NewsWrap for the week ending August 16th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #490, distributed 08-18-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Graham Underhill, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Brian Nunes and Cindy Friedman] The governing board of the American Psychological Association this week passed by an overwhelming margin a resolution that puts a large warning label on so-called "reparative therapies" intended to change gays and lesbians into heterosexuals. Doug Haldeman of the APA's committee on lesbigay issues explained that, "In the past 10 years, Christian fundamentalists have enlisted a coalition of old-style psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers who have become very visible in this country and internationally, and who have as a mission to 'help' homosexuals get rid of their sexual orientation. Our aim is not to try to stop them per se or interfere with anyone's right to practice, but we want to expose the social context that creates this market." Two years ago, both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association rejected resolutions to condemn the "change" therapies as unethical, but now the APA has laid out strong guidelines as to what would really constitute "informed consent" for clients entering those therapies. Reaffirming its decision of almost 25 years ago that "homosexuality is not a mental disorder," the APA went on this week to declare that it "opposes all portrayals of lesbian, gay and bisexual people as mentally ill and in need of treatment due to their sexual orientation." Therapists are now expected both to advise prospective clients that there is no solid scientific evidence that the "reparative" therapies are effective, and to warn that they may in fact be harmful. Therapists are also expected to explore with clients their motives in seeking to try to change their orientation, with a particular concern for seeing that there is no coercion involved in their entering treatment, and therapists are expected to have a full discussion with clients of the possibility that gays and lesbians can have fulfilling lives. One champion of the reparative therapies, clinical psychologist Joseph Nicolosi, said of these guidelines, "It's like having a restaurant and having a big sign in the window saying, 'You might be poisoned, you might not be happy with the food.'" But that seems quite appropriate to the many who believe as David Smith of the Human Rights Campaign does that, "These therapies amount to nothing more than psychological terrorism and are usually performed by practitioners who harbor intense bias against gay people." One example is psychiatrist Charles Socarides, president of the Encino, California-based National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, who said, "Homosexuality is a psychological and psychiatric disorder, there is no question about it. It is a purple menace that is threatening the proper design of gender distinctions in our society." The Seattle, Washington-based Christian "change ministry" Exodus International says it receives 500 calls each month and has more than 6,000 clients currently undergoing reparative therapy at its 90 locations across the U.S. Psychologist James Dobson built a 100-million-dollar-a-year multimedia empire out of Focus on the Family, believed to be the largest right-wing organization in the U.S. This week, one of the group's co-founders held a press conference to apologize for what he called Dobson's unchristian and un-American activities, including his misrepresentations of gays and lesbians, and called on Dobson to get out of politics and back to the mission of strengthening American families. Co-founder Gil Alexander-Moegerle takes credit for setting up Focus on the Family's Broadcast, Publication and Mail Processing divisions, which reach several million people around the world, before he was fired by Dobson. Alexander-Moegerle said, "I apologize to any American who has felt the sting of James Dobson and the Christian Right wagging their holier-than-thou fingers in your face, shrieking that because your views differ from theirs, you are ungodly, evil and unworthy of the rights of full citizenship." Part of that apology was directed specifically "to lesbian and gay Americans who are demeaned and dehumanized on a regular basis by the false, irresponsible, and inflammatory rhetoric of James Dobson's anti-gay radio and print materials." Alexander-Moegerle is the author of "James Dobson's War on America", which he calls "the first book to critique James Dobson's character, style and political agenda from an insider's perspective." There is an advantage to being gay or lesbian in the Australian state of New South Wales -- those are the only people protected by the state's Anti-Discrimination Act, an Equal Opportunity Tribunal ruled this month. Brett Halliwell, a non-gay man, had filed a complaint of discrimination after being ejected from the now-defunct lesbian nightclub "Sirens". He said club staff told him to leave because of his gender and sexual orientation, but the club's owners said it was because he was drunk