************************************************************* THIS WAY OUT Rundown Program #521 (03/23/98) ************************************************************* Opening Teases/Theme Music/Intro Continuity ....................................................... 1:10 SEGMENT #1 - NewsWrap: Canada`s Supreme Court considers the equality of same-gender couples, while its newest member apologizes for a "faggoty" remark; Oak Park, Illinois voters okay their town`s domestic partners registry; U.S. Presbyterians reaffirm their ban on sexually-active gay or lesbian clergy, but an openly-gay Episcopal minister is a finalist for a New Jersey bishopric; an imprisoned Romanian "lesbian of conscience", whose pardon and release were reported earlier this month, is still behind bars; Irish gays and lesbians are again denied the chance to participate in St. Patrick`s Day Parades in New York City and Savannah, Georgia; and homophobes and queer activists are establishing beachheads in an escalating confrontation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina [compiled & written by CINDY FRIEDMAN, with thanks to GRAHAM UNDERHILL, BRIAN NUNES, JASON LIN, REX WOCKNER, MARTIN RICE, LUCIA CHAPPELLE & GREG GORDON, and anchored by CINDY FRIEDMAN and GREG GORDON] .............................................................................. ......................................... 9:25 SEGMENT #2 - Billboard for GLAMA report [:10] + In "Sexual Ecology: AIDS and The Destiny Of Gay Men", Gabriel Rotello uses the science of epidemiology to analyze AIDS as an ecological and a social event. What this approach leads him to say about the role of gay male sexual behaviors in promoting the epidemic has raised a storm of controversy that seems to pit sexual responsibility against sexual freedom. Last week, in conversation with This Way Out`s JON BEAUPRÉ, Rotello outlined the thesis of his book and began to address its critics, and in this week`s conclusion, the columnist and author discusses the history and science supporting his viewpoint, and his fear -- with recent advances in AIDS-fighting drugs -- that some gay men may mistakenly believe it`s okay to return to unsafe sexual practices [7:00] ......................... 7:10 SEGMENT #3 - TWO I.D. by gay performance artist Luis Alfaro and lesbian comic Monica Palacios [:10] + GLAMA -- the Gay/Lesbian American Music Awards -- is the name of the organization, and the annual event it sponsors: the first and only national music awards show to honor the work of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender recording artists. The 2nd Annual GLAMAs were handed out on March 9th in New York City. This Way Out`s PATRICIA KANTZOS [with production assistance from CHRIS WILSON and CHRISTOPHER DAVID TRENTHAM] provides on-scene coverage of a truly GLAMA-rous evening, including music and comments by winners k.d. lang (Michal Callen Medal of Achievement honoree), Tom Robinson (Best Male Artist, Out Recording, and Original Out Song), Catie Curtis (Album Of The Year) and Urbana, Illinois` Christina Berger of Best Choral Group winner Amasong; excerpts from Outmusic Award honoree RuPaul`s acceptance speech and Me'Shell Ndegéocello`s "Leviticus: Faggot" (Best Female Artist and Best Video); and remarks by Anthony Rapp of Broadway`s "Rent" (Best Music In A Dramatic Setting) and GLAMA co-founder Michael Mitchell [9:10] ............. 9:20 CLOSING CREDITS/CONTINUITY .............................................................................. ........... 1:10 TOTAL PROGRAM TIME .............................................................................. ..................... 28:15 -----------------------------Please note-------------------------------- Anyone with questions, suggestions, or NEWS stories is encouraged to email "T.W.O." Coordinating Producer Greg Gordon at: TWOradio@aol.com ------------------------------thanks! --------------------------------- Some "THIS WAY OUT" operating expenses are funded by grants from THE C.P. ESTES GUADALUPE FOUNDATION, THE GILL FOUNDATION, THE KICKING ASSETS FUND OF THE TIDES FOUNDATION, and through charitable donations from listeners worldwide. ******************************************************** Celebrating ten years on the air in April, "This Way Out" is the award-winning internationally-distributed weekly gay and lesbian radio program currently airing on over 85 community radio stations in 7 countries, on Costa Rica-based global shortwave station RFPI (Radio For Peace International), and on the Internet via Planet Out. To hear the most recent "This Way Out" program online, go to the GLOradio area on Planet Out (http://www.planetout.com/gloradio/), scroll down to the "This Way Out" descriptive information and click on "Listen!" ======================================== Hungry for more frequent queer news? Run for coverage to the "NewsPlanet" area of Planet Out, or on America Online via keyword: "newsplanet" for weekday text news updates, prepared by many of the same people who bring you "This Way Out". ======================================== For lots of other information about "This Way Out" (including audiocassette subscription information), please visit our web page at: http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/media/radio/thiswayout ******************************************************** From TWORadio@aol.com Sat Mar 21 23:50:37 1998 Received: from smtp03.primenet.com (smtp03.primenet.com [206.165.6.133]) by primenet.