NewsWrap
for the week ending May 22, 1999
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #582, distributed 5-24-99)
[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


  Martha McCarthy:  “This is truly a great day in the history of our equality 
in this country.  The Supreme Court of Canada has recognized the equality of 
same-sex couples, once and for all!”
The Supreme Court of Canada made a landmark decision this week, interpreting 
the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms to guarantee that gay and lesbian 
couples should have the same legal recognition as heterosexual couples.  
Although the ruling came against the province of Ontario in a lesbian 
couple's "palimony" case, it sets a powerful precedent for all the provinces 
and for the federal government, and essentially promises all the benefits of 
legal marriage to gays and lesbians.
The case of "M versus H" began seven years ago, when H shut M out of the 
couple's two homes, jointly founded business, and other assets, leaving M 
broke and homeless.  M discovered that she had no recourse to Family Court 
because Ontario's Family Law Act specifically defined "spouses" as a man and 
a woman.  With the pro bono services of attorney Martha McCarthy of McMillan 
Binch, M challenged that wording as discriminatory, and won at every level.  
The couple themselves reached a settlement before the case was argued before 
the high court.  McCarthy read a statement from M at a press conference:
Martha McCarthy:  “At the end of the 20th century it is long overdue that 
lesbian and gay people are not just tolerated in Canadian society, but are 
recognized and included as full, valuable participating members.  This 
decision will bring us one step closer to that goal... My hope is that this 
decision will begin to bring an end to the discrimination and the struggle, 
and finally allow lesbian and gay Canadians to assume their rightful place in 
our society.”
The court ordered Ontario to amend all of its laws which discriminate against 
same-gender couples within six months.  Ontario Premier Mike Harris quickly 
announced that his government will comply with the order, although some 
religious right groups hope to lobby the Parliament to use the so-called 
"notwithstanding clause" to override the judgment.  British Columbia Premier 
Glen Clark responded enthusiastically to the ruling, promising that his 
province would undertake any further legal changes indicated, even though BC 
has already given gay and lesbian couples equal status under its family laws. 
 Premiers Roy Romanow of Saskatchewan and Gary Filmon of Manitoba also said 
they would act to modify their provincial laws for equal treatment of 
same-gender couples.  Alberta's Conservative Premier Ralph Klein was more 
cautious, saying he needed to review the decision.

  In the Netherlands, a move to legalize same-gender marriage that had been 
confidently expected in a matter of weeks, may have been iced by unrelated 
political factors.  The cabinet had announced its plans to extend the 
traditional heterosexual marriage law to include gay and lesbian couples, 
something no other nation has ever done.  But this week the Democrats 66 
Party withdrew from the governing three-party coalition, leading the entire 
cabinet to resign. What's now in place is a caretaker government which has no 
authority to enact new legislation.  That could remain the situation for as 
much as six months pending new elections, which would at least stall the 
marriage law amendment and might kill it altogether.  However, it's also 
possible that the coalition will re-form or be replaced by a new 
Liberal/Labor partnership.

  And in Denmark, where the world's first legally recognized domestic 
partnerships went into effect a decade ago, legislation passed this week will 
finally allow gay and lesbian couples to legally adopt their partners' 
children.  Although Denmark's registered partnerships are identical to 
marriage in most respects, adoption of children was one of a handful of 
rights denied to them.  Even with the new law, registered partners will still 
be barred from adopting any children except their partners'.

  Mentioning her partner in an official bio this month was Carol 
Blazejowski's way of publicly coming out, making the Vice President and 
General Manager of the Women's National Basketball Association New York 
Liberty team the first professional sports executive to do so.  The line in 
the team's media packet that used to say "Blaze" lived with her two dogs, now 
says she lives with her partner Joyce and their two children Lainey and Luke. 
 
Blaze set college scoring records and may have been the finest shooter in the 
history of women's basketball.  
The Liberty players had long grown accustomed to seeing Blaze's family at 
every game, and forward Sue Wick said, "I'm glad she has the confidence and 
pride to say who she is."

