NewsWrap
for the week ending November 20, 1999
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #608, distributed 11-22-99)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, 
Martin Rice, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Andres Duque,
Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle]

Anchored by Kevin Riley and Cindy Friedman

  United Methodist Church minister Jimmy Creech was defrocked this week as 
punishment for blessing the union of North Carolina gay couple Larry Ellis 
and James Raymer.  Last year, a church court fell one vote shy of convicting 
Creech of disobedience for blessing a lesbian couple in Nebraska, but did so 
out of confusion as to whether the denomination's 1996 ban on so-called 
"homosexual unions" was a law or merely a guideline.  In the interim, the 
church's highest judicial authority had confirmed it stood as law, but that 
did not deter Creech from performing another ceremony.
Creech refused to accept counsel, enter a plea, participate in jury 
selection, or present any defense except a lengthy closing argument in which 
he urged the jury of 13 clergy to reach no verdict at all.  His position is 
that the law is a bad one, and he did not want to lend credibility to a 
proceeding he called violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and 
transgendered people.  Creech was the main witness for his own prosecution, 
affirming that he viewed the union ceremonies as equivalent to marriage and 
that nothing would stop him from continuing to bless same-gender 
relationships.  He has indicated that he will appeal to "make a witness" 
against the ban.
Vigils and prayer services were held in some 20 cities across the U.S. before 
the trial in support of Creech.  In Grand Island, Nebraska, where the 
proceedings were held, Creech presided at a renewal of vows between Ellis and 
Raymer on the eve of the trial.  Open gay Reverend Mel White gathered about 
100 members of his Soulforce group from all over the country to protest the 
trial.  Seventy-four of them were arrested for briefly blocking the door to 
the church where the trial was held, in a civil disobedience action 
pre-planned with local police.

  In other U.S. couple news, domestic partner health benefits were announced 
this week by the Prudential Insurance Company and the CBS Corporation, and 
were approved by the California State University system.

  The Massachusetts state Senate also approved a bill to extend domestic 
partner benefits to state employees and to allow local governments to do so.  

  But in Pennsylvania, the Republican majority in the state legislature 
rushed through a bill to bar local governments from forcing state-funded 
schools to extend domestic partner benefits.  That move was aimed at the 
current controversy between the city of Pittsburgh and the University of 
Pittsburgh, and the University immediately asked for dismissal of the lawsuit 
filed against it by a half-dozen of its gay and lesbian employees.

  Recognition of gay and lesbian couples is under consideration elsewhere in 
the world as well.  
A committee of the Scottish Parliament is considering redefining "nearest 
relation" -- or as others might say, next of kin -- to explicitly include 
same-gender domestic partners.  The issue arose in connection with 
establishing guardianship for those with mental disabilities.

  In Bogata, Colombia, the Joint Committee of the Superior Court declared 
that the Civil Court rather than the Family Court should hear a gay widower's 
inheritance dispute with his late partner's family.  Both the Civil and 
Family Courts had tried to refuse the case.  The Superior Court ruling is the 
first in Colombia as to which judicial authority should rule on economic 
claims of surviving members of same-gender couples.

  In Spain's Balearic Islands, a state cabinet member said the Balearics' 
government may be introducing a bill in the coming year to extend adoption 
rights to domestic partners.  As General Director for Minors and Family Aina 
Radú told a reporter, that "would be a landmark in Spain and one of the most 
progressive laws in the country."

  Adoptions by same-gender and other unmarried couples in California became 
easier this week.  Since 1987, the state's Republican governors had ordered 
the Department of Social Services to recommend against all adoptions by 
unmarried couples.  But new Democratic Governor Gray Davis' administration 
found that policy had not been established through proper channels, leaving 
the state vulnerable to lawsuits, and scrapped the policy.

  The lower house of the legislature of the Australian state of New South 
Wales this week rejected a bill to equalize the age of consent for sex 
between men, now 18, with that for heterosexual acts, which is 16.  It was a 
dramatic scene as morals campaigner Elaine Nile dragged in from her sickbed 
to cast the single deciding vote.  Two members of Parliament who had been 
expected to support the private members bill were absent, one out of the 
country and the other due to food poisoning.

