NewsWrap for the week ending July19th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #486, distributed 07-21-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Graham Underhill, Alan Reekie, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Cindy Friedman and John Callahan] World-renowned openly gay fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot dead this week in broad daylight on a busy thoroughfare in front of his home in South Miami Beach, Florida, and the only suspect is another open gay -- alleged multiple murderer Andrew Cunanan. Eyewitnesses saw the killer run to a truck in a parking garage and then hail a ride from what may have been a taxi, but the trail has so far ended there, despite a manhunt involving literally hundreds of law enforcement personnel. The truck belonged to the last of four previous victims allegedly murdered by Cunanan, non-gay New Jersey cemetery caretaker William Reese, and it contained items connecting it both to Cunanan and to his presumed third murder victim, non-gay Chicago real estate tycoon Lee Miglin. Neither of those men have been found to have any prior connection with Cunanan and their early May killings are thought to have been just his means to stealing their vehicles. Cunanan was already on the run after allegedly killing his former lover David Madson and their mutual gay acquaintance Jeff Trail in Minnesota, and has been on the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives for more than two months. The murders attributed to Cunanan have involved a variety of weapons and methods that have led profilers to categorize him not as a serial killer but as a much less predictable "spree killer". A total of $65,000-dollars' reward money has so far been offered for information leading to Cunanan's arrest, including $10,000-dollars from the National Coalition of Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Projects. There are a couple of stories circulating about Cunanan and Versace having at least been introduced to each other years before, but no indication of a relationship of any kind. In Miami, This Way Out's Tim Curran has more on the story ... [this sound story, to be posted separately, reports on the FBI hunt for Cunanan and local reaction in the gay community] Versace was evidently much-loved throughout the fashion world, where he is credited with having taken formerly stuffy haute couture and turned it into a grand spectacle for international media with the addition of popular music, art, trends, and celebrities. From humble beginnings, he and his family built what's now an 800-million-dollar-per year international business, thanks largely to his ready-to-wear lines which are equalled only by Armani among Italian designers. There's hardly a famous name he hasn't dressed or a design award he hasn't won. But Versace was also one of the first public figures in Italy to come out as an openly gay man, winning him the admiration of the Italian national lesbian and gay group ArciGay. Versace worked on behalf of people with AIDS with openly gay singer-composer Elton John, who once posed in a Versace dress, and said after the murder, "Gianni and I were like brothers." In bringing rock music into haute couture shows, Versace often enlisted the help of openly gay former Culture Club star Boy George, who described Versace as "a complete gentleman". Fashion critics say he brought "a homoerotic esthetic" into his fashion design work and that his gay orientation played a role in his uniquely provocative avant-garde approaches, which notoriously included some themes of sado-masochism. Elton John's partner David Furnish stated, "If I had to sum Gianni up in one word, it's passion. I never met someone with such a passion for life, and beauty, and living. He enjoyed life, devoured it, and gave it all back to the world. He is someone who was doing what he was born to do and he got so much pleasure from it." Versace is survived by his life partner of nearly a dozen years, Antonio D'Amico, who co-designs the Versace Sport line of ready-to-wear. Versace was 50 years old. Britain is expected soon to apply the same age of consent to acts between men as to those between heterosexual couples and lesbians, following the government's announcement this week that it will not contest a gay legal challenge to the law which was due to be heard before the European Court of Human Rights. The case of Euan Sutherland charges that the current law is discriminatory and a violation of privacy rights because it criminalizes gay sex involving men under 18 years of age but allows sex acts including women to those at least 16 years old. The British government will be seeking a settlement likely to include a promise to allow Members of Parliament to "vote their conscience" on a measure to equalize the age of consent, which is expected to pass by a 2-to-1 margin. The government is not planning to add an equalization measure to its already jam-packed legislative agenda, but there's considerable confidence that some Member of Parliament will introduce a bill. When age of consent was last discussed in the House of Commons in 1994, the age for gay sex was lowered from 21 to 18, but equalization fell 27 votes short in a Parliament much more conservative than the current one. It's been speculated that Britian feared not only losing the age of consent case in the EuroCourt at considerable public expense, but having a ruling in the case that would pave the way to lifting the ban on military service by open gays and lesbians. Paying damages to thousands of discharged gay and lesbian servicemembers could cost Britain many millions. Allegations of sex with an underage teen against gay Belgium Vice-Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo threatened to topple the national government in November and December, but now the official report on police activities in the matter goes even further than the Parliament did in exonerating the popular politician. The newly-released report of the Police Supervisory Committee's investigation includes a list of law enforcement errors that the editors of "Le Monde" newspaper called "incredible". While generally using the language of omissions, negligence and inadmissable methods, the report also referred to abuses, mysterious claims and stage-managed statements. Both the Gendarmerie and the Judicial Police are heavily criticized even though they were seriously at odds with each other. One element that was particularly troubling even at the time was the "leak" that made some Flemish-language newspapers the first to hear of information which procedurally should have been kept confidential. Trumped-up evidence proceeded from the right-wing VLD party through a prosecutor to the President of the Chamber of Representatives in a chain "Le Monde" described as having "no judicial filter to stop the cabal" ... [this] allowed "a handful of gendarmes and commissioners ... to try to 'bring down a vice-Prime Minister' without anybody being able to stop them." It was apparent to "Le Monde" that the same kind of illegitimate process used against Di Rupo could be used against any citizen, posing a threat to democracy. It was thought by many at the time that the allegations against Di Rupo were meant to distract public attention from police bungling and possible corruption in the case of Marc Dutroux, whose criminal activities led to not only the sexual exploitation but the death of young girls not long before. At the same time the allegations were leveled against Di Rupo, an openly gay state politician was also alleged to have had sex with an underage teen, but unlike Di Rupo, those charges ended his political career. Mexico has elected its first openly lesbian or gay legislator to the national parliament, and she may be the first open lesbian or gay to sit in a national legislature in all of Latin America. Long-time lesbian activist Patria Jimenez of the PRD -- Democratic Revolutionary Party -- was not directly elected, but will be representing a five-state area including Mexico City in the Chamber of Deputies as the result of a proportional representation plan known as "plurinominal circumscription". The historic July 6th elections broke the decades-long stranglehold on Mexican politics held by the PRI -- Institutional Revolutionary Party -- which lost seats to both the left-wing PRD and the right-wing PAN -- National Action Party. The PRD's substantial gains also dashed the congressional hopes of an openly gay man and his openly lesbian second, who had been confidently expected to win in Mexico City as candidates for the Cardenista Party. And finally ... some people who are out cruising are using condoms in an unexpected way. In Papua, New Guinea, Buka Island keeps running into alarming condom shortages ... because they've become popular lures among tuna fishermen. ------*------- Sources for this week's report included: Associated Press; Cable News Network; Chicago Tribune; E! Magazine; Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia); Le Soir (Belgium); Miami Herald; London Times; New York Times; Orlando Sentinal; Philadelphia Daily News; Press Association (Britain); Reuters; San Diego Union Tribune; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Telegraph (London); Toronto Star; United Press International; USA Today; Washington Post; The Advocate; and cyberpress releases from the (U.S.) National Coalition of Lesbian/Gay Anti-Violence Projects and Stonewall (Britain).