NewsWrap
for the week ending January 22, 2000
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #617, distributed 01-24-00)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, 
Martin Rice, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Bjoern Skolander,
Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle]

Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Jon Beaupré

  The campaign got underway in earnest this week for Proposition 22, a 
California ballot initiative to deny legal recognition to same-gender 
marriages another state may someday perform.  Marriages within California are 
already restricted by law to heterosexual couples.  Thanks largely to 
contributions from California's Roman Catholic dioceses and from individual 
Mormon Californians urged to action by their church hierarchy, the campaign 
for Proposition 22 has raised nearly 5 million dollars.  The campaign against 
the initiative has just over 2 million.
With that financial edge, the Proposition 22 campaign this week became the 
first to broadcast a television ad.  Its first ad is in Spanish, running on 
selected Spanish-language stations.  An English version of the same ad, 
narrated with a Spanish accent, is scheduled to debut on February 7.  
Currently the campaign against the initiative is not scheduled to begin 
television ads until one week before the March 7 ballot, although there are 
hopes that further fund-raising will allow broadcasts to begin a week or two 
earlier.
Along with the surprise of the Proposition 22 campaign initially targeting 
Latino immigrants -- a socially conservative group more supportive of 
limiting marriage than the general California population -- came surprise at 
the nature of the ad itself.  Far from being the kind of anti-gay ads used 
for the 1998 marriage referendum in Hawai'i, or those used in 1999 to oppose 
gay-friendly legislation in California, the Proposition 22 ad makes no 
reference whatever to gays and lesbians, the only group the measure's passage 
might impact.
In a fast-paced presentation with lively music, the ad portrays a large 
Latino extended family having a party, with dancing, champagne, flowers, and 
happy children.  The narrator says, "Every year we have a big family 
celebration to honor grandma and grandpa's anniversary.  This year marks 
their 50th.  The family gets bigger and bigger, with children, grandchildren, 
and now, great-grandchildren.  We always salute our grandparents, where our 
tradition began.  Marriage and family.  That's what Proposition 22 is all 
about."
At this time, many Californians don't know what Proposition 22 says, much 
less what it might signify for gays and lesbians, and the new campaign ad 
certainly doesn't tell them.  The warm-fuzzy nature of the ad seems to defy 
opponents' characterization of the initiative as mean-spirited, divisive and 
anti-gay, and the Proposition 22 campaign has promised that its future ads 
will be similar.
This leaves the underfunded opponents of Proposition 22 with the burden of 
getting their message out to voters that Proposition 22 is discriminatory and 
could damage gay and lesbian couples' recent civil rights gains.

  Meanwhile, the Vermont House Judiciary Committee this week continued 
hearings towards drafting legislation to give same-gender couples the legal 
benefits of marriage.  That legislation was ordered by the Vermont Supreme 
Court in December, but the court left it up to lawmakers to decide whether to 
expand the marriage law to include gays and lesbians or to set up a separate 
registered partnership law for them.  One key difference between marriage and 
registered partnership is that other states would be expected to recognize 
Vermont marriages under the U.S. Constitution but would not be expected to 
recognize partnerships.  
This week three legal scholars with differing opinions about gay and lesbian 
marriage agreed that there is long-standing precedent for a state to refuse 
to recognize a marriage performed elsewhere that violated its own "strong 
public policy."  They also believed that the federal Defense of Marriage Act 
and the similar laws against recognizing same-gender marriages enacted in 
some 30 states would pose a real barrier to the "portability" of gay and 
lesbian marriages.  One expert witness was hopeful that at least some states 
would recognize a Vermont same-gender marriage, especially if the couple had 
lived together several years in Vermont after being married there.
The Committee also heard testimony this week from an historian, Yale 
University Professor Nancy Cott, who is just completing a book on the 
political history of marriage in the United States.  In contrast to the 
often-repeated rhetoric that formal monogamous lifelong marriages have been 
the norm for thousands of years, she showed that the institution has 
undergone considerable evolution just in the history of the US.  When the 
nation was founded, she noted that for most of the world population marriage 
was "often polygamous, often informal and often not life-long."  Instead, 
many people had a series of informal relationships.  After reviewing the 
evolution of U.S. marriage as women's legal status, divorce laws, slavery, 
and laws against interracial marriages changed, she concluded it would be 
more in step with history to extend marriage to same-gender couples than to 
create registered partnerships.  Committee chair Representative Thomas Little 
said her testimony was "invaluable." 
Several news items published this week also reviewed the actual history of 
marriage, debunking the notion that its current form -- so often described as 
"traditional" -- is the way it's always been.  

