NewsWrap for the week ending August 22nd, 1998 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #543, distributed 08-24-98) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Graham Underhill, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Chris Ambidge, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Leo Garcia Sri Lanka's gay and lesbian group Companions On A Journey is lobbying for repeal of the nation's sodomy law. The 130-year-old statute provides for sentences of up to 12 years imprisonment. The nearly 500 members of the three-year-old organization believe the law has played a role in their experiences of homophobic assaults, job loss and evictions. Director Sherman de Rose said, "We cannot have evidence or conduct studies until we create an environment, atmosphere and space for people to come out and speak." Despite having been arrested at the request of their parents, a lesbian couple has celebrated what may be the first same-gender wedding in Nepal. Several hundred people turned out to watch as Sita Malla and Rupa Shrestha carried out a traditional ceremony. Police in their village in the southwestern Nawalparasi District had had to release the women because they had done nothing illegal. But three bills against gay and lesbian and transsexual marriages have been introduced in the Philippines Parliament. They were proposed by Senate President Marcelo Fernan in what he says is an effort to "clarify a gray area in the marriage law." Although the Philippines already defines marriage as a contract between a man and a woman, Fernan was concerned that marriages performed outside the country might be recognized there. His measure targeting transsexuals would insert the word "biological" before "man" and "woman" in the Family Code. Although Fernan denied having any personal problem with gays and lesbians, the Filipino group PRO-Gay, the Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines, denounced the bills. They said that any threat to Filipino families is posed by the nation's economic crisis and its politicians, not by same-gender marriages. Canada must include its gay and lesbian civil servants' domestic partners in the same health benefits category as married spouses, a Canadian Federal Court judge ruled this week. The Canada Human Rights Tribunal ruled two years ago that the national government must extend spousal benefits to same-gender couples, but the government complied by creating a new category of "same-sex partner relationship." Although the actual medical and dental benefits were the same, unions have been contesting the category ever since it was established, calling the process discriminatory and demanding a gender-neutral definition of "spouse." Justice Andrew MacKay agreed, saying, "It is no more appropriate for the employer in this case to have established a separate definition for persons in same-sex relationships than it would have been for the employer to create separate definitions for relationships based on their race, colour or ethnicity." MacKay also affirmed that the Human Rights Tribunal did have the power to require the federal government to list all its employee benefits regulations which discriminate against gay and lesbian couples and to submit proposals for their correction. In the Tribunal's original 1996 ruling, it had demanded that list within 60 days. The latest U.S. employer to extend health benefits to its gay and lesbian workers' domestic partners is the "Washington Post" newspaper. The "Post" found it convenient to make the change when it was changing health insurance providers. Corporate spokesperson Virginia Rodriguez said, "The 'Post' has always valued our diverse workforce. We just felt it was important that we serve all of our employees." In Australia, the highest court in the state of Queensland has rejected a lesbian's discrimination complaint against a clinic which denied her artificial insemination services. The complainant known as "JM" had originally won a judgment from the state's Anti-Discrimination Tribunal, including A$7,500 in damages from the QFG medical group in Brisbane. But when the clinic appealed to a trial court, the judge decided that "JM" had not met the established medical criteria for artificial insemination, because she had not first engaged in 12 months of heterosexual activity. That judge found insufficient evidence to establish discrimination, and now the higher court has upheld his ruling. Meanwhile, "JM" actually had her baby after making private arrangements for a sperm donor -- but she had wanted a clinic's screening process to avoid HIV. Venezuela's Supreme Court this week chastized the Department of Defense for its treatment of soldiers with HIV. The court demanded "immediate and unconditional" compliance with an order it had issued in January, which required the military to meet the medical needs of its HIV-positive personnel. Defense Minister Tito Rincon responded that he had already requested funds from the Congress for that purpose. The court has ruled that HIV-positive soldiers must continue to receive their salaries, although the military can take them off active duty. The highest court of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. has ruled that an openly partnered gay man may finish out his term as an ordained church elder. Dr. Ray Whetstone was ordained as an elder by the Second Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida in January 1996. Although the denomination had established a guideline in 1978 against ordaining "self-affirmed, practicing homosexual persons" as ministers, it was only last year's General Assembly that made the ban part of church law. That law denies ordination as ministers, elders or deacons to anyone who engages in sex outside of traditional marriage. This week by a vote of 4 - 2, the Presbyterian Church's Permanent Judicial Commission found that Whetstone's ordination was "irregular," and that he may not seek another term as an elder, but is allowing him to finish out his current three-year term. The case against Whetstone was brought by his fellow congregant retired Navy Lieutenant Commander Ron Wier, who believes homosexual acts are sinful and opposed his ordination from the first. Wier is already targeting another elder he believes to be gay, and his attorney has suggested there may be three or four in their church. Pastor Roger Verse has called it "a witch hunt." Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway has decided to retain those titles in order to fight for equal treatment for gays and lesbians within the Church of England. This week Holloway cancelled plans to retire from his clerical duties so that he could seek election to the new Scottish Parliament. He was deeply disturbed by the recent proceedings at the international Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, where homosexual acts were found to be "incompatible with Scripture." Recognition of same-gender couples and ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians were both rejected. Holloway described this as "... a return to a type of theological conservatism that, I believe, has to be challenged if Christianity is to appeal to the best values in contemporary society." After his public criticism of the Conference, he received many letters asking him to stay in the Church. Also quitting politics is openly lesbian city councillor Savannah Considine of Port Adelaide Enfield in the state of South Australia. Considine made what she called the "agonizing" decision to resign her office because of a campaign of homophobic harassment she says dates back to her first city council meeting. She had previously filed two police complaints after a series of offensive remarks made to her face and in e-mails and faxes, and she had come to fear physical violence. The man suspected in a series of a dozen murders of gay men in Virginia was tried and found guilty of one of them this week. The jury recommended life imprisonment for Elton Jackson in the 1996 murder of Andre Smith. Smith was the last victim in the series of killings which began in 1987. All of the victims were found alongside back roads, all but the first stripped of their clothes, and Smith and at least 9 others were strangled. Jackson was connected with at least five other victims, but no other charges have yet been brought against him. A gay and lesbian newspaper which helped to urge police action in those murders has folded. The Virginia community monthly "Our Own" stopped the presses this week after 22 years due to lack of funds. Openly gay author Julian Green died in mid-August at the age of 97, after what's believed to be the longest career of any major 20th century writer. Born in Paris to U.S. parents, nearly all of Green's works were written in French, and in 1971 he became the first foreigner ever to be elected to the Academie Francaise. His works from 1926 through 1993 included 18 novels, five plays, six essay collections, two histories, 14 volumes of journals, 5 memoirs, and even some screenplays. Green struggled most of his life between his homosexual desires and his Catholic spiritual values, and finally opted for celibacy ... at the age of 70. And finally ... Jordanna Hertz and Mark Velasquez of New Haven, Connecticut, are holding a marriage ceremony this weekend, but they won't be legally married. Although the heterosexual couple are putting on a big event back in their home state of Oregon, with both a minister and a rabbi officiating, they're protesting the fact that legal marriage is not an option for their gay and lesbian friends, including Velasquez' sister. And how's this for a non- traditional family: walking down the aisle as their ringbearer will be Karibu -- their pet dog.