NewsWrap for the week ending January 10th, 1998 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #511, distributed 01-12-98) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Jon Beaupré Two gay men who've been together more than forty years this week became the first same-gender couple to be recognized under The Netherlands' new national domestic partnership registry, which went into effect January 1st. Officials allowed them an early start on the required two weeks' waiting period because one of them is hospitalized with a terminal illness. Their names have been withheld for the same reason. Several other couples had been in something of a race to be first, with a lesbian pair expected to be at the head of the line on January 14th. The Netherlands' partnership registry confers all the benefits of traditional legal marriage except for joint adoption, although one partner can adopt and the other then become the child's guardian. The Parliament has already approved a measure to extend existing marriage laws to include gay and lesbian couples which is currently being reviewed by the cabinet. Many believe that measure will go into effect before elections in May. In Canada, gay and lesbian couples would have the same standing as legally married and heterosexual common-law couples for sponsoring a foreign partner's immigration, under sweeping recommendations for immigration reform announced this week. In fact, another recommendation would allow Canadian citizens to sponsor anyone with whom they have "strong emotional bonds," such as a best friend. Currently, the government has been willing to make some exceptions to allow gays and lesbians to sponsor their foreign partners' immigration, but the process is a lengthy one. The Immigration Legislative Review Advisory Group, a panel of independent appointees, has spent more than a year developing 172 recommendations for overhauling Canada's troubled asm this week by Canada's Minister for Citizenship and Immigration Lucienne Robillard, who will hold five meetings across the country for public discussion beginning late next month. The recommendations also include creation of a new "protection" agency and a policy to handle requests for asylum, that is separate from the processing of other immigration. That's an idea that pleased openly gay Member of Parliament Real Menard and his Bloc Quebecois, which he described as "moderately enthusiastic" about the recommendations overall. However, while it's quite generally agreed that Canada's immigration systems need improvement, cynics note that two similar reports have been developed in the past, only to be all but ignored by the federal government. One gay male couple who would benefit from Canadian immigration reform this week announced they're filing a lawsuit in Quebec seeking equal marriage rights. Canadian Martin Dube and Mexican national Manuel Gambora held a religious wedding ceremony in November, but Gambora had to return to Mexico when his visitor's visa ran out. Although legal marriage would solve his immigration problem, the couple say that's not the main reason for filing their lawsuit. They want the sanction of the law and the legal rights now reserved for heterosexuals. Their attorney believes that Quebec's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, takes precedence over the province's civil code, which restricts marriage to one man and one woman. If you set sail on a gay "love boat" cruise, don't expect to dock in the Cayman Islands. The Norwegian Cruise Line has failed after months of trying to convince the Cayman's government to allow them to dock at Grand Cayman Island for seven hours with a boatload of gay men. Usually the only reason for refusing such requests is a lack of space, but last month the Cayman's Minister of Tourism, Commerce and Transport Thomas Jefferson responded with a letter saying that, "Careful research and prior experien led us to conclude that we cannot count on this group to uphold the standards of appropriate behavior expected of visitors to the Cayman Islands, so we regrettably cannot offer our hospitality." Apparently the "prior experience" was a visit by a different gay charter in 1987, when local residents were so shocked by the sight of men holding hands and kissing, that some Cayman churches determined to never again admit a similar group. The Caymans government remained remarkably close-mouthed in the face of a barrage of media calls, but finally issued a brief statement claiming that the capital city of George Town could not handle the additional people. However, another larger Norwegian Line ship docks there on a regular basis, and is never the only cruise in port. The gay cruise has changed its itinerary to instead visit Belize, which has issued a statement of welcome -- but gay and lesbian organizations have been in an uproar. The U.S. national group the Human Rights Campaign is attempting to discuss the issue with Britain, because the Cayman Islands is a dependent territory of Britain -- but the British Embassy to the U.S. has told Reuters that the decision was entirely up to the Caymans. Meanwhile, the religious right American Family Association is applauding the Caymans for taking a moral stand. The U.S. anti-abortion group Operation Rescue took its moral stand against the Walt Disney Company with two demonstrations outside Florida's Disney World in late December. Like the Southern Baptist Conference, Operation Rescue believes that Disney is "promoting homosexuality." The demonstrations by 75 to 100 people, including members of ten churches and teenagers gathered for an Operation Rescue youth conference, ended with three arrests for obstructing traffic. Operation Rescue has threatened to "maintain a presence" at Disney World throughout the year. Two openly gay composers have died this month. Dean X. Johnson died of AIDS-related causes at the age of 42 after composing and arranging numerous works us ay men's choruses across the U.S., including the New York City Gay Men's Chorus, which he served as assistant conductor for a dozen years. One of his operas, "Song of Martina," was about openly lesbian tennis champ Martina Navratilova. He was also an accompanist to a large number of renowned operatic and popular singers and dance groups. Britain's Sir Michael Tippett was 93 and internationally recognized as a giant of 20th century music, although his works waxed and waned in popularity over the decades. He wrote orchestral and chamber music, choral music, and operas, including a gay love scene in his 1969 opera "The Knot Garden." He's best known for his 1944 oratorio protesting the Nazi Holocaust, "A Child of Our Time." The murder in Rome this week of a former Papal assistant has drawn fresh attention to a series of similar unsolved murders of gay men in Rome and more generally to widespread violence against gays in Italy. Enrico Sini Luzi was found bludgeoned to death in his own apartment. There was no sign of forced entry, and a gay erotic video in the VCR and other circumstances lead police to believe Luzi was involved in a gay sadomasochistic scene at the time of the murder. Luzi's distinguished and well-to-do family denies that he was gay, while the Vatican, where he served in an honored volunteer role escorting visitors, has remained silent. Anything but silent is the Italian national group ArciGay/ArciLesbica, which has taken the occasion to call attention to the murders of at least 18 gay men in Rome since 1990 that remain unsolved, and to what they believe to be as many as 200 murders of gays each year nationally. ArciGay president Franco Grillini said, "The murder of Enrico Sini Luzi is only the latest in a series of incredible homicides that appear to be endless. This has become a national emergency. Government intervention is absolutely necessary to put an end to this wave of homicides ..." ArciGay presented proposals to the government for improving safety for gays and lesbians in 96 but has yet to receive a response. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation this week released its annual hate crimes report, counting over 1,000 homophobic assaults. That was about 12 percent of all the bias crimes reported to the FBI by police agencies serving some 85 percent of the U.S. population. Although more police agencies participated in the data collection than ever before, both reporting of hate crimes by police and reporting to police by gay and lesbian victims are widely variable from area to area. As a result, gay-friendly San Francisco counted almost 35% of its hate crimes as homophobic assaults, while the entire state of Alabama -- which is quite conservative -- counted no anti-gay crimes at all. And finally ... a gay bathhouse is scheduled to open next month in Edmonton, where there hasn't been one in 17 years. It's said to be the only major city in Canada without one. The last bathhouse in Edmonton, the Pisces Health Spa, closed as the result of a 1981 police raid that made more than 50 arrests of patrons and ended in the conviction of the owners on charges of running a common bawdy house. Now that the new bathhouse plans have become public, resistance is quickly heating up, and it seems inevitable that it will become a question before the Edmonton City Council. Ironically, two of the Councilmembers were participants in that raid so long ago: one, Leroy Chahley, was the police officer in charge of the investigation; the other, open gay Michael Phair, was one of the patrons arrested in the raid, although charges against him were later dropped. As "Edmonton Sun" columnist Paul Stanway remarked, when the matter reaches the Council, "At least there will be no lack of expert opinion ..."