NewsWrap
for the week ending February 27th, 1999
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #570, distributed 3-01-99)
[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 Leo Garcia

  A crowd of more than half-a-million turned out this week to line the mile-
and-a-half route of the 21st annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.  Dykes
on Bikes with headlights tinted in the colors of the rainbow flag lead off a
lineup with more than 200 floats while fireworks lighted the sky.  A troop of
Monica Lewinsky impersonators wore stained blue dresses and smoked cigars.
Another group paid tribute to what they called George Michael's LAPD Incident,
the lewd conduct arrest of the British pop star in a Beverly Hills park men's
room.  For the second consecutive year, anti-gay politician and minister Fred
Nile failed in his quest to gather 1,000 protesters to stop the parade.

  Nile is also likely to fail in another quest -- the recall of Australia's
openly gay Ambassador to a half-dozen Scandinavian countries, Stephen Brady,
for having presented his partner to Denmark's Queen Margrethe this week.
According to the Danish press, Brady's partner Peter Stevens is the first
foreign diplomatic same-gender spouse ever to be introduced to the Queen,
although her own gay and lesbian subjects have been able to legally marry
since 1989.  And although Nile found it "a disgrace," the move was applauded
by gays and lesbians, including Australian Senator from Tasmania Dr. Bob
Brown.  The Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights took the occasion to
call for full spousal rights and benefits for the same-gender partners of all
of the nation's public servants; military personnel, for example, do not enjoy
the kind of spousal travel benefits that Brady does as a high-level diplomat.

  In Canada, a bill introduced in the Alberta legislature this week defines
common-law relationships specifically as "a relationship between two people of
the opposite sex."  It's the province's first measure to deal with spousal
support when unmarried couples break-up.  Activists believe the heterosexuals-
only definition discriminates against same-gender couples and are already
planning a lawsuit.  They see it as the first step towards the "legislative
fences" provincial Premier Ralph Klein promised last year, to limit the impact
of the Canadian Supreme Court ruling that "sexual orientation" must be a
protected category under Alberta's human rights law.  Four cabinet ministers
have been working on designing those "legislative fences" for ten months now
without producing anything.  But Reform Member of Parliament Ian McClelland
this week sent a letter to all the Members of the Legislative Assembly
proposing the creation of registered domestic partnerships open to any two
unmarried adults who share housing.

  A Roman Catholic priest who has blessed the unions of same-gender couples
was excommunicated this week by the Diocese of Rochester, New York.  Father
Jim Callan had already been suspended from his duties and removed from
Rochester's Corpus Christi Church for celebrating those unions, as well as
having women play a significant role at the altar and allowing non-Catholics
to partake of communion.  But the excommunication was imposed for creating a
schism, as Callan continued to lead worship services held at local Protestant
churches for more than 1,000 of his former congregants.  Those who have been
worshipping with him are also excommunicated.  The diocese would very much
like for all concerned to return to the fold, but Callan has no intention of
giving up his liberal practices.  It seems inevitable that gay-friendly Bishop
of Rochester Matthew Clark will have to ask for Callan's dismissal from the
priesthood, something only the Vatican can reverse.

  But striking a more hopeful note was retired South African Anglican
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who gave a major address in Providence, Rhode Island
this week.  He called on his audience to work towards a "more inclusive"
United States, to oppose sexism, racism, and war, and "to oppose homophobia,
to say that we should be as passionately opposed to those who discriminate
against gays and lesbians as we were passionate in our opposition to apartheid
>... and say that we are all members of one family -- the human family -- God's
family."  

  A Roman Catholic priest in Costa Rica this week was cleared of charges of
civil rights violations brought by the national gay, lesbian and AIDS advocacy
group Triangulo Rosa.  Their lawsuit was filed against Father Minor de Jesus
Calvo, who appears frequently on radio and TV, and who used that platform in
August to urge opposition to a planned gay and lesbian festival.  The festival
had to be canceled because of fears for the safety of the participants.
Triangulo Rosa had already lost a similar lawsuit against Archbishop of San
Jose Roman Arrieta Villalobos, and has also filed a complaint against Costa
Rican President Dr. Miguel Angel Rodriguez.  Triangulo Rosa president
Francisco Madrigal called the latest ruling "a setback."  