and didn't pay the cover charge. Halliwell knew what kind of a bar it was, and the chair of the Tribunal said he must have been looking for "trouble". The rights of same-gender couples took another blow in Hawai'i this week, when the state Attorney General determined that only a fraction of the state's employers need to include workers' so-called "reciprocal beneficiaries" in health coverage and other spousal benefits. In July, it became possible for any two unmarried people who cannot legally marry each other -- including same-gender couples -- to register with the state as reciprocal beneficiaries and qualify for about one-seventh of the rights and privileges of legal marriage under state law. Five of the state's major employers immediately filed a lawsuit in the belief that extending spousal benefits to those reciprocal beneficiaries would cost them millions of dollars, and they also claimed that the state was illegally interfering in their employer-employee relationships. But this week Hawai'i Attorney General Margery Bronster, whose job it is to defend the state law, discovered a loophole and now believes the law requires spousal benefits for the reciprocal beneficiaries of only about 2,000 workers in the state. She says the legislation failed to amend the statutes covering the health maintenance organizations and member-owned group health associations that provide the large majority of employer health benefits, and so reciprocal beneficiaries need only be covered by those employers using private insurance carriers. Bronster's opinion won't be officially released for another couple of weeks, but she hopes it will cause the employers' lawsuit to be dismissed. Still worse for the non-traditional couples, there appears to be a real possibility that some who had been receiving reciprocal beneficiary benefits will have to personally repay their employers' costs for them. Undercover police officers in Moscow arrested about 40 men at a gay club in late July. The raid was ostensibly in search of drugs, but local activists say no drugs were found and those arrested were forced to sign faked drug test results. Activists also charge that some of the detainees were severely beaten, while all were held for six to eight hours without water, access to toilet facilities, or medical treatment. During their detention, guards verbally abused them for being gay and told them they deserved to die. That's a viewpoint shared by the Algerian known as Abou el Moundhir, a chief of the Groupe Islamic Armee, as expressed in an interview published in the group's underground newspaper "Al Djamaa". While most targets of the GIA's terrorist violence have been political, el Moundhir said the group's members had a duty to eliminate "homosexuals", along with others who violate Islamic law. While there is no way to know how many victims may have been gays or lesbians, Algerian authorities believe the GIA to have been responsible for almost 700 civilian deaths in just the last two months. A reward of one million dinar has been put up for the arrest of el Moundhir. Major sting operations have been underway in a park in San Diego, California and a gay bar in Miami Beach, Florida -- and it may not be a coincidence that those usually gay friendly cities happen to be the first and last homes of the late openly gay alleged multiple murderer Andrew Cunanan. Acting undercover for several days, San Diego police arrested 46 men on charges relating to gay sex in Marian Bear Memorial Nature Park, and promised local residents that they would continue to make periodic sweeps there. In a single night this week, Miami Beach undercover detectives arrested 21 men at the Boardwalk club, primarily on charges of lewd and lascivious behavior in what police say was "an open area". The chief spokesperson for the U.S. Secretary of the Navy was also netted in an undercover operation in Annapolis, Maryland this month. Captain Michael John allegedly solicited sex from a male police officer, and he's been charged with two misdemeanor counts of solicitation. The Navy leads the U.S. armed forces in discharging servicemembers for homosexuality. And finally ... Australia's "The Age" newspaper offered a bit of navy history this week, reporting that, in the "hairy-chested history of the senior service" there was once a motor launch named "Pansy" ... to which our correspondent replies, "Well, hello sailor!" ------*------- Sources for this week's report included: Associated Press, The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, AUS), Melbourne Star Observer, The Australian, Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Los Angeles Times, Maui News, The Political Investigator, Reuters, San Diego Union Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, United Press International, Washington Post; and cyberpress releases from Evgenia Debrianskaya/Dyke Club (Moscow, Russia), Family Research Council, Gay & Lesbian Pridecenter (Colorado Springs, CO), Human Rights Campaign (U.S.), International Lesbian & Gay Association, Tom Ramsey/Marriage Project Hawai'i, and (U.S.) National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.