  Equalizing the age of consent is once again on the agenda in Britain, 
announced this week in the ceremonial Queen's Speech that opens the 
legislative session.  This year and last year, equalization measures were 
passed overwhelmingly in the House of Commons only to be blocked by majority 
opposition in the House of Lords.  However, Prime Minister Tony Blair's 
Government has promised the European legal system that this time it will 
force the bill through with the Parliament Act if the Lords object again.  
The European Commission on Human Rights had found the unequal age of consent 
to be illegal discrimination, but has delayed a pending lawsuit waiting for 
Britain to amend its law. 
While not explicitly stated in the Queen's Speech, the Blair Government also 
made it clear that as part of reforming the Local Government Act, it will be 
seeking repeal of the notorious Section 28.  That Thatcher-era measure 
prohibits local governments from devoting any resources to what it calls 
"promotion of homosexuality."  Surveys have found that this has served to 
discourage teachers from intervening in homophobic bullying among students.  
The Blair Government had considered holding off on Section 28 repeal, but was 
apparently shamed into action by the Scottish Executive's move to repeal it.

  Britain also observed Remembrance Day, a tradition dating back to World War 
I that honors the memory of the nation's fallen soldiers.  The national 
parade to London's Cenotaph war memorial was followed by the direct action 
group OutRage!, which carried pink flags, laid pink triangle wreaths, and 
observed a minute of silence in honor of what may be a half-million lesbigays 
who served for Britain in World War II.  One gay whose late partner had 
served said he was barred from marching with other widows and widowers, 
although a British Legion spokesperson denied it.

  In a case against the U.S. Navy this week, a judge ruled that the federal 
government was exempt from a family's defamation lawsuit.  When a 1989 
explosion on the U.S.S. Iowa killed 46 sailors, the Navy tried to blame one 
of the deceased, Clayton Hartwig, claiming he was suicidal at the ending of a 
gay affair.  In fact Hartwig was neither suicidal nor gay, and a 
recently-published book makes a strong case that the Navy knew that when it 
was trying to cover-up the substandard conditions on the ship.  Hartwig's 
family had sought $12-million from the Navy and intends to appeal.

  At Fort Campbell in Kentucky this week, Private Calvin Glover pleaded not 
guilty to the bashing murder of Private First Class Barry Winchell, who was 
believed by his co-workers to be gay.  A court-martial has also been ordered 
against Winchell's roommate Specialist Justin Fisher for egging on Glover and 
lying to investigators, but no date has yet been set.

  The U.S. Hate Crimes Prevention Act will not be enacted in the current 
session of Congress, since President Bill Clinton reached budget agreements 
with lawmakers that did not include it.  The HCPA would have added attacks 
motivated by homophobia to federal hate crimes laws, among other provisions.  
Activists were bitter at the intense opposition to the bill from Republican 
leaders and disappointed that the Democratic President didn't fight harder 
for the measure.

  Back in Britain, Peter Tatchell and two other OutRage! members pleaded not 
guilty to charges in connection with their attempted citizen's arrest of 
Zimbabwe's notoriously homophobic President Robert Mugabe.  Tatchell is 
charged with using "threatening, abusive and insulting words and behavior" 
and with assaulting a police officer, but points to his record of commitment 
to non-violence.  Alistair Williams and Chris Morris are charged with 
disorderly conduct likely to cause "harassment, alarm or distress."  Tatchell 
said in court, "It is bizarre that we have been charged for trying to bring a 
torturer to trial, while the police have allowed the torturer to go Christmas 
shopping at Harrods and then fly back to Zimbabwe a free man."  The group has 
accused Mugabe of violating international law in the torture of two 
journalists, as documented by Amnesty International.  Three weeks after their 
attempted citizen's arrest, Mugabe is still denouncing the British government 
for their actions, this week describing the Blair government as a "rotting 
gay state."

  And finally ... dead this week at the age of 76 is Peter Wildeblood, who 
was a key figure in turning the tide of opinion on homosexuality in Britain 
and throughout the Commonwealth.  In 1954, he was jailed on a conviction of 
gross indecency along with Michael Pitt-Rivers and Lord Montagu of Beaulieu 
for sex acts with two members of the Royal Air Force in what came to be known 
as the Montagu affair.  But Wildeblood emerged from his 18-month sentence to 
publish a frank autobiography, "Against the Law," the first gay book to reach 
a mass audience in the UK.  It brought the public a new understanding of the 
oppression suffered by gays.  When the Wolfenden Committee was formed to 
examine the laws against homosexual acts, Wildeblood gave testimony to the 
Committee and briefings to the House of Lords.  The Committee recommended for 
decriminalization of private homosexual acts between consenting adults in 
1957, although it took lawmakers another decade to follow through with repeal 
of the sodomy law.  Wildeblood wrote, "Very faintly, as though at the end of 
a tunnel, I could see what I must do.  I would make a statement . . .  I 
would simply tell the truth about myself . . .  I would be the first 
homosexual to tell what it felt like to be an exile in one's own country.  I 
might destroy myself, but perhaps I could help others."  In fact Wildeblood 
was not destroyed, but went on to quite a successful career as a playwright 
and television and movie producer in Britain and Canada.