NewsWrap for the week ending September 13th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #494, distributed 09-15-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Dave Williams, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Cindy Friedman and Tory Christopher] A junior Environment minister in the British government this week became the first to publicly identify as a lesbian. Angela Eagle, Member of Parliament for Wallasey, said in a newspaper interview, "I have a long-term and very happy relationship ... I happen to be with a woman." Previously, Eagle had been largely silent about her private life, although she had occasionally hinted at having boyfriends. Now she feels that "times have changed and the best option now is just to be open about it" and that coming out would allow her to focus on her work. Eagle was the youngest MP in the Commons when she was first elected in 1992, and rose quickly within the Labour Party, gaining a reputation among her peers as a talented and hard-working politician. She said she'd found "huge support" in her coming out from both her Labour colleagues and her family, including her twin sister who is now also an MP. In her constituency, both local party officials and ordinary citizens seemed uniformly positive in accepting the news of her sexual orientation. Naturally the direct action group OutRage was delighted with her coming out, calling it "courageous, positive and admirable" and urging other closeted Members of Parliament to follow suit. Eagle has always had a gay-friendly voting record but doesn't particularly intend to become a spokesperson for gay and lesbian rights, saying it's only a part of what she's about. Labour currently has three openly gay men in Parliament, including Secretary for Culture, Media and Sports Chris Smith. The closet door also opened wide this week for the great German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who lived from the mid-18th century well into the 19th century. A newly-released biography, "The Tender Caress of the Tiger", presents Goethe as having had his first sexual relationship in the 1870's with philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, of whom he said in a later memoir, "At midnight you still sought me in the darkness -- I felt my soul was reborn. From that moment I could never leave you again." Biographer Karl Hugo Pruys said this week, "I am firmly convinced that Goethe was gay. ... Goethe had only close and warm relationships with men... He was terrified of women, they left him cold. ... Goethe had no serious meaningful relationships with women, in contrast to his countless relationships with men." Pruys believes Goethe never touched a woman until being seduced when he was nearly 40 by Christine Vulpius. Vulpius and Goethe lived together for 18 years before marrying, but maintained separate bedrooms, and Pruys questions the paternity of Vulpius' only child to survive childbirth. Pruys maintains that traditional portrayals of Goethe as both happily married and a womanizer are only legend, and says that the Goethe Society and other scholars have suppressed the evidence of the writer's homosexuality. Goethe is best known outside Germany as the dramatist of "Faust", although he was an equally prolific poet and novelist. In France, protest continues against a Paris magistrate's recent closure of five popular gay bars. A week ago, 700 people marched through the heavily gay Marais area with banners reading, "Re-open the gay spots". The direct action group ACT UP/Paris has joined the owners of the five clubs in viewing the closure as selective enforcement of the law to suppress gays. All five clubs have filed legal appeals to overturn the orders to close by investigating magistrate Danielle Ringot, who claims that the bars have tolerated the use and sale of illegal drugs. In South Africa, a gay couple in Soweto became one of the first to hold a public marriage celebration. Former police officer Robert Poswayo acted as groom, paying the traditional bride price, while his partner veteran gay activist Polly Motene received traditional pre-marital advice from women elders. A dancing and chanting crowd of friends and neighbors escorted Motene to the wedding tent along with her attendants, a bevy of gay men whose garb ranged from flamboyant drag to black suits. Poswayo wore a bottle-green double-breasted suit and Motene a loose-fitting suit in lime green with a vest and scarf. When they discovered that Motene had forgotten to confirm with the minister they'd planned to officiate at the ceremony, they skipped directly to a wedding kiss and went on to a local bar for an all-night dance party. There they found that friends and neighbors had provided champagne, wine, flowers, and numerous presents, including a stove. Although South Africa is the only nation in the world whose constitution protects gays and lesbians from discrimination, outdated sodomy statutes are still on the books there which criminalize not only sex acts but holding hands in front of more than 3 people. The National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality has filed a lawsuit to strike down those statutes, but Justice Minister Dullah Omar is opposing their