NewsWrap
for the week ending July 4th, 1998
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #536, distributed 07-06-98)
[Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin,
Graham Underhill, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle]

Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Greg Gordon

  The parliament of the Spanish state of Catalonia this week passed a law
giving legal recognition to unmarried couples, including same-gender couples.
It's the first such law not only in Spain, but in the Mediterranean region.
It's also the first in a Catholic country, although Spain's Catholic Episcopal
Conference was quick to denounce it as "institutionalizing the immoral
behavior of homosexuality."  The law defines what it calls a "homosexual
stable union" as a same-gender couple who live as spouses on a permanent basis
and attest to their desire to be covered by the law.  It establishes full
inheritance rights to jointly held property, and automatically grants a
surviving partner one-fourth of the estate of a deceased partner who dies
without leaving a will.  When a dissolving partnership leaves the parties in
an unequal economic situation, the poorer former partner can seek alimony
payments.  However, gay and lesbian couples are not allowed to adopt children
together as their heterosexual counterparts are.  The only political party to
oppose the measure in Catalonia was the Partido Popular, which controls the
national government.

  One of the best-known gay couples in the U.S., Massachusetts Congressmember
Barney Frank and economist Herb Moses, have split up after more than 10 years.
Moses was the first same-gender partner ever to receive the privileges of a
Congressional spouse.  Although there were two other recognized gay
Congressional partners, there are currently none.  Frank refused to discuss
the reasons for the break-up, but did say that the parting is "amicable," and
added that, "This is a sad time." 
Frank also said he'd told Moses that he himself would take "custody of
annoying questions from reporters," noting that, "He's a private citizen
again.  He doesn't have to answer them any more."
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Kerry Lobel said, "They
provided the definition for how elected couples can serve publiclife with
dignity and authenticity.  They did it in ways nobody had done before, and
they accepted nothing less than other elected couples should accept."

  The Miami Beach, Florida City Council this week voted unanimously to
recognize the same-gender partners of its gay and lesbian employees for
purposes of spousal bereavement benefits, annual leaves and sick leaves.  The
city's Community Relations Board has recommended extending the couples further
benefits including health insurance and pensions, but those will require a
referendum to change the city charter.  Mayor Neisen Kasdin, who introduced
the measure, said, "The city is committed to treating everyone equally and
giving everyone the same benefits."

  The City Council of New Orleans, Louisiana this week added transgendered
people as a protected category under the local hate crimes ordinance.  The law
calls the category "actual or perceived" "gender identification," and
describes it as "those whose characteristics are different from their own sex
and they then dress  accordingly."  Transgenders had previously been included
in a New Orleans City Charter amendment against arbitrary discrimination.
However, employers are specifically granted the right to prohibit cross-
dressing in the workplace, except for those individuals who can certify that
they've been diagnosed with gender identity disorder.

  But in Argentina, dozens of transvestite protestors weren't even allowed to
enter the building while the Buenos Aires City Council passed a new law
limiting their sex work activities to a prescribed red light district.  One
young drag queen told the Reuters news service, "We're simply fighting to be
free, like any man, woman or creature."  The new law's supporters claimed that
local residents had complained about the street life going on at their
doorsteps, including nudity, sex and drugs.  But Buenos Aires police have a
history of abusing transgenders, including a number of deaths, and the sex
workers say the law will put them at risk for harassment every time they leave
the zone.  Some believe that the reinstatement of tighter restrictions on
prostitution reflects the presidential hopes of Buenos Aires Mayor Fernando De
la Rua.

  Keith Goddard, the program manager of Zimbabwe's only gay and lesbian
organization, was released on bail this week after being accused of raping
another man at gunpoint.  The alleged victim made his claim only after Goddard
had accused him of attempted extortion.  Each man will testify against the
other in separate trials, with Goddard next scheduled to appear in court in
September.  Goddard says he only met the man once, briefly, at the office of
the group Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, or GALZ.  GALZ members are convinced
the charges against Goddard are just the latest step in escalating harassment
by the government.  Both the San Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission and South Africa's National Coalition for Gay and
Lesbian Equality, have called for letters to Zimbabwe officials demanding the
charges against Goddard be dropped.

