NewsWrap for the week ending June 28th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #483, distributed 06-30-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Graham Underhill, Alan Reekie, Bjorn Skolander, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Brian Nunes and Cindy Friedman The U.S. Supreme Court this week issued two decisions of significance to gays and lesbians. The high court applied the strongest free speech protections in its first consideration of content on the Internet, a medium which has had special value for many otherwise isolated lesbians and gays. Upholding the ruling of a special federal district court, the high court struck down the Communications Decency Act, which would have imposed stiff criminal penalties on anyone making so-called "indecent" material accessible to minors. Indecent material was defined in the law as it is for radio and television broadcasters, as references to sexual or excretory organs or functions, a definition the court criticized for its vagueness. But the court found that the Internet is less intrusive than broadcast media, and more like books in that material must be actively sought out. The key matter for the court was that the law would deny access not only to children but to adults as well, while any actual benefits for children remained "unproven". The court was also concerned about a chilling effect on communications by people who could not be sure they were acting within the law, with homosexuality and prison rape specifically named in the ruling as topics which might be affected. Among the 20 groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union in successfully challenging the law were a number of websites offering AIDS and safer sex information, Patricia Nell Warren's Wildcat Press, and the Queer Resources Directory. Conservative politicians and organizations have promised to try again to develop legislation that will pass the court's scrutiny, while President Clinton and the Democrats called for software solutions that would enable parents to limit their children's access without limiting everyone else's. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled unanimously that there is no individual right to physician-assisted suicide for people with terminal illness. In cases brought as a result of gay men dying of AIDS, the high court found that the states have the authority to prohibit assisted suicide, overturning two lower court decisions. However, the ruling leaves the door open for any state to allow assisted suicides, although Oregon, the only state to attempt to do so thus far, has seen its law stalled by a legal challenge. Ironically, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who wrote the current decision, was also the author of the 1990 ruling that allowed terminally ill patients to reject treatment, but he found assisted suicide to conflict with what he called "our nation's history, legal traditions and practices". Two justices in concurring opinions tried to keep the door open for physicians to prescribe pain-killers in adequate doses that might prove fatal. While a meeting of the American Medical Association greeted the ruling with cheers, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund called it "cruel". President Clinton called the finding a "victory", calling assisted suicide "wrong". The National Right-To-Life Committee, previously concerned almost exclusively with abortion, has promised to seek bans on assisted suicide in all 50 states. There is considerable evidence that many physicians actually do secretly help suffering terminal patients to die, and supporters of assisted suicide believe that bringing the process out in the open would help to limit abuses. The first ruling from a U.S. appeals court on gays and lesbians seeking asylum was published this week. The 9th Circuit ruled that an immigration appeals board should reconsider a bid for asylum by Russian lesbian Alla Pitcherskaia. The immigration panel had endorsed a U.S. government argument that threats of forced psychiatric hospitalization and electroshock to change her orientation should not be considered persecution because the Russian govenment had meant to help Pitcherskaia. The appellate court ruled unanimously that, "Human rights laws cannot be sidestepped by simply couching actions that torture mentally or physically in benevolent terms such as 'curing' or 'treating' the victims." In Hong Kong this week, several dozen women and children demonstrated noisily outside the parliament to demand the outgoing colonial government pass laws against discrimination based on gender, age and sexual orientation. A bill to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination had already been introduced by Legislative Council member Lau Chin-sek. Lobbying for human rights laws had been steadily increasing over the last few years in anticipation of the July 1st handover to China, where homosexuality has been variously denied, repressed, and treated as a mental illness. Zimbabwe's first post-colonial president, Canaan Banana, has finally spoken out in response to allegations that have been circulating since February that he sexually harassed and assaulted other men. In an interview with Harare's "Zimbabwe Independent" newspaper, he utterly denied them all, calling the allegations "nonsense", "laughable" and "the biggest joke in