NewsWrap for the week ending May 8, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #580, distributed 5-10-99) [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 Quebec's provincial government this week introduced an omnibus bill to give gay and lesbian couples the same legal status as unmarried heterosexual couples. Although the government decided that same-gender marriages should be a separate debate, this bill's passage will give gay and lesbian couples more extensive recognition in Quebec than anywhere else in the Americas. The bill will establish a gender-neutral definition of common-law status, and will remove gender references from 28 laws and 11 regulations affecting 13 government departments. Among the many areas affected will be taxation, pensions, inheritance, insurance, child support, and even student aid. The introduction of Bill 32 fulfills campaign promises by Lucien Bouchard's ruling Parti Quebecois. But both opposition parties have also said they'll support the bill, so it could be passed as soon as June, and may even pass unanimously. Seven gay and lesbian couples this week became the first in Germany ever to officially register their relationships, thanks to a law passed by the city/state government of Hamburg last month. Currently the certification at city hall carries no legal rights or responsibilities, but Hamburg's government has called for federal laws to give same-gender couples the same legal status as heterosexual ones. Repeal of New Hampshire's prohibition against gays and lesbians adopting or fostering children became final this week with Governor Jeanne Shaheen's signature. The strict 1988 law had actually banned fostering or adoption of children in any home where a gay or lesbian lived. The repeal will go into effect July 2. Although the New Hampshire repeal leaves Florida as the only U.S. state with such a law, a Texas House committee spent hours this week hearing testimony on a bill to institute a ban on adoptions and fostering by gays and lesbians. Zimbabwe's first post-colonial President Canaan Banana, convicted in December of eleven assorted counts of sexual assaults against nine male victims, has now been stripped of his ordination in the Methodist Church. Banana had been ordained as a minister in Britain in 1962, and until the criminal charges were brought against him he had headed the religion department at the University of Zimbabwe. His writings on religious subjects have been much admired. Banana, who has denied all the charges against him, is currently out on bail while his conviction and 10-year sentence are pending appeal in Zimbabwe's Supreme Court. South Africa's new Gay and Lesbian Alliance political party has lost its chance to run candidates in South Africa's upcoming elections. A fire last weekend in the home of party president Juan-Duval Uys destroyed cash, checks and three computers containing candidate information, causing him to miss this week's filing deadline. The party had planned to field 200 candidates for positions in the federal parliament and nine provinces. Uys is confident that there was no foul play involved in the fire, which firefighters believe began with an electrical problem. But John Hyde has become the first openly gay mayor in the state of Western Australia. In a May 1st mail-in vote whose results are now official, the residents of the Town of Vincent gave Hyde a 70% landslide victory over opponent John Little. Hyde had previously been the state's first openly gay deputy mayor, and he was the first openly gay president of the state Municipal Association. The Town of Vincent is an inner city municipality of Perth. Two notable lesbian politicos in the state of Washington have announced that they will not be running for office again. Seattle City Councilmember Tina Podlodowski says she won't consider any offers for at least a year in order to spend more time with her two small children. Her re-election to the Council was essentially guaranteed, and many had expected her to move on to the mayor's office or even the U.S. Congress. The Washington lesbian who did make an historic run for the Congress, retired Army Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, has decided not to try again. In her first-ever foray into politics last year, Democrat Cammermeyer made a decent showing against incumbent Republican Representative Jack Metcalf. Even though he's about to retire, making the 2nd District seat easier to win, Cammermeyer said, "I concluded it was not going to be in anybody's interest for me to run.... I'm not dropping out, but there are several ways of serving." North Carolina's first openly gay Republican elected official has quit the party to protest its successful opposition to a hate crimes bill. Superior Court Judge Ray Warren, a registered Republican for 23 years and one of the party's top vote-getters in statewide elections, said, "I cannot in good conscience remain a member of a party which condones discrimination, intimidation and violence as methods of social control." Much of the party's opposition to the bill was specifically because of its inclusion of sexual orientation. To suggestions that he could work for change from within the party, Warren said, "There's just so little openness in the Republican Party now. And one grows tired of being the only Black person in the Klan." A hate crimes bill in South Carolina was killed by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee this week without discussion. Even while Democratic Representative Doug Jennings was presenting the measure, Republican Representative John Altman was circling the room rounding up Republican votes to stifle it, with a procedure which hasn't been used in this committee for at least seven years. Altman said, "I didn't want to sit there all afternoon and listen to the liberals whine about how some people need special protection... When you see a snake coming, the safest thing to do is kill it before it gets to the House. We've grown to realize how dangerous this pedophile protection bill is." A TV talk show contributed to the murder of a gay guest by the non-gay guest he confessed his secret crush on, a jury ruled this week. Jonathan Schmitz shot gay Scott Amedure just three days after that secret crush show was taped in March 1995. An Oakland County, Michigan Circuit Court jury this week awarded Amedure's family 25 million dollars in their lawsuit against "The Jenny Jones Show", its producers Telepictures and its distributor Warner Brothers. The verdict affirmed the family's claim that the show had been negligent in its handling of the mentally unstable Schmitz, ambushing and humiliating him in a way that drove him to violence. The defendants will appeal, claiming it's important to defend the First Amendment rights of all broadcasters and journalists. Schmitz himself will be facing a new criminal trial in August, since his 1996 second-degree murder conviction was overturned on a technicality last year. In the wake of the nail-bombing of a London gay bar that killed three people and seriously injured scores more, hundreds of people gathered for two more vigils in Soho this week. The second vigil, held by the direct action group OutRage! exactly one week after the explosion, had themes of "remembrance, solidarity and defiance." The first, held at midnight by the London Gay Men's Chorus, arranged the many flowers left at the site into a memorial garden in Soho Square. A week after the bombing, five victims remain in critical condition and another dozen are still hospitalized. A half-dozen lost limbs and many more will be scarred for life. The man police are confident set that bomb and two others in Black and Bangladeshi neighborhoods, David Copeland, made a brief appearance in court this week. He's charged with three murders and three counts of causing an explosion with intent to endanger life. Despite several neo-Nazi groups having claimed responsibility for the bombings, which together injured well over 100 people, authorities are convinced that Copeland acted alone. A gathering of a happier kind will take place at Belfast's City Hall. Despite vocal opposition from two parties, the Belfast City Council voted 24 to 14 this week to let the civic center be used for the kickoff event of Belfast Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride. The mid-June celebration will be the ninth for the Northern Ireland capital. And finally, the British Museum has shelled out 1.8 million pounds to purchase a small silver cup carved with two scenes of sex between men. Museum director Robert Anderson called it, "probably the most explicit item I have ever seen in the museum." It's also the museum's biggest purchase in well over a decade. One side of the 5-inch-tall cup depicts an older man playing the active role with a younger, passive partner, while another younger male observes from a doorway. The other side shows a young man engaged with a boy. Such homoerotic decorations were as ordinary as heterosexual erotica when the cup was made in the time of the Emperor Nero, but most of the gay scenes were destroyed over the course of the centuries, leaving this cup the only known work of its kind in silver. It's known as the Warren Cup for its first purchaser, the wealthy American gay Edward Perry Warren -- although Warren's circle of young men referred to it as the Holy Grail. Museum personnel admit that a few years ago they would certainly have kept it in a closet — or rather, a cupboard — but now they say they'll display it openly.