NewsWrap for the week ending July 31, 1999 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #592, distributed 8-2-99) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Chris Ambidge, Mark Kerr, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle] Anchored by Leo Garcia and Cindy Friedman A tear gas grenade was detonated at the 25th annual Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade in San Diego, California this week. Fifteen people were given medical treatment at the scene; four more were taken to hospitals for treatment but were later released. About half of those victims were children, since the contingent taking the brunt of the attack was the local chapter of the Family Pride Coalition. Many more people experienced burning eyes and skin and some had nausea. But water vendors, businesses and local residents with garden hoses were quick to help victims wash off the irritant chemical. The streets, which had been packed several deep with spectators, cleared within moments of the detonation. Yet the pride parade was underway again in about 15 minutes, with the crowd of well over 100,000 spectators cheering louder than ever. The canister has been described as a "military type," and several witnesses reported seeing a man roll it towards the parade's reviewing stand, but no suspect has yet been identified. The gay and lesbian community has so far collected about $14,000 as a reward for information. Dropping the word "pride" from a proclamation of Lesbian and Gay Pride Day is sending a Canadian mayor before a Human Rights Tribunal. Mayor Walter Gray of Kelowna, British Columbia edited the proclamation in 1997, leading the Okanagan Rainbow Coalition to file a discrimination complaint with the provincial Human Rights Commission. This week, a judge rejected Gray's motion to dismiss the case, and a tribunal hearing has been set for September. Gray is thinking of presenting his case without an attorney, since he's concerned that the matter has already cost the city C$30,000. The Okanagan Rainbow Coalition is also concerned about the costs -- Coalition spokesperson Quentin Hughes said, "This has been a huge waste of money for something that could be solved so easily if Gray would just swallow his pride." One of the proudest openly gay elected officials in the U.S., Massachusetts' Democratic Congressmember Barney Frank, underwent bypass surgery this week and was reported resting comfortably afterwards. He said the heart surgery was "not an emergency in the sense that it had to happen instantly." He tried to set it up to minimize the time he'll lose from Congress, planning to attend as many votes as possible in the final week of the legislative session, even if he has to spend the time in between resting. The 59-year-old Frank had previously had a mild heart attack and underwent angioplasty treatment in 1990. The current surgery was recommended when he recently began experiencing discomfort. A dozen other openly gay and lesbian elected officials from around the U.S. met this week with President Bill Clinton, the first time such a group has gathered with a sitting president. While Clinton has met with other groups of gays and lesbians, they were primarily from Washington, DC-based advocacy groups. This group included eight state legislators and four local officials. The leading concerns they discussed with the President included enactment of federal hate crimes and anti-discrimination laws to protect gays and lesbians, and anti-gay harassment and violence in schools. Massachusetts state Representative Liz Malia called the session "very substantive and productive." Washington, D.C. fared rather well this week as the House of Representatives approved annual appropriations for the U.S. capital. To the disappointment of AIDS activists, the House continued to prohibit federal or city grants to organizations providing clean needles and blocked a move to legalize medical use of marijuana. But a ban on adoptions by unmarried couples that passed easily last year was defeated by two votes, as 35 Republicans joined Democrats in opposition, including a strong speech on the floor of the House by openly gay Arizona Republican Jim Kolbe. Britain's Children's Society announced this week that it will now accept applications from gays and lesbians to serve as adoptive or foster parents. The venerable charity is closely affiliated with the Church of England, and the three leading Anglican bishops who serve as its presidents said they "would have taken a different approach," although they affirmed the church would still support the charity. The Children's Society said it changed its policy "to bring it in line with recent legal judgments, the Children Act and the practice of all other national voluntary adoption agencies and local authorities." It also cited guidelines from the Department of Health stating that "it would be wrong arbitrarily to exclude any particular group of people from consideration." Although this is a powerful symbolic victory for British gays and lesbians, the Children's Society placed only 