NewsWrap for the week ending July 3, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #588, distributed 7-5-99) [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 Dean Elzinga James Hormel was sworn in this week as the United States' first openly gay ambassador. The San Francisco philanthropist had first been nominated by President Bill Clinton in October 1997 to serve as the envoy to Luxembourg. Although his nomination was overwhelmingly approved the following month by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a few homophobic Republicans prevented it from ever coming to a floor vote for confirmation. In early June, Clinton used his authority to make temporary appointments when the Congress is not in session, although Hormel's tenure will last through the end of Clinton's Presidency. After all those months of intense controversy, the swearing-in was a festive celebration attended by two to three hundred of Hormel's family and friends. His partner Tim Wu held Hormel's father's 1901 Bible while Secretary of State Madeleine Albright herself administered the oath. Albright said, "This week, we send a message that neither race nor creed nor gender nor sexual orientation should be relevant to the selection of ambassadors for the United States. This is one of those glorious days when the nice guy finishes first." But now-openly bisexual Welsh politician Ron Davies was forced by his own Labour Party to resign his last leadership role, as chair of the Economic Development Committee of the new Welsh National Assembly. A caucus meeting last week had failed to convince him to step down, but another session this week made it clear he had no choice. After a mysterious incident in a gay cruising area in October, Davies had been forced to leave his post as Secretary for Wales in the British Cabinet, and to give up leadership of Wales' Labour Party when he had seemed a sure bet to be the new National Assembly's first First Secretary. The tabloids continued to hound him ever after, until in June he admitted to being bisexual, although not to having ever had sex in public or a gay relationship. When he soon after told reporters he is undergoing treatment for risk addiction, Welsh Labour leaders began to call publicly for him to step down. Opposition parties claim that Labour Party leaders were also wary of Davies' independence. Although Davies continues to represent Caerphilly in both the British Parliament and the Welsh National Assembly, at least one Labour MP thinks he should leave those posts as well. Yet Davies continues to hope that he can regain some power in Wales. The only openly gay candidate for parliament in Indonesia's first free elections in forty years, was defeated. In fact veteran activist Dede Oetomo's Democratic People's Party failed to win a single seat. It was the only one of 48 parties in the election to include equal rights for gays and lesbians in its platform. But Oetomo said the campaign was a good experience, "especially for the gay movement in Indonesia and more generally for the budding civil society in this country." He also believes the party will be a strong contender in the future. Australia's second openly gay Senator, Australian Democrat Brian Greig of West Australia, took office this week. Greig, a former town council member and former national spokesperson for the Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights, was elected in October. His main interests are the environment, local government, human rights and justice, education, Aboriginal reconciliation, urban design, and public transportation. Australia's openly gay Supreme Court Justice Michael Kirby made an impassioned call for gay and lesbian civil rights this week at an international conference in London on Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships. The meeting at King's College was attended by leading jurists and legal scholars from a number of nations. Kirby cited research that many gay and lesbian couples did not want to be married, but that they did want their partners to have equivalent legal protections. Bills to open traditional marriage to gay and lesbian couples were formally introduced in the Netherlands' parliament this week, along with measures to grant them adoption rights. The measures are not likely to be enacted until the end of next year. The Netherlands' current registered partnerships will remain available to couples as well. The only difference between gay and lesbian marriages and traditional ones will be that a lesbian won’t be automatically presumed to be the father of a child her partner bears, although she will be able to adopt that child. The new adoption rules will still not allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt foreign children. France's controversial domestic partnership measure has been stalled by the Senate at least until October. The government's proposed "Pacts of Civil Solidarity," known as PACS, have been passed repeatedly by the Socialist-dominated National Assembly. But the Conservative-dominated Senate managed to spend so much time in debate on an unrelated issue that there was no time to take a vote before the legislature began its summer recess this week. Massachusetts' highest court this week granted a lesbian visitation rights with her former partner's son, even though she had not legally adopted him. The couple had decided together to have the child through artificial insemination by an anonymous donor. The non-biological co-parent had acted as birthing coach and paid most of the family's bills, and the boy's name included both her surname and her grandfather's first name. The couple had also signed two contracts regarding their intention to raise the child together, which provided for visitation in event of dissolution. The couple had been together for thirteen years when they broke up. The