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id XAA21590 for ; Sat, 21 Mar 1998 23:50:36 -0700 (MST) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by smtp03.primenet.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) id XAA26988 for ; Sat, 21 Mar 1998 23:50:36 -0700 (MST) Received: from UNKNOWN(207.25.124.24), claiming to be "web66.com" via SMTP by smtp03.primenet.com, id smtpd026923; Sat Mar 21 23:50:26 1998 Received: (from bin@localhost) by web66.com (8.8.6/8.7.1) id WAA15174 for bnunes@primenet.com; Sat, 21 Mar 1998 22:50:16 -0800 Received: from imo26.mx.aol.com (imo26.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.70]) by web66.com (8.8.6/8.7.1) with ESMTP id WAA15164 for ; Sat, 21 Mar 1998 22:50:12 -0800 Received: from TWORadio@aol.com by imo26.mx.aol.com (IMOv13.ems) id EKOGa20454; Sun, 22 Mar 1998 01:49:28 -0500 (EST) From: TWO Radio Message-Id: Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 01:49:28 EST To: TWOclf@aol.com, brian@illogical.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: 03/23/98 (#521) NewsWrap [9:25 as recorded] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 for Mac sub 78 X-Loop: brian@illogical.com Status: OR NewsWrap for the week ending March 21st, 1998 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #521, distributed 03-23-98) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon The Canadian Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments in a case many believe will be a major turning point in the treatment of same-gender couples. It's the case of M vs. H, in which two lower courts declared the province of Ontario must rewrite its Family Law Act so that dissolving gay and lesbian couples can sue for alimony, as unmarried heterosexual couples can. The two lesbians who've been been battling in the courts for five years finally reached an out-of-court settlement in January, but Ontario continues to struggle against the order to provide equal treatment. The province has some 90 other laws specifying couples as people of the opposite sex. Efforts to change them through the Ontario parliament have failed, leaving the province to defend many of them through lengthy individual legal cases, at considerable expense. The current case could force change in all those laws, and in the laws of other provinces as well. Currently only British Columbia treats gay and lesbian couples the same as unmarried heterosexual ones in its family laws. Ontario attorneys attempted to present the situation of same-gender couples as being entirely different from the traditional breadwinner/homemaker model whose economic imbalance the alimony law is designed to address. But the couple M and H fit that model very closely, and several of the justices appeared highly skeptical of the province's arguments. The one justice who kept silent throughout the hearing was the newest appointee to the high court, Justice Ian Binnie, who some activists believe should have removed himself from the M vs. H case altogether. In a dinner speech earlier this month, Binnie teased a legal fraternity that its initiation rituals sounded like a "faggoty dressup party." Openly gay Member of Parliament Svend Robinson let Binnie know that a speedy public apology was imperative, and Binnie provided that apology on the same day. The apology, directed to Osgoode Hall law school where he'd given the speech, said in part, "I don't consider the word 'faggoty' to be appropriate, nor is the pejorative attitude that lies behind it acceptable, nor do I subscribe to it." That satisfied Robinson, but not activist Michael Leshner, who filed a formal complaint against Binnie with the Canadian Judicial Council. Although the Council typically takes months to act, the complaint Leshner filed on a Friday was dismissed on Monday, in what attorney Leshner called the "fastest reply known to the judiciary in the history of Canada." The Council said, "Considering the context and the apology of the judge, this single inadvertent, descriptive comment made in a social context, unfortunate as it is, does not demonstrate evidence of misconduct requiring any further action." Binnie said the offensive phrase was actually one he'd seen long before in the review of a theatre production of "Macbeth". Voters in Oak Park this week narrowly affirmed their village trustees' decision to establish Illinois' first domestic partners registry for same- gender couples. A group led by local clergy had acted quickly to place a ballot initiative they hoped would encourage trustees to repeal the registry. Instead, voters supported it by a margin of about four percent. Twenty-three gay and lesbian couples have registered so far, a move whose benefits are solely symbolic. The Presbyterian Church USA has reaffirmed its commitment to a policy which prohibits the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians. In a move specifically directed against non-celibate gays and lesbians, the denomination last year adopted a requirement for ordinands of "fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman or chastity in singleness" and a ban on the ordination of anyone "refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin." No sooner had that policy been approved than an amendment to soften it came up for consideration. Approved at last year's general conference by a substantial margin, the amendment has been in the process of being voted on by each of the 173 regional presbyteries around the U.S. But unofficial tallies showed that a majority has now rejected the softer proposal, and its main sponsor, the Covenant Network, has formally admitted defeat. The voting patterns seem to indicate that support has actually solidified for the hard line on clergy's sexual conduct. An openly partnered gay minister is a finalist for an Episcopal bishopric. The only known gay bishop in the U.S. Anglican church came out only after he'd retired. Fittingly, the job for which open gay Reverend Gene Robinson of New Hampshire is being considered is that of Bishop of Newark John Spong, a longtime champion of equal treatment for gays and lesbians within the church; he's due to retire in the year 2000. But the same kind of sentiment that led to an ecclesiastical trial of Bishop Walter Righter for ordaining a partnered gay man as a priest, is now mobilizing opposition to Robinson. Todd Wetzel, executive director of the conservative affinity group Episcopalians United, told reporters, "We do not feel that an actively practicing, non-celibate homosexual is a godly example, any more than we feel an openly practicing adulterer would qualify as a godly example." Both laypeople and clergy will cast ballots in June to select the new bishop, but approval requires majorities of both the 200 U.S. bishops and the standing committees representing the nation's 110 dioceses. Romanian lesbian Mariana Cetiner is still in prison, despite repeated reports of a presidential pardon for her. Cetiner was adopted as a "prisoner of conscience" by the human rights watchdog group Amnesty International on the grounds that she was imprisoned solely because of her lesbian orientation. Cetiner's name appeared on a list of presidential pardons published in a Bucharest daily newspaper, and representatives of the Romanian government told Amnesty representatives on two separate occasions that she had been released March 3. But a week later, two representatives of the Helsinki Committee's Association for Human Rights in Romania actually visited her behind bars. Amnesty expressed its concern about the situation in a letter to Romanian President Emil Constantinescu on March 18th, again calling for Cetiner's immediate and unconditional release. Constantinescu had promised representatives of Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission at the end of January that he would pardon all prisoners convicted under Romania's sodomy statute. However, by law each of those prisoners must make an individual application for pardon. Constantinescu renewed promises of sodomy law reform when he spoke with Dutch protestors while visiting The Netherlands immediately after Cetiner's pardon was reported. ACCEPT, a Romanian human rights group advocating for gays and lesbians, has drafted its own legal text to replace sections of the criminal code which now discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender. The government's Justice Ministry is also developing a sodomy reform proposal. Two of the U.S.' largest St. Patrick's Day parades were held this week, with gays and lesbians protesting their exclusion from both. For the 8th consecutive year, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, organizers of the parade in New York City, rejected the application of the group Irish Gays and Lesbians, or ILGO, to march with a banner bearing their name. For the 8th consecutive year, ILGO responded with peaceful protest demonstrations, leading to some two dozen arrests for blocking traffic. In Savannah, Georgia the gay and lesbian First City Network was unable to obtain an application to participate in the parade, despite their repeated requests. A parade representative later told reporters that the event does not allow any "political, social or advocacy" groups, but no one had explained that policy to the gay and lesbian group. Instead, organizers had repeatedly promised to send the form, but it never materialized. In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Boston's Saint Patrick's Day Parade was constitutionally protected free speech by its organizers, making it legal for them to exclude anyone they felt did not represent their message. And finally ... Myrtle Beach, South Carolina has been a hotspot of controversy over gays and lesbians, thanks in part to its homophobic Mayor Mark McBride. McBride has taken so much flak from everyone from local media to the AFL-CIO that this week 100 or so people turned up at the City Council meeting specifically to express their support for his anti-gay positions. Patrick Evans, co-chair of the South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride March and Festival, to be held in Myrtle Beach this year, also gave testimony, saying, "We come from all walks of life, all religions, all ages and all income levels. And yes, each year we march down the street because we are proud of who we are. Who is this group of people that celebrates in such a boisterous and in-your-face manner? We are the Irish. Happy St. Patrick's Day."