  Another courtroom setback this week came in Rhode Island, where the first
case brought under the state's tough new hate crimes law was not found to be a
hate crime at all.  Although Providence police called the November attack by
two men against transgender entertainer Diana Obidowski one of the worst
they'd ever seen, the prosecution failed to convince the judge that the
beating was bias-motivated. The assailants received one-year suspended
sentences with probation, 25 hours of community service, and fines of $500
each, and they must pay for Obidowski's out-of-pocket medical expenses.  Under
the hate crimes law, they would have had to serve at least 30 days in jail and
possibly as much as a year.

  Montana's  state House of Representatives has refused a second time to
repeal the state's "crimes against nature" law, even though the state Supreme
Court has found it to be unconstitutional and unenforceable.  A repeal measure
had first failed by a tie vote, but with several members absent the House
later voted to reconsider.  On the second vote, after amendments made over the
sponsor's objections, repeal failed by an even larger margin, 63 - 37.

  Jamaica is also clinging to its sodomy law, despite the European Union's
efforts to link aid and trade agreements to human rights.  State Minister for
Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Anthony Hylton held a press conference this
week specifically to respond to the EU's proposals for repeal of both the
sodomy law and the death penalty.  He said, ""They have expressed their
preferences, but we have set out our policy, which is dialogue yes, dictation
no!"  He said, "We will not allow [our laws] to become a condition of any
negotiation.  There is no consensus in the country on hanging, but it's the
law.  So too is the situation with homosexuality, which is illegal here.  We
see this as an attempt by Europe to influence our positions in other areas."

  The European Court of Human Rights this week agreed to consider a legal
challenge to Britain's ban on military service by gays and lesbians.  The test
case includes four plaintiffs who were dismissed because of their sexual
orientation.  But although the lobby group Stonewall calls the ban "inhumane,
unnecessary and wrong," the Ministry of Defense is confident it will prevail.
A spokesperson said the policy "is made on justifiable operational, not moral
grounds."

  Gays and lesbians in the arts were honored this week.  The fact-based film
"Aimee und Jaguar”, about a World War II lesbian relationship between a German
officer's wife and a Jewish woman active in the underground, won a shared Best
Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival for its leads Juliane Koehler and
Maria Schrader.  The grand finale of ABC's pioneering lesbian sitcom "Ellen",
called "Ellen: A Hollywood Tribute”, won an award from the Writers Guild of
America for scripter Tim Doyle.  And gay actor Nigel Hawthorne, who was
nominated for an Oscar for "The Madness of King George”,  but who's best-known
in Britain as the character Sir Humphrey Appleby from the TV series "Yes,
Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister”, as formally knighted by Queen Elizabeth
at Buckingham Palace. 

  And in Australia, a gay and lesbian photo exhibit became the first gay and
lesbian community event in Tasmania ever to be launched by the state's
Premier.  Jim Bacon's keynote speech called for unity in the twenty-first
century, and he said, "the quality of our future as a community living on a
group of islands in the southern ocean depends on the extent to which we are
able to work together and become an inclusive community.  Most of all it
requires the talents and creativity of all Tasmanians including members of the
gay and lesbian community."

  And finally ... there was sweet revenge this week for French lesbian tennis
pro Amelie Mauresmo as she won an upset victory over top-ranked Martina Hingis
of Switzerland in a quarter-final match at the Open Gaz de France.  Hingis had
told reporters at the Australian Open that Mauresmo was a "half-man,"
referring to her open relationship with partner Sylvie Bourdon and Mauresmo's
somewhat androgynous appearance; and then Hingis added injury to insult by
beating Mauresmo in the final to win that tournament.  But it was a different
story in Paris, where a highly partisan crowd cheered on Mauresmo and booed
Hingis to only her second defeat in 17 matches this year.
Mauresmo went on to beat Dominique Van Der Roost of Belgium in the semi-final,
but then lost to Serena Williams of the U.S. in the final match ... but
runner-up is still a far cry from last year’s French open, when Mauresmo was
knocked out in the first round.