  Three gay men and a lesbian seeking the right to serve in Britain's 
military had a hearing this week before the European Court of Human Rights in 
Strasbourg.  Each had given exemplary service for a number of years only to 
be discharged when others told the military of their sexual orientation.  The 
former servicemembers charge that Britain's ban on gays and lesbians in 
uniform violates the European Convention on Human Rights on four counts:  
inhumane or degrading treatment, privacy violation, freedom of expression and 
freedom from discrimination.  
Their cases were thrown out at every level of the British judicial system, 
but in both the Court of Appeals and the High Court a judge predicted that 
the policy would not last much longer.  
In fact, Britain's political leadership has stated support for ending the 
ban, but resistance among the military's top brass remains strong.  
The hearing left gay and lesbian activists hopeful that the EuroCourt will 
strike down the ban.  According to the advocacy group Stonewall that would 
mean the Ministry of Defense would have to change its policy by the end of 
the year.  It might also mean that the government would have to pay out 
millions in reparations to gays and lesbians fired by the military.

  A bill to prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation 
passed the Nevada state Senate this week by a vote of 13 - 9.  The bill had 
already passed the state House in April, and Governor Kenny Guinn is expected 
to sign it into law, although he has not made a commitment.  Enactment would 
make Nevada only the 11th of the fifty United States to provide such civil 
rights protections for gays and lesbians.  All of Nevada's Democratic 
Senators supported the bill, as did four Republicans.

  In Cincinnati, Ohio, the one locality in the U.S. where civil rights 
protections for gays and lesbians are prohibited by law, the City Council 
this week rejected a hate crimes bill including sexual orientation by a vote 
of 6 - 3.  The bill's supporters charged that Issue 3, the city's 1993 
charter amendment against lesbigay rights, had created a climate which 
contributed to increasing homophobic hate crimes in Cincinnati.

  An accessory to the notorious Wyoming bashing murder of gay Matthew Shepard 
was sentenced this week.  Chasity Pasley, girlfriend of convicted Shepard 
murderer Russell Henderson, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the 
fact to first-degree murder, and was sentenced to 15 to 24 months in prison.  
The maximum sentence would have been three years and a $3,000 fine.  Pasley, 
who believed she was pregnant with Henderson's child at the time of the 
murder, helped to dispose of his bloody clothes and lied to police.  Pasley 
cried throughout the hearing and apologized for what she did.  Henderson has 
already pleaded guilty to felony murder and been sentenced to life in prison. 
 Aaron McKinney is scheduled to go to trial for capital murder in August.  
His girlfriend Kristen Price is also charged as an accessory after the fact, 
but her trial was delayed and no date has yet been set for it.

  Suspects in another notorious U.S. bashing murder, the Alabama killing of 
Billy Jack Gaither, entered pleas of not guilty at an arraignment this week.  
Steven Eric Mullins and Charles Butler are both charged with capital murder.  
Coosa County sheriffs had told the media in March that both men had made 
voluntary confessions, including saying they had spent two weeks planning the 
attack on Gaither.  Sheriffs had also reported the men saying they were angry 
at Gaither for having made a pass at Butler, although Gaither's acquaintance 
say that would have been out of character for him.  Butler's plea of not 
guilty "by reason of mental defect or disease" could signal a homosexual 
panic defense, although his attorney said it was just a way to keep some 
options open.

  And finally... the "New York Post" this week spiked rumors that openly 
lesbian City Councilmember Christine Quinn had been having an affair with a 
man.  The whispers started after she'd broken up with her partner and gone on 
a vacation with a male companion.  But that man turned out to be her 
long-time gay friend Wayne Kowadler, who remarked, "I am not now, nor have I 
ever been, a heterosexual.  Not that there's anything wrong with that."  It's 
true that Quinn and Kowadler have jointly adopted a dog, but they do not 
share a home, so the dog moves back and forth between them.  But in Quinn's 
district, which includes Greenwich Village and Chelsea, where a poll found 
that 35% of voters identify as lesbian or gay, as one observer said, "Nothing 
is more dangerous to some politicians than the suggestion that they may not 
be gay."