrington. This week, each one received one of 23 so-called "genius grants" from the MacArthur Foundation. Those grants are intended to support creative people in various disciplines for five years with absolutely no strings attached, to allow them to pursue activities they might not be able to otherwise. And finally ... in Chicago in mid-June, another idol proved to have feet of clay. That was Ryan Idol, a star of the cast of a traveling stage show called "Making Porn". In the words of his producer, "things got badly out of hand" when during an intermission -- between the acts, you might say -- Ryan got into a fistfight with another cast member. Police were called to the scene and arrested Ryan on one count of simple battery. When they escorted him through the lobby in handcuffs, many patrons assumed it was just part of the show. --------*--------- Sources for this week's report included: The Associated Press; The Chicago Tribune; The Dallas Morning News; Ha'aretz (Tel Aviv); The Hollywood Reporter; The International Herald Tribune; The London Times; The Los Angeles Times; The Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg); The Miami Herald; The New York Times; The Orlando (FL) Sentinel; Reuters News Service; The South African Press Assn; SNS News Service (Israel); The Toronto Sun; United Press International; The Washington Post; and cyberpress releases from Egalite (Belgium); ILGA-Portugal; the (U.S.) Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; The (Quebec) Human Rights Commission; The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the (U.S.) National Gay & Lesbian Task Force; Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays; SETA (Finland); and the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (South Africa).