NewsWrap for the week ending November 8th, 1997 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #502, distributed 11-10-97) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Alejandra Sarda, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Brian Nunes Off-year elections in the U.S. this week saw the defeat of an anti-discrimination initiative and victory for a number of openly gay and lesbian candidates. Washington state's I-677 would have established workplace protections from sexual orientation-based discrimination. It was the nation's first attempt to use a referendum to advance the civil rights of gays and lesbians, although in the last twenty years many initiatives have been used against them. Despite its specific focus on job rights, unprecedented support from national labor groups, and some substantial funding, I-677 was crushed in the voting, losing in all but two counties. As the fate of other Washington ballot measures proved, it's a lot easier to get a "no" vote then a "yes" vote on an initiative, and it didn't help that a gun control measure on the same ballot brought out a large turnout of pro-gun voters who opposed gay and lesbian civil rights. I-677 opponents repeated the right wing's "special rights" rhetoric and spread considerable misinformation about the content and ramifications of the measure. It was a different story for a number of openly gay and lesbian candidates running for local offices. Of the 15 candidates supported by the Victory Fund, a political action committee supporting gay and lesbian candidates, 10 won and 3 qualified for run-offs. Virginia and Ohio became the 25th and 26th states to elect open gays and lesbians to public office, as Jay Fisette won a seat on the Arlington County, Virginia Board while Mary Wiseman and Louis Escobar won seats on the Dayton and Toledo, Ohio City Councils. Openly lesbian San Francisco Supervisor Susan Leal easily won the post of city Treasurer. In New York City, open gay Philip Reed and open lesbian Margarita Lopez both won seats on the New York City Council by large margins, while open lesbian Debra Silber won a Brooklyn Civil Court judgeship. Open gay Tom Roberts kept his seat on the Santa Barbara, California City Council and open gay Jim McGill was elected to the Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania Borough Council. In Atlanta, Georgia open lesbian Cathy Woolard and open gay Malcolm Gideons made the cut for upcoming run-off elections for City Council. Also moving on to face a run-off is open lesbian Annise Parker, who's seeking a seat on the Houston, Texas City Council. Another Houston run-off will determine whether anti-gay Republican Rob Mossbacher or gay-friendly Democrat Lee Brown becomes mayor... while non-gay Judge Sylvia Garcia unseated Houston controller Lloyd Kelly despite his mistaken efforts to lesbian-bait her. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, open gay Wally Swan kept his seat on the Board of Estimate and Taxation and open gay Rod Krueger was the only non-incumbent to be elected to the Library Board. Open gay Dennis Van Avery lost his seat on the School Board. In Nashua, New Hampshire open gay Timothy Nickerson won a seat on the Board of Education, but so did the Christian Coalition's Taylor Cole. Democrat Jonathan Cooper was the first openly gay candidate ever to run for New York's Suffolk County Legislature. It's not surprising that he was defeated by incumbent Republican Stephen Hackeling, but it's ironic that Hackeling's successful campaign emphasized that he is a married father of four -- Cooper has been with his male partner for 16 years and together they're raising five adopted children, in what's believed to be the largest adopted family headed by a gay male couple in the U.S. James Hormel this week moved closer to becoming the United States' first openly gay ambassador, as his nomination to serve in Luxembourg was recommended for approval by a quick voice vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Committee Chair Jesse Helms, the Senate's leading homophobe, who did not attend the earlier meeting where Hormel presented his qualifications, made no visible attempt to block the nomination. It's rumored that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has given Helms assurances that Hormel would remain publicly silent on gay and lesbian issues while serving in Luxembourg. But while Hormel's supporters are cautiously optimistic, there are other rumors that his nomination will be blocked from reaching the Senate floor for final approval. A significant and long-running case of anti-gay job discrimination came up for oral arguments before the Canadian Supreme Court this week. It's not in question that in 1991 Delwin Vriend was fired because he is gay from a faculty post at King's University College in Edmonton -- he was. But two larger questions loom as a result, large enough to have drawn 17 third-party "intervenors" into the case. One question is whether the college, as a religious institution and a member of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, has a right to impose its moral requirements on its employees. The other is whether the province of Alberta can refuse to include sexual orientation as a protected category in its Human