NewsWrap for the week ending September 20th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #495, distributed 09-22-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Jason Lin, Brian Nunes, Bjoern Skolander, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and anchored by Cindy Friedman and Tory Christopher.] The gay and lesbian group OCCUR this week won an appellate-level legal victory in Japan's first sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit. After a single incident in 1990, in which OCCUR members were the victims of harassment by other guests at a youth hostel, Tokyo's Board of Education established a policy banning gays and lesbians from the city's youth hostels altogether. When OCCUR tried to make arrangements to use one for a meeting, the youth hostel's management refused to even review their application. Based on that specific incident, in order to overturn the general policy, OCCUR filed its lawsuit in 1991. At the trial level, the city's main argument was that keeping gays and lesbians out of the youth hostels was just an extension of its policy against having both genders share a room, presuming the same kinds of sexual tensions would arise if gays or lesbians shared a room. Other arguments presented were that gays and lesbians would present a distraction to other hostel guests and a source of concern to parents. In 1994, the Tokyo District Court declared that the blanket rejection of gays and lesbians was unlawful discrimination. The city filed an appeal to Tokyo's High Court and continued to deny gays and lesbians access to the hostels. This week, before a courtroom packed with more than 100 members of OCCUR, that court handed down an even stronger judgment. The ban was explicitly declared illegal and unconstitutional. Not only did the court reject the city's sexual concerns, it declared that if homophobic tensions arose, the youth hostel had a responsibility to provide education that would guide other residents towards acceptance. The decision said that a government agency "is obligated to pay careful attention to the situation of homosexuals as a minority and to guarantee that their rights and interests be upheld. Indifference and ignorance regarding homosexuality are inexcusable on the part of persons in the position of wielding government authority." The city can still appeal to the Tokyo supreme court, although OCCUR is calling for letters to encourage the city to admit defeat. OCCUR has used hostels on numerous occasions in other prefectures without incident. Maine's new civil rights protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation did not go into effect this week as planned. The Christian Civic League of Maine surprised even its allies by collecting well over the minimum number of signatures on a petition to put a repeal initiative before the voters, automatically delaying enforcement of the new law. Just three weeks before, the repeal effort had collected only about one-sixth of the more than 51,000 signatures required, and its own leadership had declared the effort dead ... but this week almost 59,000 signatures were submitted to the state. Over the next month, officials will validate the signatures. If enough qualify, the governor will be required to schedule an election on the question after November and before April, with the law remaining on hold pending the outcome of that balloting. At a press conference, Christian Civic League director Michael Heath said, "It's a miracle of God and we give him credit for anything that is praiseworthy about our effort," while two dozen volunteers chimed in with shouts of "Amen" and "Praise the Lord." Heath said the repeal effort was "not about hate" but that "The legislation had threatened the civil liberties of business owners, parents and even charitable organizations that decline to celebrate homosexuality." Just two years ago, Maine voters defeated a proactive initiative that would have prohibited civil rights laws against sexual orientation-based discrimination ... but the campaign itself was so divisive that lawmakers withdrew the civil rights bill from consideration for the following legislative session. Elections held in Norway this week convinced Labor Party Prime Minister Thorbjoern Jagland to step down from his post next month. His most likely successor appears to be Kjell Bondevik, a priest of the state church and leader of the Christian Democratic Party. That party hopes to repeal Norway's liberal laws regarding alcohol, abortion, and gays and lesbians, particularly the legal same-gender registered partnerships that are almost equal to marriage. Polls suggested that voters believed the Christian Democrats had run the best campaign and that the appealing Bondevik was the most popular choice for prime minister. However, although the Christian Democrats experienced significant growth compared to Norway's 1993 election, they polled only about 12.5%, so any power they obtain will come through coalition efforts. The parliament -- the Storting -- is splintered among eight significant parties, of which Labor at about 35% is still more than twice as strong as its nearest rival, the reactionary Progressive Party. Pundits anticipate a period of efforts to form coalitions which will then fall apart, until Labor ascends to govern once again. Norwegian politics had long been dominated by the popular former Labor leader Gro Brundtland, who is now expected to become the director of the United Nations' World Health Organization. The will of the late fashion designer Gianni Versace was made public