NewsWrap for the week ending July12th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #485, distributed 07-14-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Graham Underhill, Jason Lin, Steffen Jensen, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Brian Nunes and Cindy Friedman] The European Court of Justice this week heard oral arguments in an important case regarding employees' domestic partners. British lesbian Lisa Grant, who works for what was formerly part of British Rail and is now known as South West Trains, is seeking spousal travel benefits for her partner Jill Percey, as a matter of equal pay for equal work. The British Labour Board deciding her case has sought the advice of the EuroCourt on a half-dozen points of law, and if they are decided in Grant's favor, it could potentially create protections from workplace discrimination for gays and lesbians. The challenge is that the European treaties being considered by the court outlaw gender-based discrimination but not discrimination based on sexual orientation. As a result, South West Trains argues that Grant has not suffered gender discrimination, because she has received the same treatment as gay male employees, an argument Grant's counsel dismissed as "pedantry". Joining South West Trains in their case is the government of Britain, because a victory for Grant could ensure a victory in Terry Perkins' upcoming case to strike down Britain's ban on military service by open gays and lesbians. Ironically, since the recent British elections, that government is the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, while Grant is represented by Blair's wife Cherie Booth, one of Britain's leading employment law barristers. The Dutch Senate has approved a bill creating registered domestic partnerships with all the rights and benefits of traditional legal marriage except for artificial insemination and adoption. The Second House of the Parliament had already approved the same measure in late 1996. Open to both same-gender and heterosexual couples, it will go into effect on January 1st. Although it may be the strongest partnership law in the world, the Parliament has also asked the government to examine the possibility of full equal marriage rights for same-gender couples and to draft a proposal for consideration later this year. More than 130 Dutch municipalities, representing some 60% of the national population, had already established their own domestic partner registries, although without the legal weight of the new national law. The Italian town of Pisa has also established a domestic partners registry, by a 19-to-7 vote of the Town Council this week. Qualifying couples must be cohabitants residing in Pisa who are not in marital, parental, adoptive, or guardian relationships with each other. The partnerships can be cancelled by either party. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Holocaust survivors are among those who will be eligible for a first round of compensation payments from a private Swiss fund, it was announced this week. The memorial fund was established by donations from Swiss banks and businesses following reports that they had profited from Nazi looting and from holding the funds of Nazi victims. The first round of payments will total 17 million Swiss francs, or 11.6 million U.S. dollars, 90% of which is targeted for Jewish survivors, especially those in Eastern Europe. Thanks in part to the lobbying of the Berne-based Pink Cross, gay survivors are among those qualifying for grants from the remaining 10%. It's generally accepted that about 10,000 gay men died in the concentration camps, although estimates range as high as one million. Yet, only one openly gay survivor has publicly come forward to date. That's because the Nazi-era anti-gay laws remained in effect for many years after the war, and gays who did not disguise their identities were still criminals sent on to jail at the time of liberation. San Marino, billed as the world's oldest and smallest republic, repealed its sodomy law this week by a vote of 28-to-21 in its parliament, known as the Great and General Council. Previously, the law punished "libidinous acts with persons of the same sex" with up to one year in prison. The 24,000 citizens of San Marino occupy only 61 square kilometers, entirely surrounded by Italy. Despite a proud history dating back to the year 301, San Marino is perhaps best known internationally for its postage stamps. Zimbabwe's former President Canaan Banana is now one of the world's most famous sodomy defendants. In what the judge called a "curtailed preliminary hearing", this week he was charged with two counts of sodomy, two of attempted sodomy, and six of indecent assault, against victims including six aides-de-camp, a cook, a gardener, a bodyguard from the presidential Close Security Unit, a man from Bulawayo, and police constable Jefta Dube. It was Dube's testimony in February during his own trial for murder that Banana's allegedly myriad sexual assaults and sexual harassment against other men were first made public. The crowd of journalists and would-be spectators created numerous difficulties in getting Banana into and out of the building, although the judge cleared the courtroom before