NewsWrap for the week ending April 24, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #578, distributed 4-26-99) [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 Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby this week publicly identified himself as a gay man. He did so in the most dignified manner possible -- without comment to reporters, he simply made an addition to his entry in "Who's Who in Australia" that identified Johan A. van Vloten as his partner since 1969. Kirby's "Who's Who" listing is one of the longest in the book because of the honors he's amassed as one of Australia's most admired legal minds and as an international human rights activist. He has long been a vocal supporter of the civil rights of gays and lesbians. Rodney Croome, co-convenor of the Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights, called Kirby's coming-out "unprecedented" and enthused at the kind of role model this "great humanitarian" could be for sexual minority youth. Australians were otherwise remarkably blasé about learning there is an open gay on the nation's top court. Anti-gay New South Wales politician and minister Fred Nile said he'd actually prefer that gays and lesbians in such positions identify themselves rather than hide what he called their "vested interests." No one seemed to mind that Kirby's 30-year relationship dates back 15 years before New South Wales repealed its sodomy law. A judge who had already come out as a gay man was being considered for a place on South Africa's highest court when he publicly identified himself as having AIDS. Edwin Cameron became South Africa's first openly gay judge when he came out a few years ago. Like Australia's Kirby, he is one of his nation's most respected legal thinkers and has a long history as a legal advocate and organizer for disempowered groups, including gays and lesbians and people with HIV and AIDS. Cameron disclosed his HIV status to reporters saying, "I am living with AIDS. The choice to speak is available to me ... because I have a job position that is secure; because I am surrounded by loved ones, friends and colleagues who support me; and because I have access to medical care. For millions of South Africans living with HIV or AIDS, these conditions do not exist. "They have no jobs, or their jobs would be at risk if they spoke about their HIV. They not only lack community support, but face grave personal danger if they do so.... It is only by creating conditions in which people can speak out without fear that we can begin to end the silence surrounding South Africans living with AIDS and HIV." One in eight South Africans have HIV, with another 1,500 -- particularly teenagers -- joining their ranks each day. Many are unable to access adequate medical care. Cameron's announcement was welcomed by AIDS groups, and he's still considered the leading candidate for South Africa's Constitutional Court. Namibia's National Assembly this week heard a renewed call for harsh laws against homosexuality. This time it was Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Jeremiah Nambinga who said, "There are those of us that believe that homosexuality is evil, homosexuality is anti-social and should not only be condemned but should also be legislated against." Calling homosexuality "animal-like," Nambinga said that society should not encourage such "deviant behavior." He said, "The anti-homosexual voices should not be suffocated in our democratic society." An even more vehement speech against gays and lesbians was given by Home Affairs Minister Jerry Ekandjo in November. However, at that time Prime Minister Hage Geingob said that no such law was in the works. Namibia's constitution prohibits sexual orientation-based discrimination. In Belarus, Russian Orthodox Church officials have reportedly called for the execution of gays, sparking a protest in Minsk this week. The civil rights group Lambda held a demonstration with the slogan, "Gays and lesbians against fascism." There was also a demonstration in Jerusalem, as more than 100 people protested the presentation of the government's Israel Prize to Professor Avraham Steinberg. He was being honored for his six-volume work on medical ethics, but demonstrators say that work describes homosexuality as criminally deviant. This was the second street demonstration against Steinberg's award. Recipients are selected by the Ministry of Education. One of nineteen people staging a hunger strike at the University of Pittsburgh was rushed to a hospital on her 13th day of having nothing but water and juice. Robin Moll had already lost 20 pounds in the course of the demonstration by the campus' Equal Rights Alliance. The group has been seeking a public forum to hold University trustees publicly responsible for their refusal to extend health insurance benefits to University employees’ domestic partners. When one former worker complained to Pittsburgh's Human Rights Commission, the University's attorneys claimed the city could not enforce its law against sexual orientation discrimination, because the state of Pennsylvania does not protect gay and lesbian civil rights. The trustees have been criticized in resolutions by all the major campus groups and by the city. But it was a demonstration of a happier kind as Phoenix, Arizona kicked off the U.S. Pride season with their third annual march last week. Some 70 groups participated, from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Clergy for Justice. Also for the third time, Washington, D.C. area gays and lesbians celebrated Youth Pride Day, organized by and for young gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders. Some 2,000 young people turned out for the six-hour event designed to increase their visibility, promote awareness of their issues, and celebrate their dignity and courage. U.S. state legislatures were busy this week. The New Hampshire state Senate voted 18 - 6 to repeal a ban against gays and lesbians becoming adoptive or foster parents. The state House had already given its approval, and Governor Jeanne Shaheen has promised to sign the bill. This leaves Florida as the only state with a law against adoptions by gays and lesbians, and no state has a law against gays and lesbians providing foster care. However, four states this year have been considering bills against adoptions or foster care, while Utah and Arkansas state agencies have created anti-gay policies. The North Carolina House of Representatives voted down the Matthew Shepard Memorial Act, which would have added sexual orientation to the state hate crimes law. The vote was 58 - 48, but 14 legislators didn't vote. A companion bill is still pending in the state Senate. The North Carolina House also rejected Orange County's request for permission to add sexual orientation to its local human rights ordinance. The vote was 67 - 36, but supporters were pleased that the bill had even made it to the floor for the first time in several tries. Yet the North Carolina state Senate approved a request from the city of Durham to expand its anti-discrimination laws, which did not specifically mention sexual orientation. A Louisiana bill to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in the workplace was approved 3 - 2 by the state Senate Labor and Industrial Affairs Committee. It will next be heard on the Senate floor. It's passage is the top legislative target for the Louisiana Electorate of Gays and Lesbians. A Florida bill to require employers to extend spousal healthcare coverage to their unmarried workers' domestic partners, has died without a committee hearing as the legislative session came to a close. It will be reintroduced in the next session. But in Canada, Alberta's Social Services Minister Lyle Oberg announced plans to introduce a bill to allow gays and lesbians to co-adopt their partners' children. The Conservative provincial government intends to simply substitute the word "step-parent" for the word "spouse" in the existing Child Welfare Act. The government also agreed not to fight a pending lawsuit brought by two lesbian couples in which the non-biological mother seeks to adopt her partner's child. However, the extremely conservative Alberta Federation of Women United for Families is asking the court to allow it to act instead of the government to defend the existing law. And finally... Openly lesbian high school student Samantha Gellar's script "Life Versus the Paperback Romance" was a winner in the Charlotte, North Carolina Young Playwrights Festival, but unlike the other winners, it was not staged for local students because it contains a lesbian kiss. But now it's slated for something much bigger and better -- a staging in New York City with film star Mary Louise Parker in the cast. Thanks to lesbian performance artist Holly Hughes, Gellar's one-act will be the centerpiece of a program called "Not Just a Stage: Youth Against Censorship". That program will include readings from gay Putlitzer-winner Tony Kushner and gay multi-Tony winner Terrence McNally. And that's not all: Gellar will be getting coaching from Pulitzer winner Paula Vogel, and meeting writer Dorothy Allison and singer Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls -- all lesbians Gellar says are her heroes. Hughes said, "We want to celebrate her. By celebrating her, we want to also send a message that the kind of homophobia that is standard public policy across the United States is unacceptable."