  U.S. clergy also weighed in on marriage this week from several perspectives.
Vermont's Roman Catholic Bishop Kenneth Angell issued a pastoral letter and a 
separate public statement, both opposing same-gender marriage and registered 
partnerships.  But 17 other Vermont clergy from several denominations issued 
a statement in support of marriage rights for gays and lesbians; a similar 
statement circulated earlier had been signed by more than 100 Vermont clergy. 
 Also in Vermont, the noted Reverend William Sloane Coffin wrote an op-ed 
piece calling on Vermonters to reflect deeply on the issue, to recognize the 
evolving nature of the institution of marriage, the discomfort of change, and 
the need to work through prejudice.

  The national organization SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education 
Council of the United States, released its "Religious Declaration on Sexual 
Morality, Justice and Healing", endorsed by more than 850 religious leaders 
from some 25 denominations.  SIECUS hopes that this declaration developed by 
an ecumenical group, will "articulate a different vision" than that of the 
religious conservatives which has dominated the public discourse.  The 
declaration is intended to recognize "sexuality as central to our humanity 
and as integral to our spirituality" in creating "a sexuality ethic focused 
on personal relationships and social justice rather than particular sexual 
acts."  It takes a firm stand against discriminatory "double standards" such 
as those based on sexual orientation.  Among its seven key demands is "Full 
inclusion of women and sexual minorities in congregational life, including 
their ordination and the blessing of same-sex unions."

  And back in Califoria, a few hundred members of the United Methodist Church 
celebrated the anniversary of last year's "ecclesiastical disobedience," in 
which nearly 100 Methodist clergy joined in defiance of church law to bless a 
long-time lesbian couple.  25 of those same ministers were present to 
celebrate the anniversary of Ellie Charlton and Jeanne Barnett.  The 67 
ministers from the California-Nevada Conference who participated in the holy 
union ceremony all face formal complaints which could ultimately lead to 
their defrocking; a committee will vote in February as to whether to bring 
them to trial.

  Registering a legal partnership has finally "outed" Norway's former 
Minister of Justice Anne Holt.  There had long been rumors that Holt is a 
lesbian, not least because some of her best-selling novels star a closeted 
lesbian police officer.  But she always refused to discuss her private life, 
and to the disappointment of Norwegian activists, she still does.  Holt's 
partner is Tine Kjaer, a book editor.

  Another gay politician, Britain's Andrew Boff, lost out this week in his 
bid to become the Conservative Party's nominee for Mayor of London.  Former 
Transport Minister Stephen Norris decisively defeated Boff by a nearly 3-to-1 
margin in balloting by London Tories, ending what has been a long and 
embarrassing nominating process for the party.  Boff readily threw his 
support to Norris, who although notoriously heterosexual is so gay-supportive 
as to hold a leadership position in the Tory Campaign for Homosexual 
Equality.  In defiance of the national Conservative Party's position, he has 
insisted on advocating for repeal of the anti-gay Section 28.

  Repeal of that never-enforced Thatcher-era prohibition against "promotion 
of homosexuality" by local governments and schools has created such an uproar 
in Scotland that British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons 
this week that, "I would hope we could get a maturer debate than we have had 
in certain quarters."  Although the formal public comment process in Scotland 
showed 85% of some 2,300 responses to support repeal, it is being opposed 
with growing vehemence by a variety of groups. Scotland's Roman Catholic 
leader Cardinal Thomas Winning has been increasingly active in opposition, 
sparking Church of Scotland leader right Reverend John Cairns to emphasize his
 support for repeal.  The so-called "Keep the Clause" campaign was expected 
to be lead by the Scottish School Boards Association, but that group is 
falling victim to dissension with its allies and in its ranks.  Although the 
Scottish Conservative Party had been the only political opponent to repeal, 
the Opposition Scottish National Party was stunned when its major donor, 
business leader Brian Souter, offered up to 1-million-pounds for a media 
campaign against repeal.  Accusations, exaggerations and outright lies are 
flying in every direction, but First Minister Donald Dewar appears to be 
handling it calmly, and has shown willingness to develop guidelines for sex 
education before the repeal vote in June.

  And finally... The mystery is over regarding the sexual orientation of 
Ellen DeGeneres' character in a new CBS sitcom scheduled to debut in the fall 
season.  Billed as a cross between "The Larry Sanders Show" and the old 
"Carol Burnett Show," the series has DeGeneres playing the host of a variety 
show whose life is portrayed both on and off the air.  She told reporters 
this week, "I'm playing me, so I will be gay.  Because as you've heard, I am. 
 Yeah, there was this whole thing about it."  But she added, "I just want to 
do old-fashioned, funny sketch comedy and the behind-the-scenes of it, and me 
being the host of the show... [so] you won't have to see me holding hands 
with anybody or anything."