  The Romanian Parliament this week rejected further reforms to its national
sodomy law.  A preliminary vote last week in the Chamber of Deputies came on
the very same day that the Council of Europe officially ended special
monitoring of Romania for human rights abuses.  The Deputies' rejection of the
government's reform proposal is likely to lead to the reinstatement of
monitoring.  The Council of Europe required Romania to decriminalize
homosexual acts between consenting adults as a condition of its entry into the
Council in 1993.  Although some reform was finally enacted in 1996,
legislators retained a clause against acts which created a "public scandal."
That loophole actually left Romanian gays and lesbians worse off than they'd
been before in terms of police and criminal justice system abuses, as
confirmed by international observers.  Romania's government had promised the
Council further reform, but instead the opposing influence of the national
Orthodox Church seems to have prevailed.

  The Australian federal government's Model Criminal Code Committee this week
recommended ending the so-called "homosexual panic" defense in assaults
against gays.  What is now a partial defense of provocation has in a number of
cases allowed men who kill gay men to be charged with manslaughter instead of
murder by claiming that they were fending off unwanted sexual advances.  The
government panel noted that this approach was subject to abuse in fatal
robberies of gay men.  Although the committee recommended against lowering
charges against suspects using the "gay panic" defense, it believed
provocation could be considered in sentencing.

  Also in Australia, a Melbourne gay man won a landmark federal court ruling
of sexual harassment against a Salvation Army hospital.  The court agreed that
openly gay cook Bill Italiano had experienced "ongoing and systemic
harassment" by his supervisor at Bethesda Hospital, which extended from
continuing verbal abuse all the way to literally locking him in a closet.  The
hospital was fined and ordered to compensate Italiano with eight weeks' pay.
A Salvation Army spokesperson said the hospital's policies would be reviewed.

  Britain's Scotland Yard this week opened a new liaison unit for the gay and
lesbian community.  Seven officers, some of them gay themselves, will staff a
24-hour hotline and an office at the Belgravia police station in London.  It's
hoped that the new unit will encourage increased reporting of homophobic
assaults, which surveys have indicated are not reported in as many as four out
of five cases.

  In Canada this week, the Vancouver area Surrey School District began to
defend its ban on three children's books against a legal challenge brought by
parents and teachers.  The three books, "Asha's Mums", "One Dad, Two Dads,
Brown Dad, Blue Dad" and "Belinda's Bouquet", all portray children of gay and
lesbian couples but never use the words "lesbian," "gay" or "homosexual."  The
school board's conservative Christian majority earmarked C$100,000 for legal
fees to defend the ban even though they said it would mean "sacrifices in
education throughout the district," on the grounds that the admittedly
innocuous books would "raise a lot of questions in the minds of younger
children about homosexual issues."  While attorneys argued preliminary
motions, about 100 ban supporters held a rally on the courthouse steps, after
a silent march during which some wore gags.  Although the gags might seem more
appropriate for the point of view that's being censored, the ban's supporters
believe that as parents they are not being heard.

  Chinese gays and lesbians from around the world met in San Francisco last
weekend in a conference designed to develop "a greater sense of pride in
Chinese gay identity."  They use the Mandarin word "tongzhi," or comrade, to
indicate the community of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered people.
Sexologist Fang-Fu Ruan described a rich history of respect for gays and
lesbians in Chinese culture, noting that 10 of 11 emperors in the Han dynasty
had same-gender partners and that some of the legends and classical literature
describe gay love.  Although mainland China's government continues to harass
and punish gays, Ruan says that now they are generally able to gather at bars
and coffeehouses, although still unable to organize groups and agencies.  In
Taiwan and Hong Kong, there has been faster progress, including cross-over
popularity for gay-themed books and films.  

  And finally ... RuPaul, America's most famous cross-dresser, will be
appearing in his birth gender in advertising  for Rockport shoes -- and that's
only the first of several products for which he'll appear as a male, according
to "Variety".  In the Rockport spread, a bald, goatee'd, makeup free RuPaul,
sitting in a suit with a walking stick suggestively between his long, long
legs, says, "I'm  comfortable being a man."  RuPaul is still the 6'7" drag
supermodel for M.A.C. makeup.  And, in a series of billboards for Saks Fifth
Avenue, he'll be seen in both his male and female personas.