5 children for adoption and 11 for fostering last year. The Canadian province of British Columbia had previously given full parenting rights to gays and lesbians and to same-gender couples, and its Legislative Assembly has now approved a measure recognizing unmarried survivors of couples who've lived together two years or more. The bill changed a number of provincial statutes to give those survivors the same standing as legally married spouses, to inherit when the deceased partner leaves no will, to be consulted in the disposition of the remains, and to sue for wrongful death. United Airlines announced this week that it will extend full spousal benefits to the domestic partners of its gay and lesbian employees, the first airline to do so in the U.S. The package includes costly medical, dental and life insurance and pension benefits. But to those unmarried couples who have the option of legal marriage it extended only a few low-cost benefits as required by a court order. United has been the leading figure in a lawsuit by carriers using San Francisco International Airport, who have sought to be free of the city's Equal Benefits Ordinance. That law requires the city's contractors to extend the same benefits to unmarried employees' domestic partners, regardless of gender, as to married employees' spouses. A federal court judge had already agreed that federal regulations took precedence over the local law with respect to the costliest benefits of health insurance and pensions. But that same judge ordered the carriers to comply with respect to benefits not covered in federal statutes, including bereavement leave, family leave and airfare discounts. This week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the carriers' request to stay that order, so United is extending only those so-called "soft" benefits to its heterosexual employees, and may withdraw them if it ultimately wins the lawsuit. The next issue is whether unions working with United will be willing in their collective bargaining agreements to accept its distinction between domestic partners who can and cannot marry. Recognizing only same-gender couples usually costs companies about one percent of their benefits budgets, but recognizing heterosexual domestic partners can increase that by as much as sevenfold. The wedding of a gay male couple in South Africa is believed to be the first ever held in the province of Queenstown. Although the non-legal ceremony was actually celebrated in late June, it was only made public this week. After a lengthy courtship, Mongameli Zabo exchanged vows with Siyabulela Tabata, founder of the 150-member Gays and Lesbians Organization of Queenstown. Another South African will become the first open gay to serve as the dean of an Episcopal cathedral in the U.S., it was announced this week. Reverend Robert Taylor will head the congregation at Saint Mark's Cathedral, headquarters of the bishop of the Diocese of Olympia in western Washington state. He was selected by a 15-member committee that reviewed 70 candidates over 14 months -- and that treated Taylor's partner of 15 years exactly as other candidates' spouses were. A spokesperson maintained that Taylor's sexual orientation was "not a factor" in the decision, even though many Anglicans believe that non-celibate gays should not be ordained. Taylor has spent the last decade revitalizing a small congregation in upstate New York. Now-retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu helped Taylor to flee his homeland when his anti-apartheid activism made it dangerous for him there. Britain's Court of Appeal ruled this week that the National Health Service must pay for sex reassignment surgery. Three transsexuals who had already undergone extensive hormone therapy had been denied the surgery by their local health authority. In December a lower court had found that rejection "unlawful and irrational." The Court of Appeal agreed, and chastised the health authority for treating transsexualism not "as an illness but as an attitude or state of mind which does not warrant medical treatment." The Court of Appeal also denied the health authority the right to appeal to the House of Lords. This means that Britain's estimated 1,000 transsexuals awaiting surgery will be able to obtain it with the government picking up the tab of about 8,000-pounds each. However, an organization of local health authorities immediately responded that they will still limit sex reassignments through prioritizing and rationing of their already inadequate funds. And finally ... negotiations are underway for a new TV series for Ellen DeGeneres next year, CBS announced this week. The world's most famous lesbian has been acting in films since the cancellation of her pioneering ABC sitcom "Ellen" in 1998. The new show is pitched as "The Larry Sanders Show" meets "The Carol Burnett Show," with DeGeneres as the host of a variety show whose life is portrayed both on- and off-camera. Astonishingly, CBS execs say the new character's sexual orientation has not been discussed and doesn't matter to them.