NewsWrap for the week ending August 9th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #489, distributed 08-11-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Susan Gage, Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Cindy Friedman and Brian Nunes] Openly gay U.S. writer and artist William S. Burroughs died suddenly of a heart attack this week at the age of 83. A seminal figure in the Bohemian "Beat" movement, he was widely recognized as the model for the hippies of the 1960's. His influence extended beyond "Beat" founders Jack Kerouac and the late openly gay poet Allen Ginsberg, to more contemporary artists such as David Bowie, Blondie's Deobrah Harry, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and REM's Michael Stipe, and he was much admired by Norman Mailer. His most famous work was one of his earliest, "Naked Lunch", a fantasia on his 15 years of heroin addiction. "Naked Lunch" became notorious in a series of obscenity trials but also broke new literary ground with its jump-cut, stream-of-consciousness style. While a dozen other Burroughs works of both fiction and non-fiction were published, in his later years Burroughs turned more to photography and painting, with some success. Burroughs made headlines in 1951 when his drunken, drugged attempt to recreate the William Tell legend by shooting a glass off Joan Vollmer's head made him the killer of the only woman he ever loved. Burroughs attributed all his subsequent work to dealing with his feelings about that tragedy. In the headlines, "Ward vs. Ward" became the custody case that pitted a lesbian mother against a murderer father. Mary Ward was only seeking an increase in child support payments when she went to court in 1995, but Pensacola, Florida CircuitCourt Judge JosephTarbuck instead gave custody of then 11 year old Cassey Ward to her father John. The judge said Cassey should have the chance to grow up in "a non-lesbian world". A year ago, Florida's First District Court of Appeals upheld Tarbuck's decision, even though John Ward had confessed to killing his first wife and served 8 years in prison for it before he wedded Mary. The appeals court found that Tarbuck had ruled "in the best interests of the child", rather than based on Mary Ward's lesbian orientation. Mary Ward immediately filed for the appeals court to reconsider its decision. This week, the appeals court took the unusual step of withdrawing its earlier ruling. This Way Out's Susan Gage has more on the story: [tape:] Susan Gage: This latest twist in the case comes nearly eight months after Mary Ward died of a heart attack. Nonetheless, Mary Ward's attorney Charlene Carress says the appellate court's decision to withdraw its opinion is a victory: Charlene Carress: The decision that was on the books, although it claimed not to have upheld the trial judge's decision on the basis of Mary Ward's lesbianism, in fact didn't give explanations that matched the prior cases to explain why it wasn't taking her relationship with Marjorie Wright into account. Susan Gage: Edward Fleming, the attorney for John Ward, says he's disappointed with the court's decision not to publish the Ward opinion because it means trial judges won't have this case available to guide them in making similar decisions. As for the Ward's daughter, the First DCA's decision has no impact on her custody. For This Way Out, this is Susan Gage in Tallahassee. In Ecuador, a notorious bar raid has sparked a new level of gay and lesbian activism and public support for the repeal of the nation's sodomy law. The story began in May in the town of Cuenca, where a Catholic group joined neighbors of the gay and transgender bar Los Albanicos in complaining to police of what they called "immoral conduct and weekend scandals". Azuay state police chief Diego Crespi responded in mid-June by raiding the bar and arresting as many as 14 men who could not show identification. Those men were charged with intent to commit a crime against morality and released two days later -- but not before one was raped by a jail guard, another was raped by an inmate as guards looked on and laughed, and a third was denied any medical attention after suffering a seizure. The result was what's believed to be Ecuador's first formal complaint of police abuse against sexual minorities. Only ten days after the raid, a group of 90 gays and lesbians had organized to seek reform of the national sodomy statute, which punishes private homosexual acts between consenting adults with 4-to-8 years' imprisonment. A groundswell of favorable public opinion included a call for repeal by Azuay governor Felipe Vega de la Cuadra. Both the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the International Lesbian and Gay Association are supporting Ecuadoran activists in their campaign for sodomy law reform. In Vancouver last week, Bruce Chambers stole the spotlight at the Gay Pride parade, when he became the first police chief in Canada to join a pride march. He marched at the head of a contingent of openly gay police officers to demonstrate his commitment to fair treatment of both police personnel and the general public. British Columbia's health minister and attorney general, and Vancouver's mayor and four