this week, and it includes provision for his partner of more than a decade, Antonio D'Amico. D'Amico is to receive 50-million lira (about 29,400 U.S. dollars) each month, with adjustments for inflation. He also retains the right to live at Versace's residences in Milan, New York City and Miami's South Beach area. If D'Amico had been legally married to Versace, Italian law would have required that he receive three-quarters of the $580-million estate. Instead the bulk of it, including a 45% share of the multinational Versace business, went to the designer's favorite niece, 11-year-old Allegra Beck, while her 6-year-old brother Daniel receives Versace's extensive art collection. Neither their mother -- Versace's sister Donatella -- nor Versace's brother Santo or his children were named, but there were significant tax advantages to naming the minor children. Donatella and Santo attempted to quell panic in the business world with an announcement that the company would continue to operate by cooperative decision-making regardless of the number of shares held by an individual family member. Openly gay singer-songwriter Elton John's tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is living up to expectations of becoming a phenomenal hit. John's latest version of his past hit with new lyrics for the occasion of Diana's funeral is known as "Candle in the Wind 1997", and in England it went platinum literally overnight. It's been selling out just as fast in France, Portugal, Canada, and Cyprus, requiring extra shifts not only at record stores, but also at the Mercury Records pressing plant in an effort to keep up with unprecedented demand. John is modest about the record-pace sales, attributing them entirely to people's need to cope with their grief for Diana. He said in a TV interview this week, "It was just one of those things. It was a terrible tragedy that happened, and one does what one can." He also said that he would never again perform either "Candle in the Wind 1997" or the original version that was a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, claiming it would upset him by bringing up too many memories. All proceeds from the record's sales go to the charitable trust set up as a memorial to Diana, benefiting groups including Britain's National AIDS Trust. AIDS statistics released in the U.S. this week found a drop in the number of new diagnoses for the first time since the disease was identified. The drop was greatest among gay men at 11%, compared to 6% overall. For several years before, there had been an increase in new cases averaging about 2% per year. AIDS-related deaths also continued to decline, falling by a dramatic 23% and slipping out of first place as a killer of people in the 25 - 44 age group. At the end of 1996, there were more than 235,000 people living with AIDS in the U.S., 48% of them gay men. Officials attribute the changes at least as much to new medical treatments as to the success of prevention education. While celebrating the epidemic having apparently turned a corner, experts were also concerned at the small but still rapidly growing number of cases resulting from heterosexual transmission, especially among Hispanics and blacks. They theorize that the future U.S. AIDS profile will more resemble that of developing countries, where heterosexual transmission overwhelmingly dominates and half of those infected are women. Last week we reported on Karl Pruys' new biography of German literary giant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which asserts that the great writer was gay. One of the most popular arguments in the ensuing uproar questioned how such a thing could have been suppressed through the almost two-and-a-half centuries since the author's birth. Pruys' book claims there's been a deliberate cover-up, and current events make it more believable: the Weimar Classics Foundation, which had previously agreed to sell the book at 23 museum shops across Germany, is now refusing to carry it. And finally ... Tired of gay-bashers and the occasional interfering police officer ruining the good times at your favorite outdoor cruising area? Then patrol it yourself. That's the latest idea of the Tel Aviv police department, proposed when the Association of Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals in Israel met with department representatives this week to complain about officers collecting names of men in the city's Independence Park. It appeared to both sides to have real advantages -- gay patrols would be familiar with who belonged in the area and who did not, friction would be minimized between the cruisers and the police, and presumably the police would have a little less work to do. A police spokesperson publicly welcomed gays and lesbians to join the city's civil guard, and the Association will be planning a recruitment campaign for it. ---------*----------- Sources for this week's report included: Aftenposten, Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Bangor Daily News, BPI, Dagbladet, Dagsavisen Arbeiderbladet, Ha'aretz (Tel Aviv), Japan Times, Kyodo News Service, London Telegraph, London Times, Miami Herald, New York Post, New York Times, Portland Press Herald, Press Association (Britain), Reuters News Service, United Press International, Variety, Washington Post; and cyberpress releases from the International Lesbian & Gay Association, OCCUR (Japan Association for the Lesbian & Gay Movement), and Official Documentation and Information from Norway/The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Oslo Press Division.