NewsWrap for the week ending November 1st, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #501, distributed 11-03-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Bjoern Skolander, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Tory Christopher and Cindy Friedman Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw this week introduced the Human Rights Bill to incorporate civil rights guarantees of the European Convention into British law. Although those guarantees do not simply or clearly give gays and lesbians direct protection from discrimination, they will make complaints considerably easier to pursue. Britain has had no bill of rights since 1689 and until now has reserved civil rights questions to the Parliament rather than the courts. If the new bill goes into effect in a year or two as expected, domestic courts will consider human rights complaints which have had to be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, entailing an average cost of 30,000 pounds and a five-year delay. Although the courts will not be empowered to actually void British laws which conflict with the European Convention, they will be able to issue "declarations of incompatibility" and the Parliament will have a fast track process for correcting such disparities. New bills introduced in Parliament will also be expected to be consistent with the Convention. The bill falls short of activists' dreams only in that it does not provide for either legal aid or a human rights commission to promote cases. One of Britain's most in-your-face gay activists says he managed to sneak a meeting this week with the most vocally homophobic politician on the international scene. Peter Tatchell, leader of Britain's direct action group OutRage!, says he posed as a TV camera operator to infiltrate a VIP area at Westminster Central Hall in London to gain access to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who was a speaker at the International Conference on Independent Africa. As Tatchell tells it, he simply walked over and said, "Hello, President Mugabe. In the 1970's, when I was a young student, I helped raise funds for [the] ZANU [party]'s war of liberation." A smiling Mugabe responded with a handshake and said, "Thank you. I am very grateful for the help you gave us. What are you doing now?" "I am campaigning for lesbian and gay human rights," Tatchell replied. The Presidential smile was replaced with a look of disapproval as Mugabe sighed, "Oh, the gays." "I'm very sad that you say gay people don't have any rights," said Tatchell. "We don't necessarily persecute them," Mugabe defended, "Not if they are gay in private. We don't agree with them organizing and making a public issue out of it." "Why can't you meet with gay groups?" asked Tatchell. With a shrug, Mugabe responded, "Maybe." The conversation ended there as Special Branch officers escorted Tatchell out of the area and gave him a warning before letting him go. South Africa's first lawsuit charging workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation ended this week with an out-of-court settlement. Although the settlement means that no legal precedent has been set, the fact that a large corporation felt compelled to settle rather than go to trial may be taken as an encouraging sign for other gays and lesbians who feel they've experienced discrimination. Johannesburg gay Russell van den Berg charged that he was unfairly dismissed from his position as regional manager for Hospitality Marketing International. After learning that he is gay, van den Berg's supervisor Peter Kastner allegedly told him, "I don't believe that a faggot can be trusted in a senior managerial position. You will never get anywhere in my organization." A record-smashing 80-90,000 people turned out for Perth's seventh annual Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade, supporting the introduction this week of a bill to add gays and lesbians to the groups protected by Western Australia's state Equal Opportunity law. Western Australia and Tasmania are the only Australian states now lacking such legal protection from discrimination, and Western Australia is the last state where private non-commercial sex acts between consenting adult males are illegal. There were two surprising developments this week in a challenge to Maine's new law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. After volunteers worked hundreds of hours checking signatures on petitions for a ballot initiative to repeal the law, they believe that about one-fourth of those signatures may be invalid. Two gay men and a lesbian have filed a lawsuit challenging the Secretary of State's official certification that the repeal initiative qualified for the ballot. There are no allegations of fraud in that filing, but in another arena the opponents of civil rights have proven they're willing to mislead. They announced that the political action committee formed for the repeal campaign is named "Vote Yes for Equal Rights." This is hard to justify when a "yes" vote actually means repeal of civil rights passed by the state legislature, but the group believes its own rhetoric that the law represents not equal but so-called "special rights" for gays and lesbians. Openly gay U.S. Congressmember Barney Frank [D-MA] this week introduced a bill to extend all spousal benefits to the unmarried partners of civilian federal employees, both heterosexual and same-gender. The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 1997 would recognize unmarried couples for purposes of retirement programs, life and health insurance coverage, and compensation for work-related injuries the employee may suffer. To qualify, couples would have to swear out an affidavit that they are "living together, in a committed, intimate relationship" and "responsible for each other's welfare and financial obligations." Frank already has 14 co-sponsors for his measure, which he says is necessary to keep compensation for government jobs competitive with the private sector's. In other U.S. couples news this week, the town of Oak Park opened Illinois' first official registry of gay and lesbian couples... and PacifiCorp, the parent company of the utility Utah Power and Light Company, announced it will be extending spousal benefits to the same-gender partners of its lesbian and gay non-union employees. The Netherlands is another step closer to becoming the first nation to extend full civil marriage rights to same-gender couples, with the recommendation this week of a Parliamentary committee. The panel wrote that, "The majority of the committee believes that same sex couples can only be afforded equal treatment if they are allowed to enter into civil marriage. These members do not view the new type of marriage as a break with tradition: After all, marriage has always been a flexible institution which kept pace with social change." A bill to give equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians could be enacted as early as 1988. On January 1st, a law will go into effect allowing Dutch gays and lesbians to gain many benefits of marriage through a civil registry process, but that does not grant the full parental and adoption rights included in legal marriage. Denmark's state church, the Lutheran Folkekirken, will continue to deny church ceremonies to gay and lesbian couples. The decision was made unanimously this week by a meeting of the nation's bishops, going against the recent recommendation of their own committee set up to examine the question. Apparently the vote reflects a desire for unity within the church in the face of adamant opposition from conservative bishops. Denmark's pioneering 1989 law establishing civil registry for same-gender couples specifically denies any right to church weddings, but the Danish Lesbian and Gay Organization, LBL, is calling for the Parliament to reconsider the issue. An appeals level court of the Presbyterian Church USA this week decided that an Ohio gay man should finish his term as a church elder. The panel found that the leaders of Cincinnati's Knox Presbyterian Church had properly carried out their process of selection and ordination, even though the denomination's policy prohibits ordination of any "self-affirming, practicing homosexual person." Although the church member who complained says the gay elder came out to a small group within the church and was shown in the church directory to be living with another man, the appeals panel concluded that the elder had not made a "declaration" of his sexual orientation. It's not yet known if a further appeal will be made to the national General Assembly's Permanent Judicial Commission. Colombian elections this week resulted in a provincial governorship for an openly gay man. Author Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazabal, a former mayor of the city of Tulua, will become governor of Valle del Cauca. Openly gay meat-packing heir and major Democratic Party contributor James Hormel appeared to have an easy time of it as the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee considered his nomination to serve as ambassador to Luxembourg. The Committee's vocally homophobic chair Jesse Helms did not attend the session, with some observers inferring that Helms is seeking to mend fences after he single-handedly blocked the Clinton administration's nomination of gay-friendly Republican former Massachusetts Governor William Weld to serve as ambassador to Mexico. Senator Gordon Smith chaired Hormel's session and assured all of the several nominees who testified there that no problems were anticipated for their confirmations. And finally ... in Australia, the Queensland Supreme Court has thrown out a landmark ruling on lesbian access to fertility treatment. The Anti-Discrimination Commission will now have to rehear the case in which it awarded the lesbian known as "JM" A$7,500 after the QFG Medical Group in Brisbane denied her services. Supreme Court Justice Brian Ambrose did not believe there was adequate evidence of anti-lesbian discrimination by the medical group. He believes that "JM" did not actually qualify as infertile under the working medical definition because she had not engaged in 12 months of heterosexual activity.