Rights Act, even though gays and lesbians are considered to be protected under the Canadian Charter of Human Rights. Because Alberta is the last province to stubbornly refuse to add the category, after his firing Vriend was unable to file a complaint with the provincial Human Rights Commission. When he filed a lawsuit, a trial court ordered the provincial legislature to add sexual orientation, but an appeals court later overturned that ruling. The Supreme Court won't be handing down its decision until sometime in 1998, but the justices appeared to be much less than impressed by Alberta's legal arguments. Alberta claims that its Human Rights Act is "neutral" and covers everyone equally, so gays and lesbians need not be specified. Several judges were impatient with what they saw as circular reasoning and one even teased the province's attorney for creating his own legal doctrine. Chief Justice Antonio Lamer was one of several justices who seemed quite convinced that the province could not pick and choose among the federally protected groups for civil rights actions. Canada's Anglican bishops this week issued their first formal pastoral statement on homosexuality since 1979. While it restated their continued opposition to ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians and to church celebrations of same-gender relationships, the tone was distinctly warmer than before, referring to "our sons and daughters" and "our friends and relatives." The statement also revealed division among the bishops on the issues and extended an apology for the church's past attitude of "standing at a distance, even of prejudice, ignorance and oppression." It concluded, "Our discussions over the past few years have taught us much. We do not have a common mind on all things. We see in part and we know in part. Where we must disagree we need to continue to read the scriptures together and to engage in dialogue, that we might listen for what the Spirit is saying to the Church today." The Anglican bishop who heads the Church of England's task force on homosexuality this week spoke out in favor of lowering the gay male age of consent to match those for heterosexual and lesbian acts. Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries also sits in the House of Lords, where in 1994 he voted to peg the gay age of consent at 18 instead of 16, but now that the issue will be coming before the Parliament again in a few months, he says, "I have changed my mind. Before I took the view that between the ages of 16 and 18 a person's sexuality was still fluid and unformed, and that it was important for them to be given the chance to develop heterosexual relationships, if that's what they were capable of. But recent evidence from the European Court, the British Medical Association and elsewhere suggests that people's sexuality is well-formed by the age of 16. And even if there is still a doubt about it, the idea of prosecuting people of 17 for having sex is really very unproductive." Harries continues to oppose ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians and church blessings of their relationships. In Belgium, the municipal council of Bruxelles-Ville decided to set up a civil registry for unmarried couples, including gay and lesbian couples. The largest of the 19 boroughs of the Belgian Capital Region, Bruxelles-Ville will be only the second French-speaking city in Belgium to have a domestic partners registry -- and so far, no one has actually used the registry in neighboring Saint-Gilles. That's by contrast with the growing lists in the registries of several Dutch-speaking Belgian towns. In U.S. domestic partner news, the Georgia state Supreme Court has finally given its approval to a plan to extend benefits to the unmarried partners of Atlanta's city employees, both heterosexual and gay and lesbian. The city's similar 1993 ordinance was struck down as exceeding the state's authority to define the word "family," but the current 1996 edition uses the word "dependent" instead. About 200 gays and lesbians observed Britain's version of veterans day a week early, laying wreaths and bouquets of pink carnations in a solemn ceremony at London's Cenotaph military memorial. The gay and lesbian military group Rank Outsiders and direct action group OutRage! believe that traditional celebrations of Remembrance Day have ignored the contributions of gays and lesbians in uniform, as well as the loss of gay victims of the Nazi Holocaust. British veterans' groups complained about the idea of bringing politics into a commemoration. And finally, some 2,000 people marched with drums and chants in Buenos Aires' sixth annual Lesbian, Gay, Transvestite, Transsexual, and Bisexual Pride Parade this week. Participants came from across Argentina and even from Uruguay, and bisexuals marched in an identified contingent for the first time. The event balanced political activism with a joyful celebration that caused bystanders and even journalists to join in without hesitation. Those supporters even joined in a kiss-in meant to protest institutional violence against lesbigays and transgendered people. Correspondent Alejandra Sarda notes that the kiss-in "was supposed to last one minute, but it didn't ... I think it was longer, but nobody really knows."