living memory", and laughing heartily to prove it. Police officials say they've given prosecutors nine cases in which Banana is charged with homosexuality and sodomy -- but the only case now actually pending against Banana is a civil suit by convicted killer Jefta Dube, a police constable who successfully used his alleged rapes by Banana in his legal defense. Banana said that some people had come to him saying they'd been offered huge bribes to testify against him, although he had no idea who might have made those offers. His main argument was to question why people had waited so many years to make their complaints, when it's been ten years since he left the presidency. Of course, Banana has continued his connection with Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and his visibility as a participant in African international negotiations. Banana said he's never discussed the allegations with Zimbabwe's current President Robert Mugabe, who has gained an international repurtation for his vehement pronouncements against gays and lesbians. Rumors are flying that Britain's newly elected Opposition leader, Conservative William Hague, is gay. The situation reached a point where he felt compelled to issue a denial to the "Daily Telegraph" newspaper, saying, "Well I'm not. My friends know things like that are ridiculous." He said the rumors had been particularly painful for his fiancee, Ffion Jenkins. One factor contributing to the rumors may be that Hague has indicated that he's not opposed to same-gender marriages. For what it's worth, the picture he posted in his bedroom at age 13 was that of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Britain's gay and lesbian advocacy group Stonewall this week kicked off their "Equality 2000" campaign, setting the new century as their target date for achieving full equality. The heart of the campaign is one million postcards to be sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair. The five key goals are equality before the law, equal protections from discrimination, equal recognition for same-gender couples, equal rights and recognition as parents, and repeal of Section 28, which prevents local governments from providing funds or facilities to any endeavor portraying gays and lesbians in a positive light. Those goals were symbolized by a five-pointed star housing a giant "millennium clock" that's counting down the seconds to the year 2000. The clock was ceremonially switched on by openly gay Members of Parliament Stephen Twigg and Ben Bradshaw. Bradshaw received some special attention this week as his partner, Neal Dalgleish, became the first gay or lesbian to receive a spousal pass to the Parliament. Unmarried heterosexual partners of MP's have also received passes, but only legally married spouses receive the generous allowance for travel between the Parliament and their homes. France's new Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou confirmed this week that the new Socialist-led government intends to carry out its campaign promise to give legal recognition to unmarried couples, including gay and lesbian couples. Through what are called "contracts of social union", those couples will gain a broad range of economic and social benefits and privileges. The proposed legislation also includes detailed provisions for dissolving the contracts when relationships break up. Guigou told "Le Monde" newspaper, "Homosexuals raised the question, but they are not the only ones concerned. One cannot describe the union between two people solely in terms of marriage." And finally ... in Canada, Ontario's provincial Liquor License Board is withholding approval of a TV ad for Molson Dry because it seems to imply that booze will get you sex. Although there is a regulation restricting presentation of alcohol as a key to sexual relations, it seems odd to several observers that it should just happen to be applied to what Molson believes is the first beer ad to feature a same-gender couple. The brewer isn't worried, claiming ads are frequently held up when voluntarily submitted to the review process by the liquor board and Advertising Standards Canada. The ad is set in a bar, where a woman catches the eye of a man. He has a beer sent over to her, she accepts it, and he starts to head over to speak with her. But while he's walking over, a second woman comes in, sits down next to the first, and kisses her passionately. The man returns to his own seat and sends over another beer for the second woman, ending the story with smiles all around. -------*------- Sources for this week's report included: Africa News Organization; The Associated Press; The Daily Telegraph (London); The Independent (London); The Independent (Zimbabwe); Le Monde (France); The London Times; Neue Zurcher Zeitung (Germany); The New York Times; Reuters News Service; The San Francisco Chronicle; The San Francisco Examiner; Southam Newspapers (Canada); The South Africa Press Association; The Sydney Sun-Herald (Australia); The Washington Post; Gay Times (London); and cyberpress releases from the American Civil Liberties Union; Critical Path AIDS Project; Electronic Frontier Foundation; the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission; the International Lesbian & Gay Association; Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund (U.S.); Stonewall (Great Britain); and The White House.