majority of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled visitation to be in the best interests of the child, saying, "The recognition of de facto parents is in accord with notions of the modern family. an increasing number of same-gender couples ... are deciding to have children. It is to be expected that children of nontraditional families, like other children, form relationships with both parents, whether those parents are legal or de facto." A Namibian court this week again upheld a German lesbian's right to permanent residence based on her relationship with her Namibian partner. In the High Court in Windhoek, Judge Harold Levy affirmed that the national constitution's anti-discrimination provisions meant that same-gender couples should have the same status as unmarried heterosexual couples. He ordered that German-born Liz Frank be granted residence and chastised the Office of Home Affairs for having twice rejected her applications without citing reasons. He ordered Home Affairs to give its rationale for future rejections. Frank is not only a long-time resident of Namibia who's been with her partner Elizabeth Khaxas for nearly a decade, but was also an anti-racism activist whose contributions have been recognized by some of the country's political leaders. Britain’s Home Office advised the advocacy group Stonewall in June that it has eased immigration rules for unmarried partners. Most importantly the qualification requirement that the couple have lived together for four years has been reduced to two years; the four-year requirement had been impossible for many couples to meet. Partners who have already been living in Britain illegally will be able to apply for residence. The probationary period has been extended from one year to two. If during that probationary period the relationship ends by the death of the British partner or by proven domestic violence, the immigrating partner will still be able to remain in the country. The Canadian Supreme Court's recent landmark ruling recognizing same-gender couples led homophobe Fred Phelps to plan his first demonstration outside the U.S. He'd threatened to burn a Canadian flag outside the high court, sparking a great deal of discussion in Canada, where even the often anti-gay Reform Party was looking for a way to stop him at the border. But once again, Phelps was a no-show, claiming police in Ottawa were not providing adequately for his security. Some 500 counter-demonstrators, both gay and lesbian activists and liberal clergy, held an upbeat rally in Phelps' absence. A police raid in Amsterdam has closed down the iT, one of the Netherlands' most popular gay nightclubs. The dozens of police who surrounded the club and roughly searched some 400 patrons arrested a dozen of them on drug charges. All but three of those were later released, but police say those three possessed Ecstasy and cocaine in amounts far too large for personal use. The club has been closed down indefinitely. But in London's Soho district, the Admiral Duncan pub reopened this week for the first time since a deadly nail bomb exploded there on April 30. That blast resulted in three deaths and some 86 people requiring medical treatment, 17 of them severe, including several amputations. A brief ceremony was held to remember those victims before the bar reopened at the same time of day to the very minute the bomb had exploded. A more permanent memorial is a sculpture in the club with a candle for each of the dead and a light for each of the injured. Boy George was among the celebrants. The man accused of this and two previous bombings, David Copeland, will be appearing in court again in the coming week. Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan this week signed into law a hate crimes bill including attacks motivated by homophobia. Assaults on transgender victims will also lead to harsher penalties. While numerous states this year considered either enacting a hate crimes bill for the first time or adding sexual orientation to an existing hate crimes law, Missouri is the only state where a bill has succeeded. In Columbus, Ohio, a Christian group demonstrating against the city's gay and lesbian pride parade tore down and burned the rainbow flag that was flying at the Statehouse for the occasion. Two men and a woman were arraigned on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and arson. The leader of the group claimed that if the rainbow flag was flown again, they would burn it once again. Pride organizers Stonewall Columbus were able to quickly replace the rainbow flag. But several public officials are now looking at establishing new policies and a review committee for flags at the Statehouse, after many years of flying many other kinds of flags on request. And finally ... the world's first gay rugby team, the King's Cross Steelers, has now become the first to be recognized as a full member of Britain's Rugby Football Union and the first to be admitted into an official league, Surrey County League 4. To qualify for the RFU, the Steelers had to be sponsored by two member teams after having accumulated 50 matches against affiliated teams. Since their founding in 1996, the Steelers have won about 15 percent of their matches. They've inspired the formation of gay rugby teams in New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.S., as well as a team in Manchester they'll be playing next month. Steelers player Alex Standish told "The Scotsman" newspaper, "There's a lot of curiosity when a straight team is playing us for the first time. Perhaps they expect us to be wearing pink shirts and be very camp or a bit limp-wristed. The fact is, it doesn't matter much about somebody's sexuality when they're 17 stone and they're tackling you. Afterwards, in the bar, when they find we can sink as many pints as they can, that makes a difference, too."