NewsWrap for the week ending January 16th, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #564, distributed 1-18-99) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Chris Ambidge, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Frank Stoltze This week marked the anniversary of an Italian gay man's self-immolation protesting the Roman Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality. Members of Italy's national group ArciGay attempted to lay a laurel wreath in St. Peter's Square where Alfredo Ormando splashed himself with gasoline and set himself on fire, leading to his death a few days later. But although the group of mourners was intentionally kept small, Italian police barred them from the Square, saying it was "a place of worship." They finally allowed ArciGay to place the wreath on a barricade and to toss flowers over that barrier into the Square. ArciGay President Sergio Lo Giudice blamed what he called the Church's "cultural oppression" for the "malaise" experienced by Italian gays, and its influence for the weak police response to anti-gay violence. He predicted that someday the Vatican would have to apologize to gays and lesbians, and said that, "The rejection by the ecclesiastical community is a burning wound for gays." Christian beliefs were given precedence over civil rights laws this week, in a U.S. appeals court ruling which potentially threatens all civil rights laws in nine Western states. In a 2-to-1 decision, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed two landlords in Anchorage, Alaska to refuse to rent to unmarried couples because of their belief that would be "facilitating sin." Even though both the state and the city have civil rights laws against marital status discrimination, the majority opinion said that "not all discrimination is created equal," and that the landlords' rights to freedom of religion and speech were more important. The majority believed that it would be easy for unmarried couples to find another rental, while enforcing the laws would deny these landlords their livelihood. The state of Alaska is asking for a rehearing before the full 9th Circuit bench. Charles Wadsworth, who filed a brief in the case for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, warned that lesbian and gay couples would also be denied housing by the religious exemption, and that it was so broad that it could extend to employment rights as well. He said, "I think it has the potential for gutting civil rights laws in many cities and states." Previously, both the Alaska and California state Supreme Courts had supported the civil rights laws in nearly identical cases which the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals from two men discharged from the military after coming out to their commanding officers. Both Navy Lieutenant Richard Watson and California Army National Guard First Lieutenant Andrew Holmes had exemplary service records, and both felt it was a matter of conscience to tell their commanders they are gay after the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was announced. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected their arguments that their discharges violated their free speech rights. The U.S. Supreme Court has so far refused to hear any challenge to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and only one case remains in the pipeline, the seven-plaintiff test case called "Able versus USA." It's only a first step, but there's new hope for an effective vaccine against HIV. A study published this week describes how a group of U.S. researchers prepared a vaccine that stimulated mice to make antibodies that stopped viral replication in samples taken from humans. That in itself was a "first," but even better was that the antibodies worked against some two dozen samples of different kinds of human HIV collected from all over the world. That kind of broad response is necessary for a vaccine to be effective against the rapidly-evolving virus. The experiment succeeded because the researchers were able to use formaldehyde to "freeze" the virus in the moment that it was infecting cells, when proteins hidden inside the virus are briefly exposed. With the virus fixed in this open position, the mice were able to make antibodies to those inner proteins. Much work remains to be done to develop this approach before it can even be tried for humans, but scientists are very excited about the findings. Lesbian health was the subject of a new report this week in the U.S., the first government-funded comprehensive review of the research and issues in this area. The report was prepared by a committee of the Institute of Medicine of the distinguished National Academy of Science, which government often calls on for independent policy recommendations. The panel found there was so little research on lesbian health that no real conclusions could be drawn about their health problems, and strongly urged the government to fund more studies and to develop better research methods. The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association welcomed the release of the report as "a landmark day in the history of lesbian health" because it will aid in developing the research agenda for the coming decade. The Connecticut state Supreme Court this week refused to allow a lesbian co- parent to co-adopt her partner's son by artificial insemination. The ruling also denies second-parent adoptions to non-biological parents in unmarried heterosexual couples. Even though the 6 - 1 opinion acknowledged that the expert witnesses unanimously believed co-adoption to be in the best interests of the child, the court said it is up to the legislature to change the state policy. The couple may try a different legal approach, or begin lobbying state lawmakers. But one of the highest-profile lesbian couples in the U.S. this week adopted fraternal twins. Human Rights Campaign executive director Elizabeth Birch and her partner Hilary Rosen, a Washington lobbyist for the Recording Industry Association of America, became the proud parents of newborns Jacob and Anna. But their joy was marred when the Family Research Council issued a statement denouncing the adoption, claiming that, "placing babies in a lesbian household deliberately deprives these children of a father's love." FRC questioned how Jacob would develop an "image of manhood and fatherhood" or Anna learn "to relate to men," and called for a ban on adoptions by gays and lesbians. Just such a ban is under consideration this term in Texas, where Birch and Rosen's adoption took place. In an unusual case in Belgium this week, a married couple of 25 years contested a government order that they divorce because the man underwent sex reassignment. Transwoman Priscilla and wife Jeannine held hands as they appeared before the court. Priscilla said, "My partner has supported me during this difficult period. Should I just throw her away saying thank you for the service given? It's not possible." Jeannine said, "I love this person, whether he's a man or a woman. That may seem bizarre, but that's how it is." A Canadian transgender has won a sex discrimination judgment from the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal against a Victoria gay and lesbian bar. The tribunal ordered B.J.'s Lounge to pay C$2,000 to Tawni Sheridan for injuring her "dignity, feelings and self-respect." In 1995, when Sheridan was already living as a woman but had not yet undergone surgery, complaints from other women customers led B.J.'s to ban transgenders from the women's bathroom. Now that that policy has been ruled illegal, the Tribunal said that employees uncertain of the gender of a person wishing to use the toilet should ask, in a "dignified, private and non-confrontational manner, keeping in mind the immediate nature of the service required." Chile has officially published the legislation repealing the national sodomy law, which had provided for sentences of three years in prison for homosexual acts between consenting adults. The law change caps seven years of intensive lobbying by Chile's national gay and lesbian group Moviemiento de Liberacion Homosexual against conservative opponents who called homosexuality an "aberration against nature." The sodomy repeal came as part of a more general penal code reform which set a higher age of consent for homosexual acts than for heterosexual ones. And finally ... Virginia's sodomy law this week was the basis of a complaint to an unusual venue -- the Federal Communications Commission. After a rash of arrests of gay men on the felony charge of solicitation of sodomy in police stings in Charlotte, Richmond and Roanoke, veteran activist Frank Kameny was moved to action. On Alexandria's "Rainbow Talk" gay and lesbian radio show, he personally solicited the entire adult population of the state to commit sodomy with him, "with particular emphasis upon all prosecutors, police chiefs and police officers, and judges." When local prosecutors showed no interest in pursuing legal action against Kameny, the anti-gay Traditional Values Coalition took the case to the FCC. Calling Kameny's protest "a startling use of the media," they charged the radio station with being a "party to a commission of a felony." Based on past success against solicitation laws, Kameny urges public solicitations of officials at every opportunity, whether by letter, in group demonstrations, or even in open court. And by the way, his broadcast invitation has had no takers to date.