NewsWrap for the week ending May 23rd, 1998 (As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #530, distributed 05-25-98) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Jason Lin, Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Björn Skolander, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon Threatened with possible expulsion from the Council of Europe, the parliament of Cyprus this week repealed the nation’s sodomy law. It’s been five years since the European Court of Human Rights ordered repeal. The national government has long been urging decriminalization, because Cyprus has its own case before the European Court that’s crucial to the future of Greek Cypriot refugees from Turkish incursions. But the parliament had stalled and avoided the issue as long as possible because of intense opposition from the Orthodox Church of Cyprus. The Pancyprian Christian Orthodox Movement collected 40,000 signatures on a petition to retain the law, and the group promised to work to oust MPs who supported repeal. The pressure led eleven of the 56 members of parliament to intentionally absent themselves from the vote. In contrast to large and noisy protests of the past, the law’s supporters watched silently as the remaining MPs voted 36 to 8 with one abstention, and only a small group demonstrated outside the building. One man who carried a 10-foot-tall crucifix promised that those who voted for repeal would “feel the wrath of God.” The World Council of Churches is experiencing growing division over the status of lesbians and gays and of women. In May, the Russian Orthodox Church organized an unusual meeting of 15 orthodox denominations, who determined to work together to restructure the World Council. Those groups represent about one-fourth of the people represented on the World Council, but they feel it has been overly dominated by its Protestant Christian members. In protest of the inclusion of lesbians and gays in some activities at the Council’s upcoming global conference in Zimbabwe, the Orthodox Churches have planned to abstain from some council votes, opt out of some discussions, and boycott the Council’s religious celebrations there. Some African churches are also protesting the inclusion of lesbians and gays at the conference, while two liberal Dutch churches refuse to participate because of the choice of anti-gay Zimbabwe as the meeting site. An Islamic court in Malaysia this week tried 45 transvestites arrested when police raided a drag beauty pageant in Alor Star. The charges of wearing female clothes and posing as a woman in a public place carry maximum penalties of six months in jail plus fines. Thirty-four of the crossdressers were released on bail and the other 11 were retained in custody. Peter Tatchell, leading spokesperson for Britain’s direct action group OutRage!, entered a plea of not guilty this week on one charge of “indecent” behavior in a church, stemming from the group’s demonstration during the Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral. The action had been protesting Archbishop of Canterbury Doctor George Carey’s positions against ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians, recognition of gay and lesbian relationships, civil rights protections from anti-gay discrimination, foster parenting by gays and lesbians, and lowering of the gay age of consent to match heterosexuals’. Tatchell hopes to use his trial to make the same points, and intends to summon both Carey and the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral as witnesses in his defense. He’d also like to see repeal of the 1860 law he’s charged with violating, saying, “The right to peaceful protest does not stop at the door of a cathedral.” But there seems to be little hope for that, since the British government is currently moving to appease religious interests as it seeks to codify the European Convention on Human Rights into British law. The government is offering amendments in the House of Lords to respond to religious concerns, including one specifically protecting churches from discrimination lawsuits by same-gender couples seeking to celebrate their relationships. In the U.S., the Northwest regional body of the American Baptist Church rejected moves to oust two Seattle churches which affirm gays and lesbians, including ordination of those who are sexually active. Six other churches in the denomination have been ejected from their regional groups, although the national American Baptist Churches of the USA has not dismissed any of them. The Northwest group did reaffirm as an “instructional directive” the position adopted nationally in 1992 that “the practice of homosexuality is inconsistent with Christian teaching.” A resolution to affirm that God’s plan for sexual behavior is for monogamous, lifelong, heterosexual marriage, was withdrawn. