NewsWrap for the week ending May 2nd, 1998 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #527, distributed 05-04-98) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Jason Lin, Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon (An excerpt from “It’s Alright”, from the Indigo Girls “Shaming of the Sun” CD:) And it’s alright if you hate that way Hate me cause I’m different, hate me cause I’m gay Truth of the matter come around one day, so it’s alright ... Two U.S. high schools this week cancelled performances by the Grammy-winning openly lesbian duo the Indigo Girls, something their manager says has never happened before. A third high school is also considering cancelling, while at least two or three schools had declined the opportunity for Indigo Girls performances during their current three-week tour of high school and college campuses. The first cancellation was made by principal Gerald Witt of Irmo High School in South Carolina. Complaints from parents convinced him that the concert was "polarizing" the community, to a degree that made him fear for the safety of both performers and students, and be concerned that the issue would interfere with the school's educational goals. Many students at Irmo are angry about the decision and are discussing various protest actions on the day the concert would have occurred. The Indigo Girls, with the help of their friends Hootie and the Blowfish, have arranged a concert at another nearby which students can attend at no charge. Within two days of the Irmo decision, principal Ernie Chism of Germantown High School near Memphis, Tennessee, also cancelled an Indigo Girls appearance. Chism denies that the duo's sexual orientation was at issue, claiming he acted in response to a phone tip that Indigo Girls had used an offensive word in the course of performing at a school in Georgia. The Indigo Girls are hurt by these responses to their efforts to carry positive messages of respect and tolerance, and at least two national gay and lesbian groups are outraged on their behalf. Both the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation feel that the cancellations promote the kind of fear and intolerance that so often make gay and lesbian students victims of harassment and violence. In Australia, three gay and lesbian groups in Queensland are hoping to help prevent both harassment in schools and gay and lesbian youth suicide. The Gay and Lesbian Welfare Association, Diverse Students Safe Schools, and Building Bridges, sent resource lists of gay-positive books and films to every principal, librarian and school counselor in the state. While the Queensland Ministry of Education left any decisions about the materials entirely up to local communities, the Association of Independent Schools of Queensland actively encouraged its members to make use of the resources. Even the state's head of Catholic Education expressed willingness to review materials, although they would have to be approved at several levels before Catholic schools could choose to use them. The Boy Scouts have been dropped from the annual charity drive among San Francisco city employees because of the Scouts' national policy excluding gays. Although the campaign raises more than a half-million dollars for charities each year, only a few hundred dollars formerly went to local Scouts Councils which have budgets in the millions. Nonetheless, the president of the San Francisco Bay Area Council was miffed at what he called the "moral issue" of denying city workers the chance to support Scouting by means of payroll deductions. In South Africa, a girl has been returned to the custody of her lesbian mother by the Johannesburg High Court. A social worker had previously convinced a magistrate that Gertruida Greyling's relationship with Hermien Oosthuizen might psychologically damage Greyling's daughter, winning an order that gave custody to the child's grandparents, Jan and Judith Uys. Greyling's lawsuit charged that the social worker is a personal friend of the grandparents. Welfare Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi declined to oppose Greyling's filing in the High Court, assuring her victory. The National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality praised both the judge and the Welfare Minister for recognizing "the validity and dignity of lesbian and gay family relationships" and acting in the best interests of the child. But the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality has also organized six same-gender couples to file a lawsuit challenging another branch of government, South Africa's Department of Home Affairs. At issue is the chance for foreign partners of South African citizens to obtain permanent resident status. The language of the Aliens Control Act recognizes only heterosexual spouses and dependent children for this purpose Although Home Affairs had previously told the Coalition that some applications had been granted based on "special circumstances," director-general Aubrey Mokoena decided more recently that the number of gay and lesbian applications had grown to a point that they could no longer be viewed as "special circumstances." The Coalition finds his position entirely unreasonable, and argues that the law violates South Africa's constitutional ban on discrimination, without conferring any benefits to the state. In the U.S., the United Methodist Church's ban on gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies was reaffirmed this week by a national meeting of its bishops. The issue had been brought to the fore in March by the church trial