the proceedings. The trial itself, scheduled to begin in early August, will be public, but the names of the victims are being suppressed. Meanwhile, GALZ, the organization Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, has not yet applied to display at the annual Zimbabwe International Book Fair. It was their efforts to have a booth there that set off a series of viciously homophobic declarations by Zimbabwe's current President Robert Mugabe -- a long-time political associate of Banana's who has yet to comment on his case. Although Mugabe was able to ban GALZ from the Book Fair in 1995, a judge's orders allowed GALZ to have a booth last year ... only to have an angry mob of about 100 men descend on their display. Luckily the group members weren't present. GALZ did appear the following day, to answer numerous questions from curious locals. GALZ has not yet issued public comment about the August Book Fair. In Canada, attempted censorship by a school board in British Columbia has led the group Gay and Lesbian Educators, GALE, to file a lawsuit. The Vancouver-area Surrey School Board in April had advised school staff that "resources from gay and lesbian groups such as GALE or their related resource lists are not approved for use" and specifically banned three children's books: "Asha's Mums", "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads" and "Belinda's Bouquet". Some Surrey residents are also suing the School Board in the provincial Supreme Court, charging that the Board has violated free expression and equality rights. The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and the national group Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere, EGALE, are also supporting the effort. Australia's Uniting Church held its National Assembly this past week in Perth, and as it considered the question of ordaining openly sexually active gays and lesbians, ten clergymembers identified themselves as gays and lesbians. Highest-ranking in the church hierarchy is Reverend Dorothy McRae-McMahon, who serves as the denomination's National Director Of Mission as well as minister of Sydney's Pitt Street Uniting Church. The National Assembly was deeply divided on the issue and was finally convinced by a coalition of ethnic and migrant delegates to put off any decision until the next meeting three years hence. Those ethnic groups felt that intercultural communications issues had denied them active participation in considering the proposals relating to homosexuality, and wanted more time to deliberate. The Assembly's non-decision left the newly-out ministers twisting in the wind and possibly even subject to disciplinary action. Conservative elements -- including notorious homophobe, Member of the New South Wales Parliament and Uniting Church minister Fred Niles -- called loudly for McRae-McMahon's resignation. And finally ... two leading U.S. universities have been making headlines on gay and lesbian issues. Harvard University has elected open lesbian Sheila James Kuehl to its Board of Governors, making her the first open lesbian or gay ever to serve on any of its governing boards. Kuehl, an alumna of Harvard Law School, was also the first open lesbian or gay ever elected to the California state Assembly, where she now serves as speaker pro tem, but is still most widely known for her role decades ago as "Zelda" on the popular TV sitcom "Dobie Gillis". Less happily, veteran gay activist and author Larry Kramer has not been able to give a few million dollars to his alma mater, Yale. He says he made dozens of proposals, particularly to endow a chair in lesbian and gay studies, and blames homophobia for the University's refusal. Yale's Provost Alison Richard explained that because the university has "frozen" its faculty positions, any new chair would mean cutting a faculty member elsewhere. Yale does have an active gay and lesbian alumni group whose unrestricted gifts are cheerfully accepted, and the climate for students has improved tremendously since 1953, when Kramer attempted suicide there. When Provost Richard was trying to explain to the "New York Times" the problems with contributions that come with strings attached, either the Provost made a slip of the tongue or the "Times" made a typo, but the statement was rendered, "Larry Kramer is but one of the passionate advocates who come at Yale." --------*--------- Sources for this week's report included: Associated Press; Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Africa News Online Age (Melbourne, Australia); British Broadcasting Corporation and its Radio 5 Live's "Out This Week"; Herald Sun (Melbourne); International Herald Tribune; London Times; Mail & Guardian (London); New York Times; Pan Africa News Association; Press Association (U.K.); Reuters; San Francisco Chronicle; South Africa Press Association; San Marino State Tourist Office; Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald; United Press International; Zimbabwe Independent (Harare); Bay Windows (Boston); De GAY Krant (Amsterdam); EuroLetter; Philadelphia Gay News; Westside Observer (Perth, Australia); and cyberpress releases from PRIDE!/Centro di Iniziativa Arcigay (Pisa, Italy); Stonewall (Great Britain); and the Uniting Church (Australia).