city councilmembers also turned out for the city's 10th pride event, along with thousands of gay and lesbian activists and spectators. Religious conservatives in the Vancouver area have recently been actively working to stop discussion of homosexuality in area schools and to block the progress of domestic partnership legislation in British Columbia. In other Canada pride news, hearings began this week on charges by the group Homophile Association of London Ontario, or HALO, that London Mayor Dianne Haskett illegally discriminated against them by refusing them a proclamation of Gay Pride Weekend in 1995. A previous similar case against Hamilton Mayor Bob Morrow ended with his being personally fined $5,000 when a tribunal judged proclamations to be a service covered by Ontario's human rights law. Haskett says her case is different because she had established personal guidelines for rejecting five kinds of proclamations before receiving HALO's request, one of her categories being sexuality, whether homosexual, heterosexual or celibate. HALO's counsel has suggested that she actually set up the guidelines in order to be able to avoid issuing the pride proclamation, and has made deletion of her sexuality category a goal of their complaint. The Canadian Hockey League, which includes three major-junior hockey leagues for players aged 16 to 20, this week released a report they'd commissioned as to how to protect players from sexual exploitation. The recommendations included anti-homophobia training for everyone involved with the League, including players' parents and the venues used by the teams. The report was developed in response to National Hockey League Boston Bruins player Sheldon Kennedy's revelation in January of years of sexual abuse at the hands of his junior hockey coach. Kennedy said at the time that the homophobia of his peers was a significant factor in his keeping silent about the abuse. While the Canadian Hockey League has yet to decide which of the recommendations to accept and how to implement them, the minor hockey group Canadian Hockey Association worked out its plan in March and began its implementation in May -- but then, there's a lot less money involved for the minor clubs than for the junior hockey club owners of the Canadian Hockey League. Money's also the name of the game in cities' bidding for the quadrennial Gay Games. Just how much money was the subject of a report released this week projecting the economic impact should Sydney succeed in bringing the games of 2002 to Australia. It was only the nation's second formal economic impact assessment of a gay and lesbian event, the first having been the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. For the three weeks of the Games, Doctor Gary Cox of the University of Sydney estimated as much as $140-million-Australian-dollars in increased economic activity within the state of New South Wales, and up to $50-million more for the rest of the country. The report appears to amply justify Sydney's grant of $75,000 to develop a bid for the 6th quadrennial Gay Games, despite vocal opposition from 8 Australian Labor Party members of the state Parliament and from a national leader of the right-wing National Party. Also in Australia, there are some preliminary reports from the first national census to count same-gender domestic partnerships. The Australian Bureau of Statistics found almost 1,400 couples in the state of Western Australia, split almost evenly between gay male and lesbian pairs. About 2,500 gay and lesbian couples were reported in the state of Queensland. A total of some 6,000 same-gender couples identified themselves in all the states except New South Wales and Victoria, whose larger populations will delay their tallies by a few months. Many believe these figures to be only the tip of the iceberg -- the Western Australia couples reported are only about one-tenth of one percent of the state's population -- but they can still begin to have some effect on public policy. And finally ... condom manufacturer Durex had product news this week. First, their research has found a new polyurethane condom to be no more likely to brak than the traditional latex kind, and that's important for people who are allergic to latex. But, as their spokesperson said, to add "a little more fun", they also unleased flavored condoms on Australia for the first time. The new range of flavors includes strawberry, tangerine, and banana ... and Durex spokesperson Tracy Meade assured the media that, "ours taste like genuine fruits!" -----------*------------ Sources for this week's report included: Associated Press, Boston Globe, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Globe & Mail (Toronto), Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia), London (Ontario, Canada) Free Press, London (England) Times, New York Times, Reuters News Service, San Francisco Chronicle, Vancouver Sun, Washington Post, CapitalQ (Sydney), Lesbian/Gay Law Notes (Lesbian & Gay Law Association of Greater New York), Sydney Star Observer, Washington (DC) Blade, Westside Observer (Perth, Australia); and cyberpress releases from the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the International Lesbian & Gay Association.