of Omaha, Nebraska pastor Jimmy Creech, who was charged with disobedience after presiding at a lesbian couple's ceremony. The jury fell one vote short of convicting Creech because of the question as to whether the 1996 ban was actually church law or merely a guideline. The Council of Bishops declined to deal with that question as they met in Lincoln, Nebraska this week, preferring to leave it to the church's Judicial Commission, the Methodists' highest legal authority, which will take it up in August. The bishops also disappointed conservative Methodists by refusing to support their calls for a special national General Assembly, the only body in the denomination with legislative authority. But in a pastoral statement to be distributed to all the nation's Methodist churches, the bishops unanimously affirmed their commitment to the dictum that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, the ban on ordination of so-called "self-avowed practicing homosexuals," and the prohibition against ceremonies celebrating "homosexual unions" by Methodist ministers or in Methodist churches. The issue has become so contentious that 22 conservative pastors in Northern California are threatening to leave the denomination. The Methodist bishops were met by anti-gay demonstrators when they arrived in Lincoln, and two significant anti-gay rallies organized by religious conservatives were held this week in Michigan and South Carolina. The Michigan rally was part of a campaign to repeal Ypsilanti's new civil rights law by means of a referendum in the coming week, and featured the Winans sisters singing their anti-gay song "Not Natural" and football star Reggie White. It also featured Alveda King, niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., although King's widow Coretta Scott King wrote a letter in support of the civil rights law. The South Carolina rally, which promoted a ministry to turn gays into heterosexuals, was sparked by this weekend's observance of gay and lesbian pride in Myrtle Beach. That town was selected for the statewide celebration because of the anti-gay actions of its mayor, Mark McBride. The World Council of Churches was the target of more criticism this week in Zimbabwe, where the Council will be holding its every-seven-years global meeting later this year. This week the criticism came from the president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Andrew Wutawunashe, who said in a statement that, "We cry shame that [homosexuality] would be sanctioned by a body claiming to represent Christians. We roundly condemn such blatant perversion of the Christian faith." Wutawunashe went on to threaten a boycott of the Council's conference if plans proceeded to allow participation by the group Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, or GALZ. Another minister in Zimbabwe wrote a letter to a newspaper declaring that, "Homosexual relationships that are 'loving relationships' are incompatible with true love because they are in revolt to God's law and purpose." The challenges to gay inclusiveness by the Council were started last week by Zimbabwe's famously homophobic President Robert Mugabe, who said that gay and lesbian "practices" would bring down God's wrath on the nation. The Council had previously been threatened with boycotts by two gay-friendly Dutch churches for having chosen Zimbabwe as its meeting site. In Australia, the Melbourne gay bar once known as the Virgin Mary was destroyed by an arson fire this week. There were no injuries, but an accelerant had been used, and both floors were wiped out, with damages estimated at A$300-500,000. When the club first opened two years ago as the Virgin Mary, it drew determined protest from local Catholics, who eventually forced a name change by means of a ruling by the Victorian Securities Commission. The owners changed the name to VM's, but were always convinced that there would have been no objections if their club didn't cater specifically to gays and lesbians. They plan to rebuild the bar. Also in Australia, the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group this week celebrated the anniversary of its hard-won success in repealing the nation's last law criminalizing consensual sex between adult men. Rather than simply party, they're campaigning to share their success internationally, by extending the impact of a significant decision they won in 1994 from the United Nations Human Rights Committee. That decision affirmed that international human rights agreements prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the Tas group hopes it can make a difference with such problems for gays and lesbians as police abuse in Romania, death squad activities in Brazil, and so-called "reeducation" programs in China. They wrote to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson calling for a global study of anti-gay persecution and appointment of a special advisor on human rights and sexuality. And finally ... Candace Gingrich, openly lesbian half-sister of U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, apparently brings a sense of history to her work with the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project. Although she was "disinvited" last week from an appearance at Washington, D.C.'s Catholic University, on the grounds that her appearance would be incompatible with the school's Catholic identity, she did speak this week at American University, a Methodist-affiliated school in the same city. She told the "Washington Post", I guess American University is the Enlightenment, and Catholic is the Dark Ages."