NewsWrap for the week ending May 1, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #579, distributed 5-3-99) [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 Leo Garcia and Cindy Friedman "An explosion took place, which has resulted in many, many casualties. I'm afraid there are two dead, and many serious injuries." That was Alan Fry, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad, reporting a nail bomb set off in the Admiral Duncan, a gay pub in London's Soho District. The blast sent the whole front of the bar and some of the 40 men drinking there flying out into a street crowded with Friday night pleasure-seekers. Broken glass, smoke and fumes were everywhere, as eyewitness Jean-Pierre Trevor told reporters: "All I remember seeing was glass and smoke ... and people running ... and people basically going into shock, and ... blood and ... I've never seen anything like it." One man and one woman died almost immediately. Another 80 were injured. The following day, 20 were still in the hospital, with four or five of their lives in danger. Two of them lost limbs in the blast. It was the third bomb of its kind to be set off in London in the space of two weeks. The others struck the largely Afro-Caribbean Brixton district, injuring 39 people, and the largely Bangladeshi Brick Lane neighborhood, injuring seven. The first group to claim responsibility for gay bar bombing was the white supremacist "White Wolves," which took its name from a Serb anti-Kosovar terrorist group. They're said to be a splinter group of the neo-Nazi “Combat 18”. About 1,000 people marched in an anti-Nazi demonstration the day after the blast. Others left bouquets of flowers near the bomb site. Queen Elizabeth publicly extended her sympathy to the victims, while Home Secretary Jack Straw declared the bombing an outrage to all Britons: "We're dealing with people, first of all, who have no humanity whatever. These bombings are taking place without any warning, wholly indiscriminate, except that they are targeted at minorities ... so we're dealing with people who have warped minds, right-wing extremists who are obviously racist and homophobic ... but the police are devoting every resource they have to finding the perpetrators of these outrages." A late update: a third person has died of injuries suffered at the bombing of the Admiral Duncan, and of some 15 people who remained hospitalized on May 2nd, doctors said the lives of four were still in danger. Meanwhile, police have arrested a man identified from a surveillance video at the Brixton bombing. David Copeland, a 22-year-old white engineer, was taken into custody on May 1st at his home, where police found what they called "combustible material”. They say they have evidence to charge him with all 3 bombings, and -- as a result of the deaths at the Admiral Duncan -- with murder. Police report that Copeland worked alone, and that he has no links to any extremist group, including those who’ve claimed responsibility for the 3 bombings. This Way Out will of course continue to update this story in the coming weeks as developments warrant. Malaysia's former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim is headed for another trial. He had just been sentenced to six years in prison after the longest trial in the nation's history, convicted of four counts of corruption for abusing his powers to cover up sexual misconduct with both men and women. In the course of that trial, one charge of sodomy was dropped, but it was reinstated this week. The penalty could be up to 20 years in prison and caning. Another four counts of sodomy and another count of corruption have been postponed. Anwar pleaded not guilty and charged it was a malicious prosecution timed to hurt opposition parties during upcoming elections. He has maintained throughout that all the charges are a government conspiracy, set in motion when he became too much of a threat to Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. South Africa is preparing for its second national election since the fall of apartheid. The National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality has launched a series of voters' forums to help its constituency learn who supports their issues. And the politicians are recognizing the gay and lesbian voters -- at a Coalition forum in Yeoville, all the major parties sent representatives. Surprisingly, the only exception was the ruling African National Congress, which has been strongly supportive of equality for gays and lesbians. Of the other political parties in attendance, the new United Democratic Movement was praised for being the only one that actually mentions "sexual orientation" in its manifesto. The representative for the Democratic Party chose the forum to publicly identify himself as a gay man. But party politics are taking a different turn in Canada, where the conservative Reform Party this week spoke out to oppose the federal government's plan to extend its employees' survivors' benefits to same-gender couples. The Reform Party takes issue