NewsWrap for the week ending June 5, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #584, distributed 6-7-99) [Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Chris Ambidge, Bjoern Skolander, Laurie McBride, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Dean Elzinga Legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples is gaining momentum in Australia. This week in New South Wales, the Legislative Assembly approved without opposition a bill that makes the state by far the nation's leader in couples rights. The new law amends more than 20 existing statutes to give same-gender couples the same property rights as unmarried heterosexual couples, including access to the District Court to determine division of property and support payments when couples break up. It also gives each partner authority to make treatment decisions if the other becomes disabled, and standing to receive accident compensation if the other is disabled or killed. Some areas not covered in the law, such as adoption, are already being studied by the state legislature. In Queensland, where the two previous state governments actively sought to deny recognition to gay and lesbian couples, the current Australian Labor Party government has introduced a bill to give them equality in employment. The Industrial Relations Bill would prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation or on membership in a same-gender relationship. It would define "spouse" to include same-gender partners for purposes of all state contracts and state-based workplace agreements, and all future contracts would undergo review by the Anti-Discrimination Commission. This would open to gay and lesbian couples such benefits as parental, family and bereavement leave, and any other provisions applying to partners or families. It could be passed as soon as the coming week. Also this week, a report by Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was formally presented to the national parliament. The report calls for extending old-age survivor benefits to gays and lesbians who outlive their partners, and legislation has already been introduced to do this. The Commission found that denying these benefits violates both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Labor Organization Convention on Discrimination. Couples rights continue to advance in Canada, where this week two gay men became the first to win public benefits as surviving partners of same-gender couples. The federal government settled complaints filed by Nova Scotians Wilson Hodder and Paul Boulais, saying that the current limitation of Canada Pension Plan benefits to heterosexual relationships could not be justified in their cases. Although the settlement applies only to these two men, the attorney representing both of them is confident that it signals that the government will also be settling in all similar cases across the country. A year ago, Nova Scotia had granted both men the benefits of the employee pensions their partners had earned working for the province's Education Department. A domestic partners registry granting most of the benefits of traditional marriage was recommended for Finland this week in a proposal from a committee set up by the Minister of Justice. Justice Minister Johannes Koskinen said he supports the proposal but its legal impact needs further study, and he said it won't be discussed in the parliament until next year. Some areas for equal treatment would be taxation, inheritance, survivors pensions and other social benefits. However, despite the objections of committee member Rainer Hiltunen, a leader of Finland's national gay and lesbian group SETA, the proposal would deny adoption rights to same-gender couples, even the right to step-parent adoptions. A bill to allow gays and lesbians to co-adopt their partners' children passed the Connecticut state House of Representatives this week -- but only with the addition of a rider against same-gender marriages which has probably killed it in the state Senate. Obviously many people who support second-parent adoptions do not support the marriage ban, which even includes fines for those who try to marry gays and lesbians. Also, the House debate lasted nearly three hours, and with the legislative session ending in the coming week, the Senate can't afford the time for extended debate on the marriage question. Evan Wolfson of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund's Marriage Project said, "If right-wing legislators want to have a debate on an anti-marriage measure, they should introduce it [early in the session] and hold [public] hearings. Don't use it as a poison pill." California's state Assembly, also striving to beat a deadline, has passed not one but two bills to increase availability of health insurance coverage for domestic partners, plus a hate crimes bill and a civil rights bill, all of which will move next to the state Senate. But despite those successes, after more than two hours of passionate debate, a bill to add sexual orientation to anti-discrimination policies for state-funded schools fell one vote shy of passage. This was the third time the Dignity for All Students bill failed in the Assembly, but its sponsor, openly lesbian Santa Monica Democrat Sheila Kuehl, will reintroduce it next session. Sheila Kuehl: “There is a horror involved in knowing that you will be the target of discrimination, and you live with it. Not only do you live with it, you put it way down somewhere where you’re not gonna think about it every day, or ... you’re just gonna smile and smile, no matter what people say to you -- ‘cause you have to, you have to... but ... it hurts.” Eight Democrats resisted pressure from their party to vote against the bill. It's likely that they were motivated by an extensive and incendiary religious right advertising campaign, one which specifically targeted Democratic Assemblymembers from more conservative districts. Nevada is now the 11th state to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in employment. Republican Governor Kenny Guinn has signed into law the bill sponsored by openly gay Democratic state Assemblymember David Parks. Guinn said, "Signing this bill was a matter of fairness and doing what's right for the people of Nevada. Discrimination based on race, gender, religion or sexual orientation is wrong, and I hope this law sends that message loud and clear. With the U.S. Congress in recess this week, President Bill Clinton bypassed Senate confirmation to appoint James Hormel the nation's first openly gay Ambassador. White House spokesperson Joe Lockhart told the press... Joe Lockhart: “This is a clearly qualified ambassadorial candidate who enjoyed strong support from the foreign policy community... and I think from an overwhelming majority of the Senate.” Hormel's nomination to the Luxembourg embassy was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee late in 1997, but the Republican majority refused to schedule a floor vote on confirmation until that nomination expired. Clinton renominated Hormel in January of this year, but still no vote was scheduled, despite the pleas of not only Democrats but even some conservative Republicans. Now Clinton has used his power to make temporary appointments while the Congress is not in session, and Hormel will be able to serve through the end of next year. It's widely believed that Hormel would have been confirmed had the Senate ever voted, and Luxembourg welcomed his nomination from the first, but a handful of Republican Senators believed the appointment would inevitably serve to "promote" homosexuality. In Canada, Ontario residents elected their first openly gay Member of the Provincial Parliament this week. First-time candidate George Smitherman of the Liberal Party will represent the heavily gay and lesbian Toronto Centre - Rosedale riding. Although a close race had been expected, Smitherman jumped off to an early lead and maintained it throughout the count, to end up well ahead of his three main competitors with 38.8% of the vote. A second gay candidate for the provincial parliament, Bonte Minnema in Etobicoke Centre, had little success against an important incumbent in a district which has never elected a candidate from his New Democratic Party. And finally... The Bank of Scotland has called off a $30-million venture for an Internet/telephone banking system in the U.S. that was to be headed by anti-gay religious right leader Pat Robertson. Scottish gays and lesbians began to protest as soon as the deal was announced in March, and were quickly joined by two AIDS charities, the head of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Edinburgh City Council. The West Lothian and Shetland Councils followed, along with more churches and charities, and this week Britain's 100,000-member Trades Union Council and members of Scotland's new national Parliament joined in. The 300-year-old bank's announcement politely referred to "changed external circumstances." Robertson's statement "expressed regret that media comments about him had made it impossible to proceed," but the fact is that what sank him were his own comments on his own TV show on his own Christian Broadcasting Network. In mid-May, he dragged out tapes made more than a year ago of a reporter's visit to Scotland, so that he could describe it as a "dark land" now devoid of its historic piety and Christian heroes like John Knox. He denounced European "tolerance" and said, "In Scotland, you can't believe how strong the homosexuals are. It's just unbelievable." He called on his audience to pray for Scotland. As one editor couldn't resist saying in a headline, “he queered the deal”.