repeal. A United Methodist minister in Omaha, Nebraska is risking censure to preside at a commitment ceremony for two lesbians in the coming week. Both the names of the women and the exact date of the ceremony are being withheld from the press. In 1996, the United Methodist denomination specifically prohibited the celebration of same-gender unions and banned them from taking place on church property. Although the denomination supports civil rights protections from sexual orientation discrimination, it holds that homosexual acts are incompatible with Christian teachings and does not ordain open gays and lesbians. Nebraska Bishop Joel Martinez specifically ordered Reverend Jimmy Creech not to carry out the ceremony and warned him in writing that he will face a formal complaint if he does. But Creech says he can't imagine "saying no to two people who say they want to make a commitment to one another". He's convinced that the church rules are unjust and considers performing the ritual to be an act of "ecclesiastical disobedience." He could be punished with a suspension or even revocation of his credentials. But his First United Methodist Church is part of the denomination's Reconciling Congregation Program which publicly welcomes gays and lesbians, and the congregation's lay leadership supports his action. Creech had previously lost his pastoral role at a North Carolina church because of his activism on behalf of gays and lesbians, and was without a congregation for several years afterwards before being hired for his current post. One lesbian's long-term relationship will finally be recognized on her tombstone three years after her death. Cynthia Lynn Friedman and her partner of 13 years Sherry Barone knew well in advance that cancer would take Friedman's life in 1994, and they used the time to take every possible legal precaution to give Barone sole authority over Friedman's posthumous affairs. Even so, when Friedman's parents objected to the phrase "beloved life partner" appearing in her epitaph as she had specified, the Har Jehuda Cemetery near Philadelphia refused to cross the parents' wishes to honor its contract with Barone without a special court order. The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund took up the case and filed a federal lawsuit against the cemetery. Now a settlement has been reached in which the cemetery will pay Barone $15,000 and the tombstone will be inscribed as planned. The full epitaph gives Friedman's name and dates and reads, "Beloved life partner, daughter, granddaughter, sister, and aunt/ A spirited and compassionate woman who will be forever in our hearts." Barone intends to be interred in an adjacent plot. Lambda believes the case is a strong argument for the need for legal marriage for gays and lesbians. The Board of Aldermen of Louisville, Kentucky this week rejected civil rights protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation for the third time in six years. There was intense campaigning on both sides of the question beginning months before the measure had even been introduced. People lined up hours ahead to attend the meeting where the vote was taken, and several hundred who couldn't get seats continued to demonstrate outside City Hall. When the vote had been taken, about 125 civil rights supporters moved into the street for a sit-down protest. When police asked them to leave, 52 refused and were arrested for blocking a highway. They were released and will go to trial on October 1st. And finally ... when comic Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian this year along with her lead character on the ABC sitcom "Ellen", she made it clear that she was not planning to be any kind of activist or a spokesperson for anyone but herself. One report even had her rejecting a $4-million deal for a book about her coming out because she didn't want to "exploit" the situation. So while DeGeneres would have been the obvious first choice to symbolize this year's October 11 National Coming Out Day observance, she wasn't a candidate. But the national gay and lesbian Human Rights Campaign didn't have to look too much farther to find the official spokesperson for its National Coming Out Project -- this week they announced their selection of Ellen's terrifically supportive mother, Betty DeGeneres. She's the first non-gay ever to hold the post, and told the media, "I am thrilled at this wonderful opportunity to talk with gay and straight Americans about the importance of coming out, because honesty truly is the best policy." ---------*------------ Sources for this week's report included: Associated Press, Agence France Presse, Guardian (London), Independent (London), London Times, Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg), Louisville Courier Journal, MSNBC, Omaha World Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, Press Association (Britain), Reuters, SAPA (South Africa Press Association), Telegraph (London), WLKY-TV (Louisville), WAVE-3 (Louisville), Philadelphia Gay News, Sydney Star Observer, The Letter/Kentucy; and cyperpress releases from Fairness Campaign (Louisville, KY), Human Rights Campaign (U.S.), and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund (U.S.).