NewsWrap for the week ending July 10, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #589, distributed 7-12-99) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Chris Ambidge, David Williams, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Leo Garcia and Cindy Friedman Openly gay singer-songwriter Sir Elton John was forced to cancel several major concerts this week due to heart surgery to install a pacemaker. Sir Elton had collapsed while flying to perform at the wedding of Spice Girl Victoria Adams last weekend. The problem had first been believed to be heatstroke and was then diagnosed as an ear infection. But the heart problem revealed after lengthy testing was made public on July 9th, only after the surgery had been performed. Sir Elton has not suffered a heart attack, but was found to have an irregular heartbeat, which the pacemaker should help prevent. The surgery lasted only about an hour and was performed under local anesthesia. Sir Elton was already talking to reporters the following day and hopes to be back on stage in August. Another gay British millionaire making headlines this week was Ivan Massow, as he declared his interest in becoming the Conservative Party's nominee for Lord Mayor of London. 31-year-old Massow joined the Tories at age 14 and has powerful supporters in the party, although he has never before run for office. William Hague, Tory leader in the House of Commons, is pleased at the prospect of Massow's candidacy. Massow is a colorful and somewhat notorious character who ran away from home at 16 and made his first million by 23, selling insurance to gay men in the 1980's when AIDS made it hard to obtain. He's also been involved in television production and now serves as chair of the Institute for Contemporary Arts. When Tories vote to select their mayoral candidate in September, most believe Massow won't be the winner, but with a strong showing he could well be picked as a running mate. The elections that brought a new regime to Israel may mean advances for gays and lesbians in education. Incoming Education Minister Yossi Sarid told television reporters this week that, ""I was told that the former Education Minister said that homosexuals wouldn't be allowed to set foot in the educational system -- but in our world view, they are now part of it. From now on, the educational system will be open also to homosexuals." Outgoing Education Minister Yitzhak Levy responded, "Israel is in deep trouble." Students at a New Hampshire high school this week filed a federal lawsuit to form an after-school Gay Straight Alliance club. In April, the group at West High followed the prescribed procedure of submitting a proposal and statement of purpose, but school administrators told them to take their request to the Manchester school board. That's something no other group has been required to do. A subcommittee of the school board recommended rejecting their proposal, but the full board instead voted 8-to-4 this week to delay its decision. The board also directed its legal counsel to discuss the matter with the student's attorneys from the Boston-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. Federal law prescribes that after-school access cannot be determined by the subject of a meeting -- a school must allow all non-curricular clubs or none at all. In the famous case of Salt Lake City, Utah, the choice was made to eliminate all non-curricular clubs rather than allow a Gay-Straight Alliance at East High. Civil rights protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity were adopted this week by the city council of Lexington, Kentucky. It's only the second city in the state to do so, following Louisville earlier this year. But while Louisville lawmakers wrestled with the issue for a decade, Lexington needed less than three weeks to move from the recommendation of the city's Human Rights Commission to a council vote of 12-to-3. Lexington's bill is more comprehensive, including housing, public accommodations, credit, and real estate transfers, as well as the employment discrimination prohibited in Louisville. But an amendment before passage curtailed Lexington's definition of gender identity, in a manner which leaves out not only cross-dressers but also pre-operative, transitioning transsexuals. Similar civil rights measures are now pending in Kentucky in the town of Henderson and in Jefferson County, so it's possible that the state that started the year with no such laws could end it with nearly a million residents covered by them. A statewide bill has also been prefiled for committee review in October. Boston's spousal health benefits for domestic partners of the city's employees was struck down this week by Massachusetts' highest court. The law had been challenged by ten members of the Catholic Action League with the help of the Pat Robertson-founded American Center for Law and Justice. Although ACLJ claimed "a major victory for marriage and the family," the decision reflected only that a 1955 state law was so explicit regarding local governments' health care benefits, that cities cannot expand them in any way. In fact, the ruling discussed at some length the changing nature of the family unit in the years since the law was enacted. It said that law "no longer fully reflects all household members for whom city employees are likely to have continuing obligations to provide support," but, "That is a reality that must be addressed by the Legislature." Actually Boston had sought and won approval from the Massachusetts legislature last year, but Republican Governor Paul Cellucci vetoed it. About 100 Boston employees, mostly heterosexual, had signed up for the benefits established by an executive order of Mayor Tom Menino. Four other Massachusetts cities have also been offering domestic partner benefits, but the logic of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling would invalidate those as well. Cellucci has reaffirmed that while he would be willing to sign a law applying only to same-gender couples, he would still veto any benefits which made it easier for heterosexual couples to remain unmarried. Perhaps something similar is going on in the mind of California's Governor Gray Davis, who intervened this week with fellow Democrat Carole Migden, San Francisco's openly lesbian Assemblymember, to severely modify her domestic partners bill. Migden's is one of three domestic partners measures now under consideration, two already passed by the Assembly and one by the Senate. Originally it would have required health insurance providers to make spousal benefits available for domestic partners at the same price, to those employers who wished to offer them. But Davis asked her to restrict the measure to providers contracting with the Public Employees Retirement System, which serves all the state's workers and some local governments. Democratic Assemblymember Wally Knox' bill was already designed to allow that system to provide domestic partner benefits, and he's now furious at Migden for stealing his thunder. Perhaps even more damaging politically, Davis asked Migden to restrict her bill to same-gender partners, when gays and lesbians have been working on the issue for years in coalition with seniors and people with disabilities. Migden accepted Davis' amendments in a Senate committee which went on to approve the bill, but she says she'll bring a stronger measure next year. What remains that Davis has said he'll sign, along with the benefits option for government workers, is a statewide registry through the Secretary of State's office that will be recognized for purposes of hospital visitation. That part is quite similar to the third bill introduced by Senator Kevin Murray. Davis' predecessor Pete Wilson had uniformly rejected all domestic partnership bills, including vetoing an earlier edition of Migden's original proposal last year. Davis had made campaign promises that he would support domestic partnerships, although not legal marriage for gays and lesbians. A lesbian wedding caused a stir in New Zealand this week because it was performed by and for inmates at Arohata women's prison, with the approval and even participation of prison staff. Although the Corrections Department has no explicit rules prohibiting such an event, it does seek to neither encourage nor condone homosexual acts among inmates. As acting regional manager for Wellington prisons Dorreen Mackenzie said, "Any open display of any type of relationship is viewed as a breach of good order and conduct of the prison." Mackenzie is undertaking one of two investigations whose findings will be reviewed by the Corrections Ministry. And finally ... the captain of Norway's soccer team, Linda Medalen, used the hype surrounding World Cup play to publicly announce that she is a lesbian. She told an interviewer, "I can't stand living in hiding any longer." Apparently she meant that rather literally. In a gesture imitating some male players, she celebrated scoring a goal by running around the field with her jersey pulled up over her head. That became a front-page photo in the nation's best-selling newspaper, captioned as a blow for women's equality -- although unlike the male players, Medalen was wearing a bra.