with the government's choice of "conjugal relationships" as the generic term to replace heterosexual-specific words in the pension reform bill. Reform Members of Parliament charged in a committee meeting this week that that will make the government "sex police" looking into what is going on in public servants' bedrooms. The courts have left the government no choice about making the benefits equally available to same-gender couples -- but the Reform MP's warned that the pension proposal will create a new definition of marriage vulnerable to still more legal challenges. The liberal New Democratic Party begged for more time for discussion and employee input, but a May date has already been set for debate in the Senate. Recognizing gay and lesbian couples has been a highly controversial issue in the U.S. United Methodist Church, and there have been developments for three of its clergy involved in high-profile protests of the denomination's ban on blessing "homosexual unions." Reverend Jimmy Creech, who was tried and narrowly acquitted in a church court a year ago for blessing a lesbian couple in Nebraska, has now blessed a gay male couple in North Carolina. It seems almost certain that he will be defrocked as a result. Reverend Gregory Dell, who was recently sentenced to suspension for blessing a same-gender couple, has had a new job created for him by his largely gay and lesbian Chicago congregation. He'll be lobbying within the denomination towards changing the anti-marriage rule when the General Assembly meets in 2000. And Reverend David Holmes of Iowa, one of the nearly 100 clergy who blessed a lesbian couple in California in January in an act of "ecclesiastical disobedience," will not be going to trial. His Bishop Charles Jordan has concluded that although Holmes marched in the processional and joined the group in saying a prayer, he did not actually perform the ceremony. Jordan emphasized the distinction between disagreement with a church rule and disobedience to it. And activists protesting the University of Pittsburgh's refusal to extend health care coverage to the partners of its gay and lesbian employees, this week ended the hunger strike that for some had lasted 17 days. But they ended that demonstration only while beginning their next: a round-the-clock sit-in outside the office door of the University's Board of Trustees. The group called the Equal Rights Alliance has been trying all this time to get trustees to appear in a public forum to confront the campus and city communities impacted by their decisions. They hope that the sit-in will make them impossible to ignore. In addition to denying the spousal benefits, University lawyers have defended that policy by claiming the city of Pittsburgh's anti-discrimination ordinance is unenforceable, because the state of Pennsylvania does not prohibit anti-gay discrimination. One lesbian couple has Israel considering second-parent adoptions for what's believed to be the first time. This week, Israel's High Court of Justice gave the Ministry of the Interior 90 days to explain why it refuses to recognize a lesbian co-parent's California adoption of her partner's child. Ruthie and Nichole Brenner-Kadish hold dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship. A Conservative rabbi officiated at a celebration of their union while they were attending school in Berkeley. Ruthie gave birth to their first son in California, and Nichole immediately adopted him. They applied through the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco to register him as an Israeli citizen with both of them listed as his parents, but that request was refused. On returning to Israel, the couple applied again, but the Ministry of the Interior said that Israeli law cannot recognize two mothers for a child. The couple filed a lawsuit. At least one of the three judges hearing the case sees no reason it should be any harder to have a second, adoptive mother than to have two grandmothers; another believes that lawmakers should take up the question. Some Liberal members of the Knesset say they'll introduce legislation if necessary. And finally ... members of the United States' pioneering Gay Liberation Front have already begun activities celebrating its 30th anniversary, dating back to the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City. But 30 years have wrought their changes on the angry young men and women of yore. At 50, former GLF activist and author Karla Jay says she can hardly identify with the "lesbian/feminist radical with the unkempt hair and utopian ideals" that she was at 20. Now a university faculty member, she writes in her memoir "Tales of the Lavender Menace" that, "Instead of plotting the peaceful overthrow of the system, I sit through endless committee meetings ... In my spare time, I scan the Internet for stocks that will speed my way to a capitalistic retirement in a gentle climate. Nowadays, a night of debauchery is likely to entail a trip to a gourmet emporium to fondle.. the grapes, and sample the extra virgin.. olive oil."