NewsWrap for the week ending August 1st, 1998 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #540, distributed 08-03-98) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Graham Underhill, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Leo Garcia and Cindy Friedman Latvia has lowered the age of consent for sex between men from 18 years to 16, to match the age of consent for heterosexual acts. The move came as part of a reform of the criminal code which treats same-gender sex acts the same as heterosexual ones. The only remaining distinction is harsher penalties for heterosexual rape than for same-gender sexual assaults. Equalization of the age of consent in Britain has been put off until the next legislative session. Although the move to lower the age of consent for sex between men from 18 to 16 had passed overwhelmingly in the House of Commons in June, it was rejected by a large margin in the House of Lords in July. Home Secretary Jack Straw won the agreement of Members of Parliament and of gay and lesbian activists to drop the amendment to the Crime and Disorder Bill so that the larger measure could be enacted before the legislative session ended. In exchange, the government itself will introduce a single-issue measure in the House of Commons after October that the House of Lords will not be able to stop. Possibly to sweeten that deal, Britain's Blair government will also be proposing repeal of Section 28, a decade-old measure prohibiting local governments from "promoting homosexuality," following publication of a White Paper this week. Long a top target of gay and lesbian activists, Section 28 has served to stop things like school-based counseling programs for gay and lesbian youth, even though there has never been a prosecution under its provisions. Meanwhile, gays and lesbians continued to create controversy, as bishops of the Anglican Church moved into the second week of their global decennial Lambeth Conference in Britain. The conference subsection on human sexuality, where traditionalist bishops outnumbered liberals by two-to-one, has prepared its official report for the conference to debate in the coming week. While admitting division within the group, the report calls for a moratorium on any further ordination of gays and lesbians and on any further blessings of same- gender relationships. Gay and lesbian activists are disappointed and angry, but outside the formal structure of the conference, they have made some gains. Although an officially scheduled presentation by ordained gay and lesbian priests had been cancelled by a vote of the human sexuality subsection, this week the panel was held unofficially, receiving a warm reception from most of some 135 attendees. And last week Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey for the first time showed an interest in meeting with Britain's Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, which had sought to dialog with him without success for seven years. And while same-gender couples can't be blessed by the Church of England, they do have the blessing of Britain's Independent Television Commission. The ITC rejected 29 viewer complaints against an ad for Impulse Body Spray which showed two men walking off arm-in-arm. That was the nation's first TV ad to portray a gay couple and it began airing in May. The Commission said that it "does not have a policy of forbidding homosexual references in advertising." And those offended British viewers should brace themselves, because a much more explicit portrayal of a gay couple has been approved for late-night broadcast by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Center, to begin airing this month. A one-minute spot to encourage condom use for prevention of HIV shows two men kissing, undressing and caressing each other. Ads supporting a November ballot initiative against same-gender marriage have already begun airing on radio in Hawai'i. They're one of the subjects of a complaint to the state's Campaign Spending Commission that was filed this week by the ballot measure's opponents, Protect Our Constitution. POC charges that three religious right groups have failed to register with the Commission as political committees, something the law requires for any group that receives or spends at least $1,000 on a campaign. The ads' sponsor, the Hawai'i affiliate of James Dobson's Colorado-based Focus on the Family, claims the ads are only for education and information, not political advocacy. But POC believes they cross the line when they proclaim that a 'no' vote would "redefine marriage to include homosexual couples," when in fact a 'no' vote merely maintains the status quo, in which the state constitution has nothing to say on the question. POC is also complaining that the Virginia-based Christian Coalition and its Hawai'i affiliate are using mailings and the Internet, not only to solicit contributions of more than $1,000, but to solicit them from corporations and even foreigners, in violation of the law. Another anti-marriage group, Hawaii's Future Today, was already the subject of complaints by Hawai'i activist William Woods, who believes the group has already passed on more than $100,000 to a political committee it constructed called Save Traditional Marriage 98. Overall campaign spending on the ballot measure is expected to run to several million dollars, second only to Hawai’i’s gubernatorial race. On the mainland, the religious right scored a victory in the U.S. Congress this week. An amendment to a major spending bill by California Republican Frank Riggs to deny federal housing funds to any city requiring its contractors to extend spousal benefits to domestic partners, squeaked by with a two-vote margin. There is currently exactly one city which fits that bill, and it's San Francisco, which could lose more than $200-million as a result. Because no similar amendment appears in the Senate version, there's still hope that it will be dropped in a House-Senate conference committee. There are also some indications that the recent spate of anti-gay rhetoric and activity by Republicans may abate. Although it's generally believed that those attacks are designed to mobilize voters for a November election predicted to have a record low turnout, the "moral" issues will tend to drive moderates away from Republican candidates. That was the finding of a poll commissioned by the Republican Leadership Council, which specifically targeted 77 Congressional districts where the races were close in 1996. The poll indicated that the Republicans could actually lose their Congressional majority unless they focus on more popular issues, and also found that more than 60% of Republican respondents opposed excluding gays and lesbians from leadership roles in the party. Only 12% of respondents saw "moral" issues like homosexuality and abortion as their top priorities, and more than 80% of that group were already committed to a Republican candidate, whether or not those issues were central to the campaign. The North Carolina Supreme Court this week denied a gay man custody of his sons because of his relationship with his partner, and its reasoning in doing so could reopen a large number of custody disputes even among heterosexuals. When Fred Smith's wife Carol left North Carolina in 1991 for the man she later married, Smith retained custody of their two boys. It was only after Smith's partner Tim Tipton moved in with him in 1995 that the mother sought custody for herself, with the help of the Family Research Council of North Carolina. A trial court turned the children over to her, but an appeals court ruled in favor Smith. Although the boys have thrived in their care, and although Smith and Tipton have been quite discreet in front of them, the state's high court objected to the fact that the men would sometimes kiss in sight of the boys, and to the idea that even behind closed doors they were having sex in the same house. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund's Beatrice Dohrn said, "Non- gay parents are not judged negatively for showing affection in front of their children or for being honest with them. For any parents, those are healthy examples to model to children." The attorneys for both sides in the case agreed that the ruling was broad enough to apply to non-gay as well as openly gay households. The biggest courtroom loss this week was sustained by two British transsexuals. Despite an earlier near-unanimous decision in their favor by the European Commission on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that Britain need not issue them new birth certificates showing their post-surgical names and gender. Britain is the only member of the European Union which does not reissue birth certificates to transsexuals, claiming that the birth certificates are a matter of historical record. Kristina Sheffield and Rosa Horsham had argued that this interfered with their privacy and family life, in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Neither can marry in Britain, but the court found that nations may restrict marriage to a union between a man and a woman "of biological origin." The forced revelation of their transsexual status whenever they are required to show their birth certificates the court deemed to be only an "inconvenience" rather than a denial of privacy rights. However, the court did note that with growing acceptance of transsexualism, European nations should keep this area of law under review. And finally ... the latest Republican to come out in favor of equal treatment for gays and lesbians is former President Gerald Ford, now 85 years old. He also predicted that if the right wing controls the party, it will be defeated, while success depends on taking a middle road that makes room for views like his own. Ford also expresed support for abortion rights and government funding for the arts. If that leads his fellow Republicans to doubt his "family values," he says, "I'll put mine up to theirs any day."