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC, this week finally reversed its 1992 position in one of the most blatant cases of employment discrimination in U.S. history, that of Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores. In 1991, Cracker Barrel fired a number of workers, based on a formal company policy against employing those “whose sexual preferences fail to demonstrate normal heterosexual values which have been the foundation of families in our society.” The many protests sparked by the firings included a proposal by some of Cracker Barrel’s own shareholders to adopt a non-discrimination policy. But in 1992, Cracker Barrel was advised by SEC staff that no action would be taken if the company failed to publish the proposal for proxy votes, so management simply ignored the shareholder proposal. The SEC defended its decision in a series of legal actions and the case proved to be the beginning of the end for shareholder actions on social issues more generally. But a massive lobbying effort led to an act of Congress which forced the SEC to review and revise its general policy on shareholder-initiated proposals, and after an unprecedented volume of public comment, the Commission announced a new set of rules this week. The Cracker Barrel restaurant chain has long since abandoned its anti-gay policy, but shareholders are now once again empowered to propose corporate policies on significant social issues. The Arizona state legislature this week dropped a Senate-passed measure against sexual orientation-based discrimination in state employment in some end-of-session horse-trading. Two Republican Senators held hostage two bills key to the state Attorney General being able to enforce any civil rights laws at all, until the sponsor of the equal employment measure agreed to drop it without a fight. A leading campaigner for legal protections from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation was axed by his own party in a primary election this week. Oregon’s Chuck Carpenter, the first and only openly gay Republican state legislator in the U.S., was soundly defeated by ultraconservative Bill Witt, a founder and major contributor to the anti-gay Oregon Citizens Alliance. Carpenter distinguished himself last year by bringing the entire state House to a screeching halt in order to bring his job rights bill out of the committee where it was stalled. That endeared him to gays and lesbians, but led the state’s Republican Party leadership to call for his resignation. The bill itself was passed by the House but failed by one vote in the state Senate. Some have charged that Witt only joined the race, which he did at the last possible moment, because of his opposition to the employment rights measure. But in the U.S. Senate, open gay Fred Hochberg was finally confirmed this week to serve as a deputy director of the Small Business Administration. Republicans on the Senate Small Business Administration Committee, led by its chair, Kit Bond of Missouri, had refused to schedule a committee hearing on Hochberg’s nomination since October. They were finally forced to proceed last week in the face of a concerted effort by the committee’s Democrats, led by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Although Hochberg’s sexual orientation was never mentioned by the Republicans, and they vigorously denied that it was an issue, many thought otherwise, particularly since the moderate Bond faces re- election this year. Once allowed to come to the Senate floor, Hochberg’s nomination was unanimously approved. Meanwhile, the nomination of open gay James Hormel to serve as ambassador to Luxembourg continues to be kept off the floor by “holds” from at least four Republican Senators, although at least 58 of the 100 Senators want the chance to vote on it. Hormel opponent Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma brought the matter to a new low this week when he compared philanthropist Hormel to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke as being people “whose agenda is more important than the country.” In Ohio, a Cincinnati-area teacher fired because of his sexual orientation was ordered reinstated by a federal judge in what may be the first action of its kind. Judge Susan Dlott found that the Williamsburg School District had violated open gay Bruce Glover’s right to equal treatment before the law, and ordered not only his reinstatement, but payment to him of $71,000 in lost wages and damages. Openly gay three-time Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally this week added a new Drama Desk Award to his trophy collection -- for the book of the musical “Ragtime” -- but the New York City production of his latest play was canceled. After the “New York Post” reported that McNally’s “Corpus Christi” featured a Jesus character who had offstage sex with his apostles, there was immediate and intense religious protest. After first saying it stood firmly behind McNally, the Manhattan Theater Club this week announced cancellation of the production, in a brief statement citing only “security problems that have arisen around the production of this play and related concerns” and that they are “now unable to mount this production responsibly.” And finally ... although the ABC television network has dropped “Ellen”, the first series with an openly lesbian or gay lead character, all is not lost. As the networks announced their fall season schedules this week, NBC’s included “Will and Grace”, a sitcom about an openly gay man and his best friend and roommate, a non-gay woman. One thing already in favor of the show is that it’s not Will but Grace who is the interior designer -- Will is an attorney.